[Catholica]: Niederlassungen der armen Schulschwestern de Notre Dame diesseits des Oceans. Zur Erinnerung an das Fünfzigjährige Profeß-Jubiläum unserer Ehrwürdigen Mutter General-Oberin Maria Margarita von Cortona Widemann am 17. April 1889

Wien [Vienna]: "St. Norbertus" Buch- und Kunstdruckerei [1889]. 55, [1]pp. Oblong Folio (10 x 13 inches). Embossed red paper-covered boards; red cloth spine; gilt titling on upper cover. 187 lithographic illustrations. Ownership stamp on front endpaper of "Library, Motherhouse Sancta Maria in Ripa." Rubbing some staining to covers, especially at edges; hinges starting; good.

Exceedingly rare nineteenth-century commemorative album of 187 lithographic views showing religious houses and schools in Europe of the School Sisters de Notre Dame, a Roman Catholic religious order of women founded to teach the poor.

The album was issued on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the religious profession of the order's Superior General, Maria Margarita of Cortona Widemann. Mother Widemann was born in 1814 in Günzburg, Bavaria where most of the orders' activity was centered.¹ She professed her first religious vows in 1839, just six years after the founding of the order.

The views include a full-page lithograph of the order's motherhouse in Munich, plus 186 additional views of individual buildings, each view being approx. 3 x 5 inches, almost postcard sized. There are 146 religious houses or schools in Bavaria, 6 in Prussia, 7 in Silesia, 12 in Austria, 12 in Hungary, and 3 in England.

OCLC 886230690, 1 copy only (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich). The album's title can be approximately translated as: "Branches of the Poor School of the Sisters de Notre Dame on this side of the Ocean. To Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Religious Profession of our Venerable Mother's Superior General, Maria Margarita of Cortona Widemann, on April 17, 1889." Note. 1. Schematismus der Geistlichkeit des Erzbisthums München und Freising für dar Jahr 1863 (Munich, 1863), p143.