Bidspirit auction | [HISTORY] - Sacred Stage: A

[HISTORY] - Sacred Stage: A Renaissance Passion Play Manuscript - ANONYMOUS (1560 - 1570) - (Renaissance-manuscript) ANONYMOUS - Holy representation, in verses, for the Holy week, in Italian, manuscript on paper. [Italy, c. 1560-1570] 4to (215 by 147mm.), mostly sewed but without binding, some corners torn away with some losses to text there, overall good condition; altogether 53 leaves, lacking at least 2 leaves at beginning and one at end, collation: i8 (wants first 2 ff.), ii-iii(12), iv(14), v7 (wants last leaf), catchwords at foot of every leaf, single column of 26 lines in an Italian italic hand, early foliation showing only 4 leaves missing at front (perhaps 2 leaves of main text plus frontispiece and end-leaf), watermark close to Briquet 672 (Vicenza, 1569) and 12236 (Rome, 1566-1567), old water damage with stains, discoloured areas and woolly edges. This very rare sample of an apparently unpublished text is part of the ‘Sacra rapresentazione’ tradition, a form of sacred verse in Italian popular in Tuscany from the first half of the fifteenth century. The text was intended to be acted, perhaps in Holy Week itself, and contains a dramatization of the Passion of Christ and the events that led up to it. LOT NOT SUBJECT TO RETURN. (1)