A POCKET-SIZED BIOGRAPHY FOR DISCALCED DOMINICAN NUNS. Sm. 4to. (24), 165 [i.e. 145] pp, (7), plus engr. plate of 'Nuestra senora de los Reyes'. Pages 137-156 erroneously omitted in pagination, as issued. With a handful of ornamental woodcuts in text. Bound in contemporary vellum with remains of ties. A delightfully fresh copy. Extremely rare sole edition of this pocket-sized biography of the Spanish Baroque nun Francisca Dorothea (1558-1623), whose beatification process was begun in 1630 and placed on indefinite hold in 1777. As the title-page states, the work was printed ‘by order of the Superior, and at the behest of those nuns’ – likely to be read by the Discalced Dominican nuns of Dorthea’s own convent as well as others. Illanez’s biography was evidently intended to further her causa, and includes a ‘current state of beatification affairs’ in Chapter XXVII, up to the year 1733. Illanez acknowledges an earlier biography (1680) by the Jesuit Aranda, and presumably covers much of the same material here. However, the commentary of the progress of Dorothea’s ultimately unsuccessful causa is interesting: we read that a questionnaire with 91 'preguntas' had been submitted to the Holy Congregation of the Rites, alongside the depositions of 27 nuns (“almost all eye-witnesses”) and 38 secular persons “much esteemed for their learning”. Urban VIII would not allow the causa to proceed until 50 years had passed since her death [i.e. 1673]; and in 1674 further questionnaires or rotuli were sent around at the behest of Clement X. A new Procurator was appointed to examine the evidence in October of 1731, and submitted a positive report on their findings in January of 1732; a date of two years from the 4th July 1733 was set for a further decision, and the author perhaps expected his publication of this Vida to coincide with an announcement of Dorothea’s beatification: “I conclude by announcing my pious wishes to all those responsible for such a worthy cause, a great reward for your great task, and attention to the grateful Servant of God, the Venerable Madre Francisca Dorothea”. OCLC shows two copies in US libraries, at UC San Diego and Harvard; most copies seem to be lacking the engraved plate. * Aguilar Piñal Vol IV, 3662; and cf eg. Quiles, Santidad Barroca Roma, Sevilla y América hispana, pp 10-11.