Note 195 — Chapter V · CATHERINE’S LAST FOUR YEARS, 1506 TO 1510—SKETCH OF HER CHARACTER, DOCTRINE, AND SPIRIT

Vita, p. 148b. It is remarkable that, since January 10, this is the first date given by the Vita; that a series of dated days then extends onwards to August 28 (pp. 148a-152a); that then a gap occurs, filled in with a general but authentic account (pp. 152b-153c), evidently by another hand, the same writer who gave us the (also dateless) account from mid-January to mid-May (pp. 141b-145b); and that the dated chronicle is finally carried on from September 2 to the end, September 15 (pp. 153c-161a). If I am right as to the oneness of authorship as regards these two undated parts, then they are either not by Vernazza; or if they are, then Vernazza must have been about Catherine till September 2.

Now the Vita, p. 120b, tells us how Marabotto on one occasion left her “for three days,” at a time when she was already suffering much from “accidenti.” It is evident, that this absence fits in admirably with the gap already mentioned. Hence these dateless accounts can hardly be by Marabotto; and indeed their whole tone and point of view are unlike his. They might be by Carenzio: we shall see how strikingly objective and precise are the oldest constituents of the report as to the last three days of her life, during which, or at least at the end of which, Marabotto was as certainly absent as was Vernazza. There is, however, I think, some difference of tone between this latter report, and those dateless passages; whereas those passages are strikingly similar, in form and tone, to the oldest constituents of the Trattato, which are undoubtedly the literary work of Vernazza.

The probabilities then are, that these dateless accounts are by Vernazza; and that he left Genoa on September 1 or 2.