Epitome da Vida de Sta. Joanna, Princeza de Portugal, Religiosa da Ordem de S. Domingos, chamada vulgarmente a Santa Princeza. Traduzido do Italiano em Portuguez, e accrescentado por hum seu devoto

4to. pp. (20) including half-title, 208, plus engraved portrait frontispiece. Bound in contemporary mottled calf with gilt title-label and ornaments on spine. Very rare first Portuguese edition of this life of Princess Joana of Portugal (1452-1490), who became a romantic figure among 18th-century Portuguese nobility following her beatification in 1693. The present work has been translated and ‘augmented’ from the sole Italian edition composed in honor of her beatification (Breve narratione della vita della beata Giovanna Principessa di Portogallo Rome, 1693), which probably relied on the documents of her processo. The most notable addition by Silveira (1721-1786) is a very detailed ‘bibliography’ of all known writings about the saint, found on p. 203-8. This bibliography is given almost in the form of a chronological narrative, tracing the earliest account of Joanna’s life to a manuscript in Portuguese by her fellow nun Margarida Pinheyra in the convent of Aveiro. This manuscript was apparently finally submitted to the authorities in 1626. Silveira’s sources continue all the way up to 1741. Joanna was never canonized, but was consistently venerated as a saint in Portugal; Silveira’s work is dedicated to the ‘Santa Princeza’ and ‘Inclyta Heroina’ herself. Resisting politically-motivated offers of marriage left and right, Joanna was finally granted permission to take the Dominican habit in 1475 at the age of 23, and died at the age of 38. The ‘verdadeiro retrato’ of her bound before the half-title stresses her abnegation of wealth and title (her crown is barely visible in the portrait, lying unused on her table), while she clutches instead a crown of thorns, with a plain cross, a skull, and lilies in her other hand