[162] Ibid. p. 9b. The present conclusion of the sentence, and all the parallels throughout the rest of the page, show plainly that the sentence originally read as I have given it.
[163] Vita, p. 9b.
[164] Ibid. p. 16b.
[165] Ibid. p. 5b.
[166] Vita, p. 98, a, b. This is the first of three incidents, given in chronological order, all referring to her desire for death, which make up Chapter XXXVIII of the printed Vita. The last two are, beyond all doubt, conversations with Vernazza; and this first incident is also probably transmitted to us by him.—I have in my translation left out the numerous glosses by which the various Redactors have desperately attempted to eviscerate this story, attempts based on the double conviction, that Catherine was already absolutely perfect, and that “every desire is imperfect” (p. 100a). These changes will be studied later on.
[167] Vita, pp. 118, b, c, 119b, 119a. This vivid and simple dialogue is followed (p. 119b) by a clearly secondary parallel discourse of Catherine. Only the descriptive end of this latter paragraph is no doubt authentic, and has been incorporated in the above translation.
[168] Vita, p. 127a.
[169] I translate the above from the oldest account of the event, given by MS. “A,” p. 193, at the opening of its Chapter XXIX (the number is accidentally omitted), which is headed: “How in the year 1506, on the 11th of November, there came upon her so great a burning in the heart, that she wondered at her not expiring.” This 1506, repeated in the opening line of the chapter itself, is an undoubted slip; for she is said to be 63 years old (and she was in her 63rd year in 1509), and the place occupied by the corresponding paragraph in the printed Vita, p. 133b (within a year of her death, p. 132b, and some time before December 1509, p. 138b), again clearly marks the date as 1509.
[170] Vita, p. 132a, b. The first eight sentences have been in part fused by R 1 into fewer larger periods. The last sentence is wanting in MSS. “A”and “B”; although clearly formed upon the model and with the material of the previous sentences, it appears in the printed Vita as referring to an “altra vista” (see p. 133b).
[171] Vita, p. 135a. I have, in Catherine’s speech, omitted a final clause, “which burns me entirely within and without,” because it is not necessary to the sense, and violates the rhythm, which is ever present in all Catherine’s authentic sayings.