“Examine well and diligently the points which you will see I made throughout”: Catherine of Siena’s Communities of Readers in Fifteenth-Century Italy

ABSTRACT This article examines five fifteenth-century Italian manuscripts bearing letters by Catherine of Siena (d. 1380). By tracing notations and other forms of paratext in each manuscript, the article explores how communities of readers engaged with Catherine’s letters in the fifteenth century. It finds that the letters in certain manuscripts were read out loud as authoritative devotional literature for monastic communities, while the letters in other manuscripts were read for solitary, meditative purposes, with communally directed annotations calling readers to give particular attention to what Catherine wrote concerning papal politics, as well as the themes of monastic spirituality such as the love of God, contempt for the world, and spiritual combat.