Annotated proof copy from the Barcelona press of the Widow Torras. Unrecorded.

[Proof copy] / [Devotional print]. Santa Marta Virgen, que se venera ens u [sic] propria iglesia en la riera de san Juan. Oracion. Eterno Dios, que en todos los siglos … Barcelona: Imprenta de la V. Torras, plaza del Buensuceso, [c. 1840s-60s]. [22.0 x 16.0 cm], [1] f. letterpress sheet with woodcut image of Santa Marta, typographical border, and with manuscript annotations to text. Minor edge wear, a bit toned.
 
 
Unrecorded devotional woodcut with letterpress text from 19th-century Barcelona, here in a proof copy with manuscript annotations suggesting corrections. The sheet was printed at the “Imprenta de la V. Torras,” i.e., the press of the widow (‘viuda’) of Valentin Torras, which was located in the Plaza del Buensuceso and active from the 1840s to 1860s. Proofs of ephemeral material of this sort are rarely encountered. 
 
The item is a prayer to St. Martha, “who is venerated in her own church on the la riera de san Juan.” The church of St. Marta in Barcelona was razed when the neighborhood around La riera de san Juan was remodeled in the first years of the 20th century.
 
The woodcut depicts St. Martha triumphant over the dragon that she and Mary Magdalene, having fled Christian persecution in Jerusalem, encountered in Tarascon (the story is found in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine).
 
 
This item is not located by OCLC or KVK.