Bidspirit auction | LOPES. (Francisco) VIDA ACÇOENS E

LOPES. (Francisco) VIDA ACÇOENS E MILAGRES DE S. ANTONIO [e SEGUNDA PARTE DE S. ANTONIO] ANNO 1680 - Poetic work in two parts, bound together, on the life of Saint Anthony of Lisbon — the most venerated saint in Portugal, born Fernando Martins de Bulhões at the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, in Lisbon, around 1195. The first part, with a woodcut engraving of the Saint at the centre of the title page, narrates in detail the life of the saint from birth to death and his 52 miracles, in five cantos of heptasyllabic quintains. The second part — E VERDADEIRA HISTORIA DOS CINCOS MARTYRES DE MARROCOS — recounts the story of the five Franciscan martyrs, Berardo, Otão, Pedro, Acúrsio, and Adjuto, sent by Saint Francis to Morocco in 1219 and beheaded in 1220; this is the example that led the young Fernando Martins to enter the Order of Friars Minor, in one of the most celebrated episodes of Portuguese spirituality. This second part was printed at the Officina de Philipe de Souza Villela in the year 1701. The work is composed in verse, in thirteen cantos comprising 1,784 stanzas in the same metre. Second edition of the First Part and fifth edition of the Second Part. Castro e Silva identifies this copy as belonging to variant C, as per the BNP. Owing to the wide circulation of the work and the heavy use of copies by people of various social backgrounds, copies of all editions are today extremely rare. Complete copy, with page 64 numbered 94 and page 168 numbered 148, which does not affect the total page count. The preliminary leaves of the first volume contain licences and poems in praise of the author by D. Gabriel Uguarte y Ayala, Pedro Dias de Paiva, an anonymous friend, and Miguel da Silveira. The preliminary leaves of the second part contain a Prologue to the devout reader and licences. Contemporary full speckled calf binding, with raised bands and gilt tooling on the spine. Pages 354–356 of the index follow the title page, and pages 357–359 and one blank leaf appear between pages vi and vii of the preliminaries, due to an error in the binding process. Illustrated with a woodcut engraving at the centre of the title page, depicting the Saint.