Spanish School. Dated 1748. Illumination on p... Lot n° 17

Spanish School. Dated 1748. Illumination on parchment. Solemn vow of an Augustinian nun in the convent of Santa María de Gracia in Huelva, founded in 1510, from the Reverend Augustinian Sisters, on September 4, 1748. 56,5 x 38 cm. Beautiful illuminated letter on parchment with the solemn vow of the Augustinian nun Sor Mariana Tomasita de San José, the name that can be read on The Crown of the Virgin Mary that she would have received during the solemn act. The Crown of the Queen of all Virgins is for them the invocation of Santa Maria de Gracia, who gives her name to the convent where they were to be cloistered for life. The Crown is covered to the right and left by two of the witnesses present and summoned to the solemn profession: The Blessed Virgin Mary on the left and Saint Joseph on the right. The nun who is making her profession hovers in the air, suspended over the archiepiscopal hat of the other witness present, with the heart of Saint Augustine in the centre, pierced by two arrows.  This is the symbol of the heart that completely surrenders to God and to her sisters, a heart 'inflamed with love', and with which she makes her vows: “I make the most unworthy profession before my sisters, and I promise to observe obedience, poverty and chastity to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to our great Father Augustine; and to the Most Illustrious Lord Gabriel Torres y Navarra, Archbishop-elect of Mitislen, and Co-administrator in spiritual affairs together with the Most Serene Jacobo del Bareo our Vicar, and to you Madam, Abbess Petronila De San Pedro of this House of Santa María de Gracia in this town of Huelva, which exists and remains, and before your successors, living according to the Rule and Constitutions of Our Most Holy Father Agustine, as observed by remaining in the Cloister until death. In whose public faith I have signed this instrument in my own handwriting, in the presence of the requested and summoned witnesses. The fourth of September of the year of the Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-eight.” Four angels who imply that these vows 'come from heaven as supernatural gifts', surround the profession, enclosed under the Institute of Augustinian Mothers, holding phylacteries on which are written the vows they profess: poverty, obedience, chastity and cloister. In the middle of a garden of flowers and scrolls, on the lower section of the text enclosed in the heart, three cartouches are placed, for those present to sign inside, (as the witnesses do in any wedding): the one on the left 'with the boat of the Faith” in which this nun adds her life, is signed by Sister Mariana de San José; the central one is signed by the Archbishop, whose second surname after Torres is Esquivel, and was not placed above; the one on the right remains blank. Two more handwritten signatures are present in the text: that of Sor Mariana de San José, pointed at by the arrow that comes out of the heart, and that of the Vicar and Infante Jacobo del Bareo, and the right arrow points to that of the Reverend Abbess Petronila De San Pedro, all present as living witnesses who receive the vows.