A woman addresses the Virgin
In FOL 47's version of the common prayer "O intemerata," the speaker twice refers to herself using the word "peccatrix", the feminine form of the Latin word for "sinner": "ego miserrima peccatrix" (line 1, immediate left), and "mihi peccatrici" (line 2, lower left).
In "Sancta Maria dei genetrix," the prayer that follows "O intemerata" in FOL 47, the speaker again refers to herself using feminine grammatical forms: "pro me peccatrice" (line 4, immediate left), "misserimae" (line 2, lower left), and "adiuva me miseram" (line 10, lower left).
Neither "O intemerata" nor "Sancta Maria dei genetrix" is invariably written for the use of a woman; each can be found elsewhere in versions that use masculine language (Baroffio; Gunhouse; Martin). It therefore seems likely that FOL 47 was customized for a female first owner.
Katherine Bonamo Philbin
Updated January 2016