CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ITALIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE Edited by GIGLIOLA FRAGNITO, UniVerSita degli Studi, Parma CESARE MOZZARELLI, Universiti Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan ROBERT ORESKO, Institute of Historical Research, University of London and GEOFFREY SYMCOX, University of California, Los Angeles This series comprises monographs and a variety of collaborative volumes, including translated works, which concentrate on the period of Italian history from late medieval times up to the Risorgimento. The editors aim to stimulate scholarly debate over a range of issues which have not hitherto received, in English, the attention they deserve. As it develops, the series will emphasize the interest and vigour of current international debates on this central period of Italian history and the persistent influence of Italian culture on the rest of Europe. For a list of titles in the series, see end of book CHURCH, CENSORSHIP AND CULTURE IN EARLY MODERN ITALY EDITED BY GIGLIOLA FRAGNITO TRANSLATED BY ADRIAN BELTON • CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 224.878 PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OP THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge c B2 2Ru, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA to Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcön 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa littp://www.cambridge.org C Cambridge University Press 2001 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception • and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published zoot Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Bembo it 2.spt [CE] A catalogue record for this book is availablefrom the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Church, censorship and culture in early modern Italy / edited by Gigliola Fragnito; translated by Adrian Belton. p. cm. — (Cambridge studies in Italian history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 66172 2 1. Church and state—Italy—History. 2. Censorship—Italy—History. 3. Italy—Religious life and customs. I. Fragnito, Gigliola. II. Series. BR872.C47 2001 303.3'76'0945—dc21(cid:9) 2005025207 ISBN 0 521 66172 2 hardback Or4 Oto-b CONTENTS List of illustrations(cid:9) page vi List of contributors(cid:9) vii List of abbreviations Introduction GIGLIOLA FRAGNITO 2 The central and peripheral organization of censorship(cid:9) 13 GIGLIOLA FRAGNITO 3 How to doctor a bibliography: Antonio Possevino's practice(cid:9) so LUIGI BALSAMO 4 The Roman Inquisition's condemnation of astrology: (cid:9) antecedents, reasons and consequences 79 UGO BALDINI 5 Tradition and change in the spiritual literature of the (cid:9) cinquecento III EDOARDO BARBIERI 6 A project of 'expurgation' by the Congregation of the Index: (cid:9) treatises on duelling 134 CLAUDIO DONATI 7 The index, the Holy Office, the condemnation of the Talmud and publication of Clement VIII's index(cid:9) 163 FAUSTO PARENTE 8 Italian literature on the index(cid:9) 194 UGO ROZZO 9 The censoring of law books(cid:9) 223 RODOLFO SAVELLI Index of names(cid:9) 254 ILLUSTRATIONS Title-page of C. Gesner, Bibliotheca instituta et collecta . . .(cid:9) page 57 Tiguri, Christophorus Froschoverus, 1583 (Bologna, Biblioteca Cornunale dell'Archiginnasio, i5.E.I.9). 2 C. Gesner, Bibliotheca instituta et collecta . .(cid:9) p.(cid:9) 445, 59 Tiguri, Christophorus Froschoverus, 1583 (Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, i5.E.I.9). 3 C. Gesner, Bibliotecha instituta et collecta . . p. 450,(cid:9) 60 Tiguri, Christophorus Froschoverus, 1583 (Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, 15.E.I.9). 4 C. Gesner, Bibliotheca instituta et collecta . .(cid:9) p. 463,(cid:9) 62 Tiguri, Christophorus Froschoverus, 1583 (Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, 15.E.I.9). vi CONTRIBUTORS Ugo Baldini is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Padua. His publications include 'La scuola galileiana' and 'La scienza italiana nel primo Settecento', in Annali della Storia d'Italia, vol. III, Turin, Einaudi, 1980; (with P. D. Naplestani) 'Per la biografia di Luca Valerio', in Bollettino di storia delle scienze matematiche, II (1991); Legen impone subactis. Studi su filosofia e scienza dei gesuiti in Italia, 1540-1632, Rome, 1992; Saggi sulla cultura della Compagnia di Gest1 (secoli XVI- XVIII), Padua, 2000. He is the editor of Christoph Clavius, Corrispon- denza, Pisa, 1992. Luigi Balsamo, FBA, is Professor of Bibliography and Librarianship at the University of Parma. His research has concentrated on the history of books and bibliography, particularly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His publications include La stampa in Sardegna nei secoli XV e XVI, Florence, 1968; Bibliography: History of a Tradition, translated from Italian by W. A. Pettas, Berkeley, 1990; `Vicende censorie in Inghilterra tra '500 e `600', in U. Rozzo (ed.), La censura libraria nell'Europa del secolo XVI, Udine, 1997. Edoardo Barbieri, Assistant Professor of Italian Philology at the Catholic University of Milan, is currently working on the ancient book and the history of book collections in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His research has dealt with biblical translations and printing, popular printing, monastic libraries, the Venetian publishing trade, and the Italian Protestant Francesco Negri. Among his publications are Le Bibbie italiane del Quattrocento e del Cinquecento, Milan, 1992, and II libro ne/la storia. Tre percorsi, Milan, 2000, and several articles. Claudio Donati is Professor of History of the Ancient Italian States at the Universitä Statale of Milan. He has worked extensively on both the vii Viii(cid:9) CONTRIBUTORS relations between ecclesiastical institutions, political powers, social structures and cultural trends in early modern Italy and on the evolution of nobiliar ideology in Italy and Europe between the late medieval and early modern age. Among his publications are Ecclesiastici e laid ne! Trentino del Settecento, Rome, 1975; 'La Chiesa di Roma tra antico regime e riforme settecentesche', in Annali della Storia d'Italia, vol. IX, Turin, Einaudi, 1986; L'idea di nobilta in Italia, secoli XIV-XVIII, Rome— Bari, 1988, 2nd edn, 1995; `Vescovi e diocesi d'Italia dall'etä post- tridentina alla caduta dell'antico regime', in M. Rosa (ed.), Clero e societa nell'Italia moderna, Rome—Bari, 1992; 'The Italian Nobilities in the 17th and ath centuries', in The European Nobilities in the 17th and 18th centuries, London—New York 1995. He is the editor of Eserciti e carriere militari nell'Italia moderna, Milan, 1998. Gigliola Fragnito is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Parma. Her publications include Memoria individuate e cost ruzione biografica. Beccadelli, Della Casa, Vettori alle origini di un mito, Urbino, 1979; In museo e in villa. Saggi sul Rinascimento perduto, Venice, 1988; Gasparo Contarini. Un magistrato veneziano al servizio delta cristianitä, Florence, 1988; La Bibbia al rogo. La censura ecclesiastica e i volgarizzamenti della Scrittura (1471-1605), Bologna, 1997, and several articles on reli- gious, cultural and social aspects of early modern Italian history. Fausto Parente is former Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Rome II (Tor Vergata). He has worked on late Judaism and early Christianity, and on relationships between Jews and Christians, with particular regard to Christian attitudes towards the Talmud. His publications include: 'La lettera di Ariostea come fonte per la storia del giudaismo alessandrino durante la prima metä del primo secolo avanti Cristo', Annali della Scuola Normale Supenore di Pisa, S. 3, 2 (1972); 'La genesi degli interessi di Julius Wellhausen per il Nuovo Testamento', in Tria corda. Salta in onore di Arnaldo Momigliano, Como, 1983; Wilamo- witz über Neuest Testament und Frühchristentum', in Wilamowitz nach 50 Jahren, Darmstadt, 1985; `Onias III' and the founding of the Temple of Leontopolis', inJosephus and the History of the Greco-Roman Period. Essays in memory of Morton Smith, Leiden 1994; 'La Chiesa e il 'Talmud'. L'atteggiamento della Chiesa e del mondo cristiano nei confronti del Talmud e degli altri scritti rabbinici con particolare riguardo all'Italia tra XV e XVI secolo', in Annali della Storia d'Italia, XI, Turin, Einaudi, 1996. Ugo Rozzo is Professor of History of Libraries at the University of Udine. His publications include Linee per una storia del libro religioso in CONTRIBUTORS(cid:9) ix haha (1465-1600), Udine, 1993; Biblioteche italiane del Cinquecento tra Riforma e Controriforma, Udine, 1994; Index de Parme 1580, in J. M. De Bujanda (ed.), Index des livres interdits, IX, Sherbrooke, 1994; Libri e censura nell'Italia del sedicesimo secolo, in La Biblioteca della Facoltä Valdese di Teologia, Rome, 1997; Furor bibliographicus ovvero la bibliomania, in Libri tipografi biblioteche. Ricerche storiche dedicate a Luigi Balsam°, Florence, 1997; Lo studiolo nella silografia italiana, Udine, 1998. He is the editor of La censura libraria nell'Europa del secolo XVI, Udine, 1997. Rodolfo Savelli is Professor of Italian Legal History at the University of Genoa. His publications include Catalog° delfmdo Demetrio Canevari della Biblioteca Civica Berio di Genova, Florence, 1974; La repubblica oligarchica. Legislazione, istituzioni e ceti a Genova ne! Cinquecento, Milan, 1981; 'Between Law and Morals: Interest in the Dispute on Exchanges during the t6th Century', in V. Piergiovanni (ed.), The Courts and the Develop- ment of Commercial Law, Berlin, 1987; `Derecho romano y theologia refonnada. Du Moulin frente al problema del interes del dinero', in C. Petit (ed.), Del Ius mercatorum al derecho mercantil, Madrid, 1997; and several articles on legal and institutional history. ABBREVIATIONS PUBLICATIONS ILI (cid:9) Index des livres interdits, ed. J. M. De Bujanda, Sher- brooke—Geneva, 10 vols., 1984-1996. DBI (cid:9) Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, Rome, 1960 fr. EDID6 (cid:9) Le edizioni italiane del XVI secolo. Censimento nazionale, Rome, ICCU, 1985 ff. MANUSCRIPT SOURCES IN LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES ACAF(cid:9) Archivio Curia Arcivescovile, Florence ACDF(cid:9) Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede AGOP(cid:9) Archivum Generale Ordinis Praedicatorum, Rome ARSI(cid:9) Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu ASV(cid:9) Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Rome ASV, SS(cid:9) Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Segreteria di Stato ASVe, SU(cid:9) Archivio di Stato, Venice, Sant'Uffizio BAB(cid:9) Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna BAM(cid:9) Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan BAV(cid:9) Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome BCR(cid:9) Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome BEM(cid:9) Biblioteca Estense, Modena Index (cid:9) Archivio della Congregazione dell'Indice* SO(cid:9) Archivio della Congregazione del Sant'Officio St.St.(cid:9) Stanza Storica * In the pressrnarks of the documents, the Roman numerals indicate the series, the Arab numerals the volume. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION GIGLIOLA FRAGNITO The aim of this book is to contribute to knowledge of ecclesiastical censorship between the mid-sixteenth and the early seventeenth cen- turies in the light of new critically edited sources and of the 'Roman' documentation that has become recently available. Since the pioneering works of Antonio Rotondö, Pasquale Lopez, Paul F. Grendler and John Tedeschi, studies on censorship have languished. Of course, there has been no lack of important and thorough analysis of the controls imposed on the circulation of books, yet the primacy assumed in the past thirty years by the events surrounding the penetration into Italy of heretical doctrines has induced scholars to concentrate on the spread and suppression of theological works deemed heretical. Less attention, however, has been paid to other 'disciplinary' sectors, ones on which censorship seems to have had equally radical effects, although with outcomes still largely to be explored. Also neglected has been the fundamental problem of the manner and times of the creation of a central control system endowed with a peripheral organization capable of translating the orders issued by the Roman offices into efficacious censorial practice. There is no doubt that practical difficulties have hampered investi- gation of these matters, most notably the lack of critical editions of the Index librorum prohibitorum promulgated by Rome during the cinque- cento (1559, 1564, 1596) and of the 'local' indexes. This absence made it difficult for scholars to find their way through the tangle of prohibitions and suspensions which — often with ambiguities, inaccuracies and errors — afflicted authors, individual works, or even entire categories of texts. But it also obstructed reconstruction of the tortuous passage of the universal indexes before their promulgation and controversial imple- mentation, amid frequent changes of mind as well as fierce conflict among the Roman censorial organs. Since 1996, the year that saw completion of J. M. De Bujanda's monumental and exemplary edition