Download (.pdf) “The Theatrical Memory of Denis Coppée’s Sanglante et Pitoyable tragédie de nostre Sauveur et Rédempteur Jesu-Christ.”
by Jody Enders
In The Shape of Change: Essays on the Early Modern and La Fontaine in Honor of David Lee Rubin, 1-21. Eds. Ann Birberick and Russell Ganim. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001.
22 views
Seen by:
Le moment Atlantique de la dynastie des Winthrop au XVIIe siècle (The Atlantic Moment of the Winthrop Dynasty in the Seventeenth Century)
Lauric Henneton, « Le moment Atlantique de la dynastie des Winthrop au XVIIe siècle », Les Cahiers de Framespa [En ligne], 9 | 2012, mis en ligne le 08 mars 2012, consulté le 14 mars 2012. URL : http://framespa.revues.org/979
Using the case of the Winthrop dynasty, this essay explores the successive stages of an Anglo-American family’s... more Using the case of the Winthrop dynasty, this essay explores the successive stages of an Anglo-American family’s expansion in an Atlantic world that was still nascent in the mid-17th century. This process is here referred to as atlanticization. The Winthrop brothers (the sons of Governor John Winthrop) and their uncle Emmanuel Downing managed to establish a network stretching from New England to the West Indies to the British Isles, the Wine Islands and as far as the African west coast (« Guinea »). However, in spite of this genuinely Atlantic configuration (polygonal and shifting) and not just transatlantic (bipolar), the political upheavals of the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy and a series of deaths in the family were to launch a contrary process of de-atlantization, just as Atlantic trade began to expand significantly. Beyond the sole commercial dimension, this paper considers the multiple and overlapping Atlantic worlds (family, diplomatic, imperial, missionary and scientific) in which the Winthrops were involved.
The chorographic tradition and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scottish antiquaries
Rohl, D.J. (2011) The chorographic tradition and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scottish antiquaries, 'Journal of Art Historiography,' number 5 (December 2011).
Full text available at: http://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/rohl.pdf
For slides from presentation given at original workshop, see: http://durham.academia.edu/DarrellRohl/Talks/48600/The_Chorographic_Tr
The early modern phenomenon of British Antiquarianism can be traced to the Renaissance rediscovery of the classical... more The early modern phenomenon of British Antiquarianism can be traced to the Renaissance rediscovery of the classical chorographic tradition. While the term ‘chorography’ eventually fell out of use, its influence can still be seen in the works of later antiquaries and more current approaches to land and particular places. This paper provides a brief introduction to the history and main concerns of chorography, identifies the continuity of chorographic thinking in the works of the Scottish antiquaries Sir Robert Sibbald and Alexander Gordon, and concludes with a retrospective on the long-term legacy of their work and the role chorography has played in major developments of land-use and studies of Scotland’s past.
From the ‘Bibliographical Nightmare’ to a Critical Bibliography
by Simone Testa
From the ‘Bibliographical Nightmare’ to a Critical Bibliography. Tesori politici
in the British Library, and Elsewhere in Britain, in e-Blj, 1, 2008, pp. 1-33.
This is the first critical bibliography of one of the most intricate bibliographical cases of early-modern Europe: the... more This is the first critical bibliography of one of the most intricate bibliographical cases of early-modern Europe: the Tesori politici (1589-1618). For the first time, printers involved in the publication, dedicatees, and many authors of the various texts have been identified; the complete content of the various editions, reprints, and translations exposed; texts are referred to manuscript versions held in the British Library, and elsewhere in Britain. The research shows the difference between the three Tesori politici ; reveals the previously unknown, wide circulation the Tesori politici enjoyed in Britain; and suggests they were important publications for the development of the contemporary discourse on raison d'etat.
Paisaje arquitecturado y arquitectura en el paisaje: la fortificación del territorio en Época Moderna en el Baixo Miño
Co-authored with Sonia García Rodríguez
Published in 'Revista electrónica ArqueoWeb', 7 (2) (Sept. / Dic. 2005)
[ES] Este texto es el resultado de los trabajos arqueológicos desarrollados por un equipo del Laboratorio de... more
[ES] Este texto es el resultado de los trabajos arqueológicos desarrollados por un equipo del Laboratorio de Arqueología del Paisaje del Instituto de Estudios Gallegos Padre Sarmiento (CSIC-Xunta) y del Laboratorio de Patrimonio, Paleoambiente y Paisaje (IIT, USC), en el marco de la redacción del Plan Director de las Fortalezas Transfronterizas del Tramo Bajo del Río Miño, adjudicado por la Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio Cultural de la Xunta de Galicia a la empresa Inzamac Asistencias Técnicas S.A. Estos trabajos consistían en la realización de un estudio arqueológico previo a la redacción del plan director de todas las fortificaciones emplazadas en la margen gallega del río Miño, donde éste hace frontera con Portugal, así como de los Bienes Patrimoniales que pudieran estar relacionados con las infraestructuras de dichas fortalezas. De dicho estudio derivarían unas propuestas de actuación. El estudio, realizado desde los planteamientos de la Arqueología del Paisaje y la Arqueología de la Arquitectura, ha permitido comprender la formación del territorio fortificado en el Baixo Miño en época moderna, que se articulaba en base a sistema defensivos, tanto para puntos concretos del Miño como para la totalidad de esta área
[EN] This text is the result of the archaeological work carried out by a team from the Laboratory of Landscape Archaeology from the Padre Sarmiento Galician Studies Institute (CSIC-Xunta) and the Heritage, Paleoenvironment and Landscape Laboratory (IIT, USC), as part of drafting the Master Plan Fortalezas Transfronterizas del Tramo Bajo del Río Miño, awarded by the Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio Cultural of the Xunta de Galicia to the company Inzamac Technical Assistance S.A. This work consisted of conducting an archaeological survey prior to the writing of this master plan of all the fortifications located on the Galician margin of the Miño river, where it borders with Portugal, as well as the assets that may be related to infrastructure of these strengths. In this study derive some proposals for action. The study, from the approach of landscape archeology and the archeology of architecture, has elucidated the formation of the territory in the Baixo Miño fortified in modern times, which is articulated on the basis of defensive system, both for specific points of Miño as for the whole of this area.
“Note sull’inglese Agostino Matthei irrequieto professore di teologia morale dell’Università di Pisa (1683-1685),” Bollettino Storico Pisano, LXXIII (2004): 297-305.
[Notes on the Englishman Agostino Matthei, restless professor of Moral Theology of the University of Pisa]. This... more
[Notes on the Englishman Agostino Matthei, restless professor of Moral Theology of the University of Pisa]. This article is an the erudite reconstruction of John Gibbons biography as well as an exploration of the figure of Agostino Matthei as an example of a generation of exiled English Catholics. Agostino Matthei’s real name was John Gibbons, born in the parish of St. Mary’s, Exeter, in Devonshire in 1652 to John and Joanna Gibbons, a wealthy Protestant family. After studying at Ottery St. Mary Gibbons went to Spain, perhaps for commerce, and remained for three years. In Seville he converted to Catholicism inspired by the Jesuit Henry Edwards. Following his conversion he decided to go to Italy and on 27 February 1676, at the age of 24, was admitted as a boarder to the English College in Rome under the assumed name of Augustine Pollard. After taking the mandatory oath he was ordained subdeacon in June, then deacon and priest in July 1676. Called back home for family matters, he requested permission from the the protector of the English college to absent himself and for England on 30 August 1677. In England, Pollard befriended with Francesco Terriesi, who had been the Tuscan representative at the English court since 1680, and of which Pollard became chaplain. After several months, Pollard left for Florence arriving in early May 1683 where he was appointed chaplain to the knights of St. Stephen in Pisa. Pollard, who had by then assumed his new name – Augustino Matthei – could have “a decent ecclesiastical job” without having to mix directly “with the English of Leghorn.” This would presumably allow him to avoid direct polemics with the British Factory, which had been expressing increasingly strong opposition to any form of religious interference by the Catholic Church. A few weeks later the English clergyman was given lectureship of Moral Theology in the University of Pisa, which included a substantial annual income of 300 crowns. However, in October 1683, on the eve of the academic year, Pollard surprised the Grand Ducal authorities by requesting “license to return to England,” arguing that he desired to “take care of the entire conversion of his mother,” who had been moving closer to Catholicism. Matthei’s stay in Livorno was coming to an end. In February 1685 Charles II died and was succeeded by his brother, the Catholic James II. His accession to the throne was accompanied by an avalanche of Jesuits, monks and Catholic priests settling in England, including many foreign-trained English Catholic clerics, such as Matthei. The latter upon hearing of Charles II’s death requested to return home from Tuscany in hopes of finding a good job with the sovereign. In England, Matthei was disappointed as, contrary to his hopes, entered into the sovereign’s service only in June 1686. Terriesi communicated to the Tuscan court that Matthei, thanks to the King, had been appointed military chaplain and followed the troops under the command of the Earl of Dunbarton, “with the prospective to move to Windsor, as soon as the last fires of the rebellion of Monmouth would quench.” Within two years, however, the Glorious Revolution forced James II to flee dashing Matthei’s hopes. When in March 1691 Francesco Terriesi left England to return to Italy permanently, Matthei hoped to return to the service of the Grand Duke acting as a political informer. From August of that year he sent a series of newsletters in Spanish to the Tuscan Secretary of State, Apollonio Bassetti, summarizing weekly news from England. Matthei’s project, however, did not go well; in October 1691 this function was entrusted to Thomas Platt and Matthei sent his last newsletter on December 27, 1691.
The figure of John Gibbons is interesting because it exemplifies a generation of exiled English Catholics in search of patronage, ever hesitating between settling into a quiet pastoral appointment abroad and undertaking risky missionary activity in England. His story is also interesting because it allows us to reconstruct the channels of transmitting political information between Tuscany and England (countries with important trade links): the interplay between Terriesi and Matthei and Matthei and Platt is very significant in this context. In addition to Matthei’s personal vicissitudes in Tuscany there is the role played by the British community of Livorno. Of significance is the reluctance of the Grand Ducal authorities to develop any sort of missionary activity for fear of damaging the economic relations between the two countries.
“‘Cum scandalo catholicorum…’. La presenza a Livorno di predicatori protestanti inglesi tra il 1644 e il 1670,” Nuovi Studi Livornesi, VII (1999): 9-58.
[Cum Scandalo Catholicorum… The presence in Leghorn of English Protestant Preachers between 1644 and 1670]. Since the... more [Cum Scandalo Catholicorum… The presence in Leghorn of English Protestant Preachers between 1644 and 1670]. Since the 1640s the British factory of Leghorn was the most important British community in Italy both for its economic and political vitality and for its ampleness. The history of the British Factory of Leghorn is also the history of the conflicts that its members had with the Tuscan authorities to assert their right to live openly practicing their religious beliefs. One of the questions that poisoned the relationships between the English and Tuscans in those years was the attempt made by the British Factory to obtain permission to celebrate Protestant religious services for its members. The religious authorities were against any concession not because they were afraid of possible Protestant proselytism but because they feared the emergence of a spontaneous doctrine of tolerance among the Catholics.
“Guasconi (Gascoigne), Bernardo,” in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LX, 2003, 461-463.
The biography of Bernardo Guasconi (1614-1687). In reconstructing the biography of one of the main figures of... more
The biography of Bernardo Guasconi (1614-1687). In reconstructing the biography of one of the main figures of Anglo-Tuscan relations of the seventeenth century Villani reveals for the first time the hesitation Guasconi experienced at the beginning of the conflict between Parliament and Charles I in England over which side to support. This indecisiveness demolishes the image of coherent, staunch Royalism that Guasconi after the Restoration conferred upon himself.
“Conversione e famiglia in due testi letterari italiani del ‘600,” Studi Storici, XLIX, (2008): 1039-1062.
[Conversion and Family in Two Italian Literary Texts of the Seventeenth Century]. In seventeenth Century Italy... more [Conversion and Family in Two Italian Literary Texts of the Seventeenth Century]. In seventeenth Century Italy Scotland became one of the most powerful symbols of persecution of Catholics by Protestants. This was in large part thanks to the tragic story of Mary Queen of Scots being related in a myriad of historical texts, tragedies, oratorios and poems. In this context two “biographies” were published in Italy in 1644 and 1677 that narrated the vicissitudes of the lives of two Scottish capuchins in which the topic of religious identity is closely intertwined with gender issues. The first, written by the Archbishop of Fermo Giambattista Rinuccini and entitled Cappuccino Scozzese (Scottish Capuchin) (1644) tells the story of the noble George Leslie (d. 1637) who, born into a Protestant family, after his conversion to Catholicism in France, entered the Capuchin Order in Rome. The second, written by the Sicilian writer Antonio Lupis and entitled Marchesa d’Hunsleij (Marchioness of Huntley) (1677), relates the story of John Forbes (1571–1606), son of a Catholic mother and a Protestant father who decides to follow his maternal religion. Both biographies, which enjoyed outstanding editorial success, are true stories though take some liberties with historical reality. The central themes of both biographies are conversion and family conflict. And in both biographies one of the main figures is the mother of the capuchin. In one case the child leads to his mother’s conversion while in the other the mother pushes her son to conversion. If Lupis’ book, as evidenced by the title, is actually the biography of Forbes’ mother, this is also the case of Rinuccini’s Cappuccino Scozzese where the fulcrum around which revolvs the story is really the conversion of Leslie’s mother. In the comparison between historical truth and fiction the essay investigates how the two authors have addressed the theme of “conversion” from a gender point of view.
“Note su Francesco Terriesi (1635-1715). Mercante, diplomatico e funzionario mediceo tra Londra e Livorno,” Nuovi Studi Livornesi, X (2002-2003): 59-80.
[Notes on Francesco Terriesi (1635-1715). Merchant, diplomatic and civil servant of the Medici between London and... more
[Notes on Francesco Terriesi (1635-1715). Merchant, diplomatic and civil servant of the Medici between London and Leghorn]. The article reconstructs for the first time the biography of Francesco Terriesi, whose diplomatic newsletters from London were often used as a source for reconstructing the history of the Catholic restoration of James II and the Glorious Revolution. Presumably Francesco Terriesi moved to London around the spring of 1668, most likely to promote a project of the Grand Duke of Tuscany to set up in the English capital a Florentine silk trading house. Between 1670 and 1679 Terriesi was frequently employed to carry out sensitive tasks for the Medici court, obviating the inability always shown by the official Tuscan diplomatic representative Giovanni Salvetti Antelminelli to meet demands that went beyond the handling of ordinary administration. Terriesi was asked to perform tasks that could be defined in modern terms, with an anachronism, those of a cultural attaché. It was chiefly through him that famous intellectuals such as Henry Neville, the mathematician Samuel Morland and the diplomat and historian William Temple maintained close ties with the Grand Ducal court of Florence. Terriesi was frequently commissioned by the Grand Duke to buy English books, and he himself pointed out in Florence the most interesting things published in England. It was through him that Neville’s English translation of Machiavelli and several books of John Milton arrived in Italy along with controversial religious works in English, dictionaries, and antiquarian works, among others. He was regularly commissioned by the Grand Duke to purchase medals, paintings, and maintain contact with artists such as Samuel Cooper and Richard Gibson. Demonstrating the trust he was vested with it was through him that presents and gifts were delivered to court figures. Since 1670 Terriesi was also tasked with providing Florence with regular information on “public affairs” to enrich the insipid weekly newsletters sent by the official resident Giovanni Salvetti Antelminelli. After being away from England for over a year in October 1678 Terriesi was formally accredited in London as an agent eventually taking over Salvetti Antelminelli’s diplomatic functions. From 23 February 1680 he also replaced him the informer to the State Secretariat of Florence. On the well established model for the Tuscan diplomats in England, he started sending a weekly newsletter, written impersonally and unsigned always accompanied by a short cover letter addressed directly to the First Secretary of State, Francesco Panciatichi, usually consisting of a few lines of concise service communications. After the Glorious Revolution, Tuscany decided to proceed with only an informal recognition of the new regime. It was clearly a compromise and Terriesi’s situation became very precarious. He asked permission to return to Italy and sent his last dispatch from London on 13 March 1691. Significantly, in February 1695, less than four years after his return to Tuscany, Terriesi was appointed Customs Supervisor (provveditore della dogana) of Livorno. In his new function Terriesi was able to capitalize on the knowledge gained over many years in London; it was not coincidental that someone with twenty years of experience in England was chosen for this position The port of Livorno was the central node for the English trade in the Levant with a thriving and vibrant British community that dated to the end of the 1500s. A superintendent of customs who could interact without intermediaries with the merchants of the British Factory of Livorno and the captains of the British ships calling at the port was clearly a plus. In accordance with his testament Francesco Terriesi was buried in the church of San Ferdinando at Livorno. The church was built to house the barefooted Trinitarian Fathers della Crocetta, a religious order dedicated to the redemption of Christian captives of the Turks, active in Livorno in the second half of 1600s. The article, which also describes Terriesi’s relationship with Gregorio Leti, highlights how to interpret the cultural, political and economic relations between England and Italy in the seventeenth century. In this context it is essential to investigate the role of such mediating figures as Terriesi who shows how in Baroque Italy, in the mercantile milieu, there functioned intellectuals attentive to European cultural and political novelties, often overlooked by the professional “intellectuals.”
“Per la progettata edizione della corrispondenza dei rappresentanti toscani a Londra: Amerigo Salvetti e Giovanni Salvetti Antelminelli durante il Commonwealth e il Protettorato (1649-1660),” Archivio storico italiano, CLXII (2004): 109-125.
[On the Projected Edition of the Correspondence of the Tuscan Representatives to London: Amerigo Salvetti and Giovanni... more [On the Projected Edition of the Correspondence of the Tuscan Representatives to London: Amerigo Salvetti and Giovanni Salvetti Antelminelli during the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-60]. The Grand Duke of Tuscany was the only Italian prince who maintained continuous diplomatic representation in London during the tumultuous years of the English Revolution. The dispatches and letters of Amerigo Salvetti, the Tuscan resident in England from the 1640s to his death in 1657, and his son, Giovanni Salvetti Antelminelli, who succeeded his father, are a valuable resource for studying Italian perceptions of political events in England during the period. The author’s transcripts of this correspondence and dispatches from Salvetti’s chaplain, Gilles Chaissy, from 1649 to 1660 at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, and the National Archives are to be published in forthcoming volumes.
“La prima edizione in italiano del Book of Common Prayer (1685) tra propaganda protestante e memoria sarpiana,” Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa, XLIV (2008), 24-45.
[The First Italian Edition of the Book of Common Prayer (1685) between protestant propaganda and Sarpian memories]. In... more [The First Italian Edition of the Book of Common Prayer (1685) between protestant propaganda and Sarpian memories]. In 1685 the first printed edition in Italian of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, was published in London (Il Libro delle Preghiere Publiche Secondo l’Uso della Chiesa Anglicana). This article investigates the apologetic and controversial reasons that led to its publication. Because an Italian Protestant Church in England no longer existed when this translation was published, it was apparently not meant for use in worship. Furthermore, the same Italian Protestant Church in London, founded in 1550 and dissolved probably around 1663, had never adopted Anglican worship and both from the institutional and liturgical points of view had always been a Calvinist Church. The translation’s editor was Edward Brown, an Anglican cleric, who published a translation into English of Paolo Sarpi’s Lettere Italiane Scritte al Signor dell’Isola Groslot in 1693. Brown’s interest in Sarpi is particularly remarkable because, before the edition of 1685, the Book of Common Prayer was translated by the chaplain to the English ambassador, Sir Henry Wotton, for Sarpi himself between 1607 and 1610.
“Gli Incogniti e l’Inghilterra,” in Davide Conrieri (ed.), Gli incogniti e l’Europa (Bologna: Casa editrice Emil di Odoya, 2011), 233-276.
[The Incogniti and England]. This essay investigates the relationship between the Academy of the Incogniti and England... more [The Incogniti and England]. This essay investigates the relationship between the Academy of the Incogniti and England and discusses the numerous works written by Incogniti about Great Britain. The intellectuals of the Academy of the Incogniti paid extraordinary attention to contemporary English events in comparison to seventeenth-century Italian writers and historians working in other cultural environments. This attention lent itself to a certain sympathy for the British monarchy, to which the heritage of Paolo Sarpi’s season, of intense Anglo-Venetian relations, decisively contributed. In their estimation the English monarchy, with its mixture of republican and aristocratic elements, and the Church of England, optimistically regarded as a counterpoint to the religious extremism that tore Europe, were considered as possible political and religious models. This sympathy towards the Stuart monarchy and its religious policies in the 1640s and 1650s led to perception of the civil war as a tragedy and evoked a deep sympathy towards Charles I. Thus the evaluation of civil war and Interregnum failed to bring forth a pro-Republican vision from any of the authors. Even in the works in which there is no overt hostility toward Cromwells’s government this is due to foreign policy reasons and to the contingent international position of Britain in the conflict between the Spanish and French crowns. The dominant note of the Incogniti interest to British history in this span of forty years is therefore not only this focus on its history, but especially a strong criticism of the Republican experience of the Interregnum. Villani points out that along with historical works there are two ‘novels’ and a tragedy set against a British backdrop published between 1650 and 1677, the Rosalinda by Morando (1650), the Cromuele by Graziani (1671) and the Marchesa d’Hunsleij (‘Marchioness of Huntley’) by the Sicilian Antonio Lupis (1677), written by members of the Academy of the Incogniti, again indicating the particular interest that the English revolutionary years elicited in that milieu. The latter work – a fictionalized biography – was published twenty years after the Academy of the Incogniti’s dissolution but its author was a protégé of Loredano, the founder and ruler of the Academy, and his biographer. The publication of Lupis’ Marchesa d’Hunsleij in 1677 can perhaps be regarded as the final outcome of interest towards England by Loredano intellectual circle. Britain was considered exotic enough for the complicated and fictional events of the Rosalinda and to deal with unrestrained freedom with its history, as in the case of the Cromuele. The story of Mary Queen of Scots, told in a myriad of Italian works, and Rinuccini’s Cappuccino Scozzese of 1644 contributed in particular to make Scotland symbolic of the struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism; it is in this vein that the Marchesa d’Hunsleij of Lupis is placed. The last part of the essay discusses the translations into English published in the seventeenth century of works written by the Incogniti. It is very significant that the interest paid in England towards the works of the Incogniti typically came from Royalist milieus.
S. Villani , "The English Civil Wars and the Interregnum in Italian Historiography in the 17th century", in M. Caricchio, G. Tarantino, eds., Cromohs Virtual Seminars. Recent historiographical trends of the British Studies (17th-18th Centuries), 2006-2007: 1-4
The revolutionary events in England aroused a remarkable amount of attention in contemporary Italian historiography.... more The revolutionary events in England aroused a remarkable amount of attention in contemporary Italian historiography. There are numerous works specifically dedicated to those events and a simple list of them bears witness to this interest. From a quick examination of this simple list of works dedicated to the English events of the 1640s and 1650s, it clearly emerges that the greater part of these authors commonly belonged to the Venetian Academy of the Incogniti, founded by Giovan Francesco Loredano in 1630 and dissolved around 1660 – an academy that was, as is well known, one of the major centers of the dissemination of nonconformist and “libertine” tendencies in Italy in the seventeenth century
“La religione degli inglesi e il viaggio del principe. Note sulla Relazione Ufficiale del viaggio di Cosimo de’ Medici in Inghilterra (1669),” Studi Secenteschi, XLV (2004): 175-194.
[The Religion of the English and the Voyage of the Prince. Notes on the Official Report of the travels of Cosmo de’... more [The Religion of the English and the Voyage of the Prince. Notes on the Official Report of the travels of Cosmo de’ Medici in England (1669)]. The British stage of the European journey of Cosimo de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, began on 1 April 1669 and lasted for two and a half months. A precious, anonymous, handwritten “official report” of the entire journey, illustrated with a series of watercolors and a more ample manuscript copy, without illustrations, are preserved in Florence in two and four undated (but written around 1689) volumes at the Marucelliana and the National library. Villani recalls the interest the pages of this report regarding the English stage of the journey have always provoked among scholars as a first hand report of Restoration Britain. Villani also discusses another four sources of Cosimo’s travels: the journals by Lorenzo Magalotti (since 1660 secretary to the Academy of Cimento), marquis Filippo Corsini, physician Giovan Battista Gornia and abbot Filippo Marchetti, master of the household. The official report was a team effort and these journals were used to write the final text. Since Anna Maria Crinò studies, the inspiration was attributed to Lorenzo Magalotti, who was also conceived as the coordinator of the team who wrote the report. Villani contests this idea investigating the anachronistic use of Anthony Bruodin’s Veritatis Propugnaculum Catholicae, published in Prague in 1669, as the main source for the digression on religion in England found at the end of the “Official Report.” In his book Bruodin describes the religious situation of English in 1640s and 50s. The editor of the “official report” limited himself to translate what Bruodin wrote, sometimes verbatim and sometimes summarizing it. This means that the report did not describe the real state of religion in England at the time of the journey of Cosimo de’ Medici, rather providing a stereotypical and anachronistic image of the country as a land swarming with many heretical sects.
“I quaccheri contro il Papa. Alcuni pamphlet inglesi del ‘600 tra menzogne e verità,” Studi Secenteschi, XXXVIII (1998): 165-202.
[The Quakers against the Pope. Some Seventeenth-century English Pamphlets between Falsehood and Truth]. The Irish... more [The Quakers against the Pope. Some Seventeenth-century English Pamphlets between Falsehood and Truth]. The Irish Quaker John Perrot, who was confined in an insane asylum by Pope Alexander VII, published upon his return to England Propositions to the Pope in 1661, in which he denounced his treatment, attacking the Catholic religion, and challenged the pontiff to have a hundred theologians debate with him. A reply by pseudo-Alexander VII published in 1662, the appearance of The Tryal of John Love (1661) concerning John Luffe, who was arrested with Perrot and died in prison, and a pamphlet on the “adventures” and “martyrdom” of four Quakers printed in 1673 each combined fact with invention and were probably published with a mocking and defamatory intent.
“Donne quacchere nel XVII secolo,” Studi Storici, 40 (1999): 585-611.
[Quaker Women in the Seventeenth Century]. The article describes the central role of women in the origin and... more [Quaker Women in the Seventeenth Century]. The article describes the central role of women in the origin and development of the Quaker movement from the 1640s to the 1660s, noting how their zealous missionary activity and insistence that women be permitted to preach the gospel met with violent reactions throughout Europe and the New World. Following their persecution and imprisonment in England during the 1650s, many Quakers traveled to New England, where they also faced persecution, arrest, violent penalties, and often expulsion from the colonies. Some Quaker women undertook missions in Ireland and throughout the Mediterranean, undaunted by the violent repression of the Counter-Reformation. A survey of public and theological reactions to the early Quaker movement suggests that the public activity of women was one of the primary reasons for open hostility toward the movement. Following the Restoration, male leaders began to consolidate the movement and restrict women’s activities to more peripheral duties. Despite this shift, the early Quaker emphasis on egalitarianism and the participation of women irrevocably shaped the fundamentals of Quakerism.
“Una quacchera a Lisbona. I viaggi e gli scritti di Ann Gargill,” Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa – Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, serie IV, IV, 1 (1999): 247-281.
[A Quaker in Lisbon: the Travels and the Writings of Ann Gargill]. Anne Gargill was born in Swine (East Riding) in... more [A Quaker in Lisbon: the Travels and the Writings of Ann Gargill]. Anne Gargill was born in Swine (East Riding) in 1625. In January 1656 she published the short pamphlet A Warning to all the World. Shortly afterwards she went to Plymouth with the intention of going to Spain to evangelise, writing a letter to Fox prior to her departure from London. Her ship Lisbon at the end of April and upon landing Gargill directed herself to the King’s palace, but when she discovered that he wasn’t there she returned to the ship. On 2 May, two Inquisition officials went aboard the ship and spoke with her. Three days later she was brought to the Inquisition palace in Lisbon and interrogated. The Inquisition decided to release her, fearing that her detention would cause diplomatic problems with England, but ordered her to set out for England with the first ship. In September 1656 Ann Gargill published A brief discovery of that which is called the Popish Religion. In 1659, Katherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers told the Maltese Inquisitor that Anne Gargill had founded Quaker congregations in Spain. In the spring of 1657 Anne Gargill was in Holland where she caused discord and dissent in the Quaker community of Amsterdam, and for this reason was disowned by the Quaker leaders. In the following months a small group formed around her in Amsterdam. A woman of strong spirituality and keen intelligence she probably opposed the process of organisation of Quakerism that followed Nayler’s entry into Bristol. The story of Gargill is extremely interesting because it symbolizes some of the contradictions of early Quakerism. A movement that emerged as the supreme instance of freedom of the Spirit, original Quakerism experienced in the protagonism of women as Gargill one of its characteristics. The organizational process, a direct result of increasing repression, forced the more reasonable leaders of the movement to abandon some of the characteristics of its early early days and to define a Quaker theology that would not limit itself to the enthusiastic action of the Spirit within every man and every woman. Some people of more intense spirituality opposed this development, and were marginalized or expelled by the movement; this was the case of Anne Gargill. It is significant that among those who opposed the hierarchicalization of the movement a significant number were those, like Gargill, had excelled in the missionary activity (Villani also cites Perrot who, after having been a prisoner of the Roman Inquisition would lead a schism among the Quakers on the issue of the freedom of the Spirit). For those who had risked their lives to preach the free gospel of Inner Light it was intolerable to think that their movement would progressively structure along the lines of other churches with a hierarchy, a Church discipline, and a defined credo. Gargill’s prudent and cautious responses to the Portuguese inquisitors – examined by Villani in the article – would suffice to prove that not everyone who can be considered part of this extreme wing of Quakerism were frantics, led by their intransigence to risky headlong rush. However, it is highly probable that if they had taken over the movement leadership and not the more prosaic common sence of George Fox and his supporters, the movement would hardly have escaped unscathed the storm of the Restoration. The price that Quakerism paid to the marginalizing and expulsion of these restless spirits, however, was undoubtedly that of a radical transformation. If at the beginning of the movement the only article of belief was that you had to listen to “that something of God” present in every man and woman, Quakerism gradually became a true Church to which members must conform, not to risk excommunication and expulsion. And so, it is not coincidental that among those who most vigorously opposed to this outcome there were people like Gargill who had risked their lives to assert the freedom of conscience in Catholic countries.