[84] Vallebona, pp. 106, 108.
[85] An interesting legendary development in the Dialogo of this very straightforward account of the Vita will occupy us later on.
[86] Vita, pp. 20, 21.
[87] Ibid. p. 12.
[88] See an interesting article: “De Suor Tommasina Fieschi,” by F. Alizeri, in Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria, Genova, 1868, pp. 403-415.
[89] The choice of subjects may possibly betray the influence of Catherine—of the Pietà which Catherine had so much loved as a child, and of her special devotion to the Holy Eucharist. But the particular form of the latter is in Tommasina unlike Catherine: had Catherine painted that symbolical picture, it would have referred to the moment, not Consecration, but of Communion.
[90] Vita, pp. 123, 124. Suor Tommasa did not die till 1534, over 86 years of age. I have been unable to discover her baptismal and her married names. We shall give some further details about Catherine’s probable relations with her, as writer and as painter.
[91] Vita, pp. 12, 13.
[92] Ibid. pp. 5, 6, 14.
[93] Ibid. p. 13.