Publishing for the Popes: the Cultural Policy of the Catholic Church Towards Printing in Sixteenth-Century Rome
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Publishing for the Popes: The Cultural Policy of the Catholic Church towards Printing in Sixteenth-Century Rome Paolo Sachet A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Combined Historical Studies The Warburg Institute University of London 2015 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Paolo Sachet 2 Abstract Printing had a huge impact on the development of religion and politics in sixteenth-century Europe. Harnessing the printing press is generally regarded as a key factor in the success of the Reformation. The positive role played by printing in Catholic cultural policy, by contrast, has not been sufficiently recognized. While scholars have focused on ecclesiastical censorship, the employment of print by Catholic authorities – especially the Roman curia – has been addressed only sporadically and superficially. The aim of my dissertation is to fill this gap, providing a detailed picture of the papacy’s efforts to exploit the resources of the Roman printing industry after the Sack in 1527 and before the establishment of the Vatican Typography in 1587. After a brief introduction (Chapter 1), I provide an exhaustive account of the papacy’s attempts, over sixty years, to set up a Roman papal press (Chapter 2). I then focus on two main Catholic printing enterprises. Part I is devoted to the editorial activity of Cardinal Marcello Cervini, later Pope Marcellus II. I discuss the extant sources and earlier scholarship on Cervini (Chapter 3), his cultural profile (Chapter 4) and the Greek and Latin presses which he established in the early 1540s (Chapters 5-6). Part II concentrates on the projects for a papal press involving the Venetian printer Paolo Manuzio. After an overview of the sources and previous studies (Chapter 7), I analyse Manuzio’s attempts to move to Rome, the establishment of a papal press under his management and the committee of cardinals which supervised it (Chapters 8-10). Chapter 11 examines the printing of the first edition of the Tridentine decrees, undertaken in 1564. Chapter 12 contains the overall conclusion to the dissertation. Documentary Appendixes A and B list the publications sponsored by Cervini and the books printed by Manuzio’s Roman press. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 7 List of Abbreviations 9 Editorial Note 10 1. Introduction 11 2. A Press for Rome: An Overview of the Printing Enterprises Promoted by the Catholic Establishment in the Eternal City (1529-1587) 20 2.1. Stimuli from Verona 21 2.2. Stimuli from Germany 25 2.3. Paul III and the first plan for a papal press 35 2.4. Abortive attempts and a missed opportunity: from Julius III to Paul IV 39 2.5. The first papal press 43 2.6. Gregory XIII: a turning point 49 2.7. The Typographia Vaticana of Sixtus V 66 PART I: CARDINAL MARCELLO CERVINI'S PRINTING ENTERPRISES (1539-1555) 74 3. Primary Sources and Secondary Literature 76 4. Portrait of a Learned Cardinal 82 4.1. Cervini’s career and cultural interests 82 4.2. A cardinale editore 93 5. Cervini’s Greek Press 102 5.1. From the establishment to the demise of the press 103 5.2. Eustathius’s commentaries on Homer 110 5.3. Theophylact’s commentary on the Gospels 112 4 6. Cervini’s Latin Press 116 6.1. Francesco Priscianese and Cervini’s Latin press 116 6.2. Editio princeps of Arnobius 127 6.3. Letters of Innocent III and of Nicholas I 136 6.4. Pamphlets of Cardinal Bessarion and of Henry VIII 147 6.5. Additional publications 167 6.6 Conclusion 170 PART II: PAOLO MANUZIO: PRINTER OF THE POPES (1552-1574) 173 7. Primary Sources and Secondary Literature 176 8. A Humanist Printer on the Way to Rome 185 8.1. Reasons for moving to Rome 185 8.2. Manuzio’s network in the Curia 199 9. The Establishment of a Papal Press 210 9.1. A brief history of the press 210 9.2. The agreement to establish a papal press in Rome 215 10. The Congregation of Cardinals in Charge of the Press 235 10.1. The four supervisors 236 10.2. The congregation’s tasks and development 248 10.3. Gugliemo Sirleto and the committee of the commune 253 11. The Printed Legacy of the Council of Trent: A Privilege of Rome? 258 11.1. Multiple editions and the context of a pioneering editio princeps 259 11.2. Motives and strategies 262 11.3. Impact of the papacy’s policy of control 278 11.4. Conclusion 283 12. Conclusion 284 Documentary Appendix A: Short-Title Catalogue of Books Sponsored by Cervini 301 5 Documentary Appendix B: Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in Rome by Manuzio 306 Bibliography 309 6 Acknowledgements Over the years I spent completing this dissertation, I incurred debts with many scholars and friends. I cannot but begin with thanking my supervisor, Jill Kraye. She has led me through my Ph.D. with immense care and plenty of suggestions, remarks, smiles and encouragements. I am grateful to her for the invaluable example of scholarship and humanity she set before me and her many other pupils and for the lessons I hope she will keep passing on in the future. I am also indebted to Alessandro Scafi for co-supervising and warm-heartedly advising me during the first share of my work. The Warburg Institute, with its marvellous library, vibe and community, was so ideal a working place that it is somewhat painful to start thinking about departing from it; yet, I am glad to be one of the first students in years that can picture the future of this venerable and vital institution as less precarious than when I first stepped through its doors. I feel very obliged to all its staff, particularly to Guido Giglioni, Alastair Hamilton, Raphaële Mouren and, most recently, Stefan Bauer. The greatest deal I owe, however, to Claudia Daniotti, Roberta Giubilini and Federico Zuliani, the most trusted, entertaining and helpful fellows in this scholarly journey. My warm thanks goes to my former tutors in Milan, Lodovica Braida and Claudia Di Filippo, as well as to Gigliola Fragnito, Angela Nuovo, Cristina Dondi, Matteo Al Kalak, Filippo De Vivo, Chiara Quaranta and François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles for their support and advice. I am also grateful to Carlo Ginzburg, Adriano Prosperi, Massimo Firpo, Jane Everson and Ian Maclean, who provided me with some very challenging and inspiring feedback. Needless to say that the errors still spoiling the following pages are all due to myself. My research could not be accomplished without the generous sponsorship awarded by the AHRC and the travel grants of the Bibliographical Society and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Equally essential was the help of the personnel of 7 the libraries and archives where I worked, including, most notably, Paolo Vian of the Vatican Library and Stephen Parkin of the British Library. A special debt of gratitude I have with the Coccoli family in Rome and the Allens in London for welcoming me in their lovely house whenever in need. Last but certainly not least, I am especially thankful to my large family and friends. In appreciation of all that they gifted me, I dedicate this thesis to my parents, the most indefatigable and joyful investigators I know, and to Sofia, for her always- enquiring mind and witty partnership in life. 8 List of Abbreviations Libraries and Archives ASF Archivio di Stato, Florence ASR Archivio di Stato, Rome ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Vatican City BAM Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City BL British Library, London BNCF Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris BRB Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels BVR Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Rome Printed Books CT Concilium Tridentinum: diariorum, actorum, epistularum, tractatuum nova collectio, 13 vols, Freiburg i. B. 1901-2001 DBI Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, Rome 1960- ILI Index des livres interdits, ed. by J. M. de Bujanda, 11 vols, Sherbrooke and Geneva 1986-2001 Online Resources EDIT16 Censimento nazionale delle edizioni italiane del XVI secolo: edit16.iccu.sbn.it ISTC Incunabula Short Title Catalogue: bl.uk/catalogues/istc/ 9 Editorial Note For quotations from primary sources, both in Latin and in the Italian vernacular, whether published or in manuscript, I have adopted the following editorial conventions: the letters u and v, i and j, ae and e are distinguished according to modern conventions; accents, apostrophes and punctuation have been added where necessary and omitted when superfluous; all abbreviations are expanded, and all translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. In bibliographical references, publishers are included only for printed books published before 1600. 10 1. Introduction In this dissertation, I shall seek to provide insights into the complex relationship between an increasingly powerful governmental institution, the mid- sixteenth-century papacy, and a relatively new medium of communication, printing by means of movable type. In particular, I shall analyse how this nexus took shape at the very heart of the Catholic Church, in Rome, where several attempts were made by the Curia to establish a publishing house in the service of the pope. The time frame taken into consideration covers sixty years. I begin in 1527, with the Sack of Rome, an historic watershed: before this traumatic event took place, Rome witnessed the high point of the (mainly pagan) Renaissance and of the expansionistic dreams of the papacy; afterwards, the Curia was forced to face up to the Reformation as a European-wide problem and accept the political domination of Emperor Charles V over the Italian peninsula. The drastic impact of the Sack on the Roman economy meant that its printing industry had to restart afresh.