PRACTICAL PRAYER
[PRAYERS.]
‘Orationes diversae pro temporum opportunitate dicendae’.
[Likely Lucca, late eighteenth century.]
Manuscript on paper, 4to, pp. [16] + blanks; neatly written in Latin in black ink, 16 lines to a page, 2 lines of manuscript music, each page within a different decorative border in coloured inks, final leaf completed later and dated 1828; lower corners lightly thumbed, otherwise excellent; disbound; cartouche to title with monogram ‘MS’.
A delightful manuscript prayerbook for use in communal worship, most likely for a rural community, with prayers for help in times of plagues and of animal diseases, prayers seeking protection from storms and alleviation of droughts, for times of earthquakes, for the sick, and against pagans. The varied borders range from geometric designs (many constructed with a compass) to charming arrangements of mixed flowers.
The manuscript was augmented in the early nineteenth-century, with two final pages of prayers added in imitation of the earlier decorative scheme, including prayers for the health of the people of Lucca and for Duke Carlo Ludovico (r. 1824-1847).
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SKETCHES IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE [SOUTH OF FRANCE.]
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WITH ADDITIONAL DEVOTIONAL PLATES MAGNON, Jean.
Les heures du Chrestien, divisées en trois journées; qui sont la journée de la penitence, la journée de la grace, et la journée de la gloire. Où sont compris les offices, avec plusieurs prieres, avis, reflexions, et meditations, tirées des Stes Escritures, et des Peres de l’Eglise. Le tout fidelement traduit en vers, et en prose … Avec un calendrier …
First edition of this handsomely illustrated collection of prayers and devotions in verse and prose by the French playwright and poet Jean Magnon (1620–1662). The number of plates in individual copies varies, this copy containing at least two more than those described on OCLC.