Fourth edition of the Italian translation of the original Dutch mystical treatise by Hendriik Herp, the Spieghel der Volcomenheyt. Hendrik Herp (ca. 1400-1478) was a Franciscan of the Strict Observance and a distinguished writer on mysticism. Only the last thirty years of his life are known to us. Born either at Düren (Marcoduranus), at Erp near Düren, or at Erps-Querbs near Louvain, Herp appears as rector of the Brethren of the Common Life, first in 1445 at Delft in Holland, then at Gouda. In 1450, on a pilgrimage to Rome, he took the habit of St. Francis at the Convent of Ara Cœli. Twenty years later we find him provincial of the Province of Cologne (1470-73), then guardian of the convent of Malines in Belgium, where he died in 1478. The Franciscan Martyrology of Arturus of Rouen gives him the title of Blessed.
With a small booksellers' label on the front paste-down and the remnants of a large bookplate on the recto of the first flyleaf. The binding shows a few spots, some slight foxing throughout, and a small hole in the title-page (not affecting the text). Otherwise in good condition. De Troeyer 224; Censomento 22798; Verschueren, Hendrik Herp I, p. 108, nr. 18; USTC 835678; cf. T. Mertens (ed.), 'Een mystieke summa uit de vijftiende eeuw: de prologen op de "Spiegel der volcomenheit" van Hendrik Herp, in: De onbereikbaarheid van de geliefde: pareltjes van Nederlandse en Rijnlandse mystiek (Leuven, 2000), p. 47-65.