575J  Valerio da Venezia, (Giuseppe Ballardini). (1550-1618)

Sanctuarium monacharum. Der Klosterfrawen Heiligthumb ; in welchem von volkomner Haltung der dreyen Closter gelibten, Gehorsam, Armuet und Keuschheit, Item von andern Sachen so einer Closterperson zuwissen und zu üben notwendig und nutz sein, mit schöner und heiliger Lehr gehandlet wirdt. Durch den Ehrw-vatter P.F. Valerium Venetum Capucciner Ordens, erstlich in welscher Sprach beschriben, anjetzt aber durch einen andern Priester bemelten Ordens verteutscht zu nutz und trost aller Ordensleut sonderlich den Klosterfrawen teutscher Nation.

Münche, Peter König : (Anna Berg,?) 1623.    Price $3,500

Duodecimo, 13cm. .  First German edition. (, A-Z, a-m¹² [n⁶]   This copy is bound in early cloth over wooden bards with remains of clasps and catches present under the cloth. a very nice copy a a rare small devotional.

The colophon (see image below)states that the book was  printed in Munich by Anna Bernhard Berg, the widow of Adam Berg,  Note Anna Berg’s name in the colophon? for Berg, Anna,  see online. “Colophon (leaf q11r): Getruckt zu München, bey Anna Bergin Wittib. In verlegung Peter Königs Kunstführer. Im Iahr, 1623./ Typographorum Emblemata: The Printer’s Mark in the Context of Early Modern Culture. Anja Wolkenhauer, Bernhard F. Scholz Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, Feb 5, 2018)

14 engraved plates, Includes Bonaventure’s biography of Clare of Assisi and biographies of some 70 other Franciscan women saints. Valerio da Venezia seems to had a lot of at least epistolary contacts with Women and Nuns. 

“From Este, on April 27, 1605, he sent a copy to the Duchess of Mantua Eleonora de ‘Medici accompanied by a letter, which remains his only autograph.  Also Valerio da Venezia edited this collection including the  Life of the glorious Saint Clare of Assisi composed by Saint Bonaventure […] with the lives of the blessed nuns of his holy Rule, and those of the Third Order, with a dialogue for the instruction of the novices (Venice 1610, German translation München 1623). It includes over seventy biographies, some of which reprinted separately, not without errors but original in terms of concept and testimonies on female Franciscanism.

The letter, containing the story of his latest travels, information on the book, references to the works of the poetess Lucrezia Marinelli (whom he seems to have known) and the request to the Duchess not to write to him in the convent but to an apothecary friend to avoid censorship, was intercepted. together with others addressed to a nun and Valerio da Venezia was again imprisoned in Padua. In November he too was deprived of the active and passive electorate for every office in the province for shameless acts against a French pilgrim. In 1609, due to his rebellious conduct, he was declared a “scoundrel”.

After October 4, the date of the dedication of the Short and Divine Meditations … to Margherita di Savoia, there is no further news of Valerio da Venezia until his death in 1618.

Also a collection is the Life of the glorious Saint Clare […] composed by Saint Bonaventure […] with the lives of the blessed nuns of his holy Rule, and of those still of the Third Order, with a dialogue for the instruction”.   (https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/valerio-da-venezia_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ )  Isidoro de Villapadierna, Valère de Venise (Ballardini), in Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, XVI, Paris 1994, coll. 164 s.; Donna, disciplina, creanza cristiana dal XV al XVII secolo. Studi e testi a stampa, a cura di G. Zarri, Roma 1996, pp. 127, 687-692; E. Raimondi, Il romanzo senza idillio. Saggio sui Promessi Sposi, Torino 2000, pp. 199 s.

VD 17 https://mdz-nbn-resolving.de/details:bsb11129212 ; OCLC: 820430179. VD17: 23:303489U

B3Kat ID. BV040596769BSB ID12598196: BM 8820 V164.

Two US copies: SAINT BONAVENTURE UNIV HARVARD UNIV