Item #1738 The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning. Henry Edward Manning.
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis; Translated from the Italian and Edited by Cardinal Manning

London: T.N. Foulis, Publisher, 1918. Octavo (8 1/2 inches tall), original pictorial paper boards, colored spine and front board with gilt titles, gray endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut, original dust wrapper with mounted illustration. Gift inscription, slight wear to corners and spine ends, shallow creasing to front board, tanning to rear flyleaf, jacket with shallow chipping, small abrasions, and tape repairs. Very good indeed. Item #1738

"THE VIVID AND CONVINCING IMPRESSION THE LITTLE FLOWERS GIVES IN ITS TOTALITY OF THE MOST CHRIST-LIKE OF SAINTS"

Illustrated edition of The Little Flowers of Saint Francis—an early edition of the Cardinal Manning translation—with eight color-printed plates after watercolors by Frederick Cayley Robinson. This copy is complete as published with the scarce original dust wrapper, featuring an additional illustration ("Meeting of Saint Louis of France and Brother Giles") mounted on the front panel.

Francis of Assisi "left relatively few writings, but his life—literally the embodiment of his message—gave rise to numerous legends and parables. Many of them reflect the joy and freedom that became hallmarks of his spirituality, along with his constant tendency to turn the values of the world on their head" (Robert Ellsberg). Composed during the fourteenth century, by several different authors, the Little Flowers is not a conventional biography of Francis of Assisi and neither is it a history of the Saint's namesake Order, "for there is no historical truth in it. Yet it is unmistakably authentic. The truth it conveys is to be found, not in the events of its narrative, obviously legendary, but in the vivid and convincing impression it gives in its totality of the most Christ-like of saints" (Frank N. Magill).
Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and, after an 1888 trip to Florence, Fra Angelico, Cayley-Robinson's illustrations were separately printed in colors and then tipped to the page. These designs include the dust wrapper, frontispiece, title page, and six additional plates. The plates would be used again for the first illustrated edition of Chesterton's Life of St. Francis (1926).

First published by Burns and Oates in 1887, this edition of the Manning translation includes the Cardinal's brief Notice by the Editor comparing The Little Flowers to the Venerable Bede: "This translation...the first which has ever appeared in our mother tongue...this little book and the History of the English Nation, by S. Bede, are utterances of the loving faith of the children of the kingdom." Also includes a short Preface extracted from the writings of the French literary scholar, Frédéric Ozanam: "Each of the little flowers is in itself a scared poem. A divine ideal forms their principal feature...and throws a halo round the personages they describe." Ozanam was later beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1997. Robert Ellsberg. All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time; Frank N. Magill. Masterpieces of Christian Literature.

Price: $200.00

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