Creative Reproductions: Diana Mantuana and Printmaking at Court

Maria Maurer examines the career of Diana Mantuana (c. 1547–1612), the first female printmaker to sign her work and one of the few female artists mentioned by Vasari in the second edition of his Lives (1568). Recognizing that printmaking was an unusual female occupation due to its technique and wide circulation, Maurer argues that Diana entered into visual dialogue with Mantuan and papal court artists to promote her work. Focusing on two prints made after the work of Giulio Romano, Maurer reveals that, through her work in a reproductive medium, the artist commented upon the ability of women and printmaking to both copy and generate, engaging broader discourses regarding imitation and invention to market herself as a rare commodity.

Was Niccolò Oddi a Jesuit?: Pamphlets, News, and His Disputed Deathbed Religious Profession

This essay explores the life and career of Niccolò Oddi (1715–67). Associated with Ludovico Maria Torrigiani, the pro-Jesuit secretary of state during the pontificate of Clement xiii, Oddi was not himself a member of the Society, but a man who would defend it in the years when the survival of the order was the principal issue that occupied the papal court, and when Europe was abuzz with polemical anti-Jesuit tracts. As papal nuncio in Switzerland, Oddi opposed the printing and circulation of anti-Jesuit publications; later, he became the archbishop of Ravenna and a cardinal. By some he is considered a Jesuit, for he seems to have joined the Society just before his death by making religious profession. Did this really happen? Or, was it part of propaganda employed by the Jesuits themselves? Or, was it a myth circulated by Society’s enemies? Oddi’s case may be considered informative for many reasons. His alleged religious profession before dying, which was discussed in the newspapers of the time, can be interpreted as an important episode in the political-religious struggle that accompanied the suppression of the Jesuits between real and fake news.

Group Portraits of Cardinal Bembo and his Friends in the Wake of Trent

Despite being primarily famous as a poet and literary theorist, Pietro Bembo’s visual legacy is dominated by images of him as an aged cardinal. The majority of these images of Cardinal Bembo were produced posthumously, and several representations occur in group portraits including cardinals affiliated with Paul III’s programme of ecclesiastical reform; many of these individuals were Bembo’s closest friends at the papal court. Exploring the important place that Bembo assumed within the Roman Curia during his cardinalate, and his association with the group known as the spirituali, this essay will consider how cardinal portraiture could be used to articulate visually a particular agenda of church reform.

Music for Martyrs

This article interrogates sacred repertoire produced in late seventeenth-century Salzburg as a reflection of a local Catholic piety that centered on sacrifice, especially the ultimate sacrifice of martyrdom. As an individual principality that was subject to both the Papal court in Rome and the Holy Roman Emperor, Salzburg provides a meaningful case study in the heterogeneous regional post-Tridentine Catholic practices that musicologists and historians alike have only begun to explore. Compositions by Andreas Hofer (1629–84) and Heinrich Biber (1644–1704) present a prime example of sacred music’s ability to manifest a region’s distinct piety. Supported by their patron Prince-Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph von Kuenburg (r. 1668–87), Hofer and Biber left behind musical evidence of this exceptional Catholicism in the feasts they elaborated with substantial concerted compositions as well as the distinct texts they set, which do not align with prescribed liturgies and likely reflect persistent local practices that resonated with the prince-archbishop’s Counter-Reformation agenda. Printed liturgical books and emblems celebrating Maximilian Gandolph further support the claim that throughout the seventeenth century liturgical practice and sacred music in Salzburg maintained a local flavor that concentrated on themes of sacrifice and martyrdom.

La Storia dell’Età Moderna nelle „Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Biblioteken“: lo specchio di un secolo di ricerche

The article examines the topics relating to the early modern period covered by the journal „Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken“ in the hundred volumes since its first publication. Thanks to the index (1898–1995), published in 1997 and the availability online on the website perpectivia.net (since 1958), it is possible to identify constants and changes in historiographical interests. Initially, the focus was on the publication of sources in the Vatican Secret Archive (now the Vatican Apostolic Archive) relating to the history of Germany. The topics covered later gradually broadened to include the history of the Papacy, the social composition of the Curia and the Papal court and Papal diplomacy with a specific focus on nunciatures, among others. Within a lively historiographical context, connected to historical events in Germany in the 20th century, attention to themes and sources relating to the Middle Ages continues to predominate with respect to topics connected to the early modern period.

Römische Kurie und Karriere

This paper discusses the cleric Nikolaus Graurock († 1493), who came to Rome at a young age to embark upon a remarkable career. His connection to the Hospital and Fraternity of Santa Maria dellʼAnima was the first important support used by this man of legal and diplomatic talents, who thus became acquainted with the customs of the Curia and of Rome and was able to quickly build up a personal network. His membership of the familia of cardinal Latinus Orsini, who came from a family of the high nobility with influence in Rome and Italy, was also fundamental. In the 1450 s, Graurock was one of the key figures – especially in the „Lüneburg Prelate War“ – in the exchange between the Curia and representatives from northern Germany. Thanks to his position, however, Nikolaus Graurock also promoted the careers of others, including relatives. During his long stay in Rome he came into closer contact with those humanists who played an increasingly important role at the papal court from the second half of the 15th century onwards and whose works he later disseminated in Germany. This example of a mid-level cleric thus offers fundamental insights into the career opportunities that Rome and the Curia offered in the 15th century.

Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729) and the Origins of Planetary Globes

The Veronese astronomer Francesco Bianchini (1662–1729) was a prominent figure at the papal court in the pontificates of Clement XI (pp. 1700–1721), Innocent XII (pp. 1721–1724), and Benedict XIII (pp. 1724–1730). In his influential treatise Hesperi et Phosphori Nova Phaenomena sive Observationes circa Planetam Veneris, published in Rome in 1728, he presents the first cartographical depiction of Venus, containing the gores for a globe. Bianchini also produced at least four Venus globes of which two still exist as original models in Paris (BNF) and Bologna (Museo della Specola). With this set of globes, Bianchini provided the first identified three-dimensional model of a planet (if we exclude earlier cartographical examples of the Earth and the Moon). In this article we address the conceptual and technological changes permitting the emergence of planetary globes.

The Revolution of 1258

This chapter discusses the revolution of 1258. Between the parliaments of October 1257 and April 1258, Henry III spent all his time at Westminster apart from visits to Merton, Guildford, and Windsor. The king was anxiously awaiting the return of his envoys from both the papal court and the court of Louis IX. On both depended the future of the Sicilian enterprise. If that were not enough, Henry was also facing the prospect of war on two fronts in Britain. With the king denying justice to John FitzGeoffrey while asking for a monstrous tax to pursue his Sicilian dreams, seven magnates decided to take action. The aim of the seven was to bring down the Lusignans and force through a general reform of the realm. On April 30, 1258, Roger Bigod demanded action against the ‘intolerable’ Lusignans and the reform of the realm by twenty-four men chosen by the baronage. No tax was to be imposed without the consent of the twenty-four and they were to appoint someone to keep the king's seal. Henry had resisted such demands for fourteen years. Now confronted by men in armour and fearing imprisonment, he gave way.

La vicenda della morte di Carlo e Giovanni Carafa in alcuni testi di fine Cinquecento e Seicento

The article presents the story of the death of Carlo and Giovanni Carafa, leading figures at the papal court, condemned to death by Pius IV, in 1561. Article analyses three unpublished texts (from the 16th and 17th century) that reconstruct the facts, focusing on their different perspectives and functions.