Savonarola, Girolamo, 1452-1498

Jncipit Exposicio v[e]l Meditacio f[rat]ris Hieronimi sauonarole de Ferraria ordi[ni]s p[rae]dicatorum in psalmu[m] Jn te d[omi]ne speraui. qua[m] i[n] vltimis dieb[us] du[m] vite sue fine[m] prestolaretur edidit.

Magdenburg: : Moritz Brandis, 1500. Second edition. rubricated in red, modern boards. Under torture Savonarola confessed to having invented his prophecies and visions, then recanted, then confessed again. In his prison cell in the tower of the government palace he composed meditations on Psalms 51 and 31. On the morning of 23 May 1498, Savonarola and two other friars were led out into the main square where, before a tribunal of high clerics and government officials, they were condemned as heretics and schismatics, and sentenced to die forthwith. Stripped of their Dominican garments in ritual degradation, they mounted the scaffold in their thin white shirts. Each on a separate gallows, they were hanged, while fires were ignited below them to consume their bodies. To prevent devotees from searching for relics, their ashes were carted away and scattered in the Arno. Scapecchi, P. Cat. Savonarola,; 87 (Catalogo delle edizioni di Girolamo Savonarola (secc. XV-XVI) possedute dalla Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze) Girolamo Savonarola, Prison Meditations on Psalms 51 and 31 Tr., Ed. John Patrick Donnelly S.J. (Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1994). Quarto 20 x 15 cm. a4,b4. (8) lvs., rubricated in red, modern boards.[*] - First leaf w. incipit with outer remargined ; a few tiny wormholes throughout (mostly in blank margins). Item #858

Savonarola writes at the last bit written, a quite heartfelt passage”“BURN away Thy face from my sins, and blot outall tnine iniquities. Wherefore, Lord, regardestThou my sins ? Why numberest Thou them ?Why considerest Thou them so diligently ? KnowestThou not that man is as a flower of the field ? Where-fore lookest Thou not rather on the face of Thy Christ ?Alas, wretch that I am, why see I Thee angry withme ? I confess I have sinned, but do Thou in Thygoodness have mercy upon me : turn away Thy facefrom my sins. Thy face is Thy knowledge ; turnaway therefore Thy knowledge from my sins. I meannot that knowledge which consists in simple appre-hension, wherewith Thou seest all things at all times,but the knowledge which consists in approval and disapproval, whereby Thou dost approve the actions of the just, and by disapproving dost condemn the sins of the wicked. Take not such knowledge of my sins as to impute them to me ; but turn away Thy face from my sins, that through Thy mercy they may be blotted out. Regard, Lord, the soul which Thou hastcreated, regard Thy likeness which Thou hast formed. For Thou didst create it in Thine image, and I poorwretch have overlaid it with the likeness of the devil.” (Translated by Perowne.).

Price: $6,600.00