ARNOLDI, HEINRICH. - Ascetic writer of the Carthusian Order. Born in 1407 at Alfeld (from which he derived the appellation *Allevaldia*) in Saxony, he pursued brilliant studies in Rome and entered the papal court as *cursitanus urbis Romae*. He served as a notary at the Council of Basel. Around 1437, he entered the Charterhouse of Val Saint-Marguerite in Basel, where he served as prior from 1450 to 1480; he died there on June 5, 1487.
He was deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary (many of his writings pertain to the sorrows of Mary) and to St. Joseph. He introduced into his charterhouse the Marian feasts of the Presentation (1470), the Immaculate Conception (1471), and the Compassion (1477), and composed their offices. He wrote no fewer than 25 works, notable for their learning and piety. Among his printed works we may mention: *Tractatus de modo perveniendi ad veram et perfectam Dei et proximi dilectionem* (1472), in which he follows the school of the Victorines (this pamphlet is often erroneously attributed to Denis the Carthusian); *Contra Turcos specialis litania* (Basel 1476); *De conceptione immaculata virginis Mariae* (Antwerp 1527). He also wrote a chronicle of his convent, which was continued and completed by M. Stroulin and G. Zimmermann, religious of the same monastery, and printed in *Chronique de la chartreuse de Bâle*, in the collection *Basler Chroniken* (I, Leipzig 1872, pp. 248-305). Several other works remain in manuscript (complete list in Nicklès, pp. 144-147, 152).