_full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en dubbelklik nul hierna en zet 2 auteursnamen neer op die plek met and): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): Introduction. Winds of the North _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0

Introduction.Introduction. Winds of Windsthe North from the North 1 Introduction. Winds of the North

From the North blow hostile and menacing winds. These were the words in- scribed at the base of a fresco by Pomarancio, in the Vatican’s Tower of the Winds, depicting the northern gales.1 As is well known, Alexander VII (1655- 67) ordered the biblically evocative epigraph2 to be hidden to avoid offending Christina of Sweden (1626-89), a recent convert to Catholicism and guest in the tower apartment, at the outset of her stay in Rome. Yet the pope’s gesture cannot be interpreted only as one of mere courtesy towards Gustav Adolf’s ­daughter. In fact, it is deeply symbolic and indicative of a desire to set aside fear-driven hostility, real or imagined, vis-à-vis a faraway Europe tainted by heresy, the contagion of which was relentlessly spreading and threatening to contaminate the entire Catholic Church, including the seat of its head. Unlike his predecessors and other leading members of the curia, Fabio Chigi was well acquainted with that Europe. During his papacy (1655-1667) there emerged a new political approach of “caresses and courtesy” (carezze e cortesie) towards those arriving in Rome from the North, concurrent with an attempt to facili- tate conciliation. From Rome he would seek to establish dialogue between the North and South. But what took place beforehand? And how did the Roman authorities view those who, for different reasons, relocated to the Eternal City, the Papal States, and to other areas of the peninsula, from the northern regions steeped in heresy? The protagonists of the following pages are the foreigners, the ultramontani or oltramontani, “those who hail from beyond the Alps,” as they were often referred to by bishops and inquisitors in their letters to the Holy Office. These were individuals directly and indirectly involved with the Roman confraterni- ties that monitored orthodoxy and operated as intermediaries between far- away social contexts, which were diverse and generally hostile. In the early centuries of the modern age, the oltramontano category was widely ­interpreted by bishops, inquisitors and priests in Rome, throughout Italy, and everywhere inquisitorial surveillance was in force. This category was broad and ambiguous yet always derogatory and synonymous with “heretic” and “enemy.”3 Thus

1 “Ab Aquilone pandetur omne malum.” The fresco, inspired by Egnazio Danti’s Anemografia (Bologna: Giovanni Rossi, 1580), is the work of Nicolò Circignani, known as Pomarancio, who had painted other pieces in the tower’s papal apartment as well. On the significance of this painting cycle, see Nicola Courtright, The Papacy and Art of Reform (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 2 Ger. 1, 14. 3 On the term’s semantic evolution, see Heribert Raab, “Zur Geschichte und Bedeutung des Schlagwortes ‘Ultramontani’ im 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert,” in Reich und Kirche in der frühen Neuzeit. Ausgewählte Aufsätze (Fribourg: Univesitätverlag, 1989), 461-475.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004422667_002 2 Introduction. Winds From The North there was a need to prove whether the oltramontano foreigner was to be auto- matically classified as a heretic. And, as we shall see, the methods employed were generally complicated and seldom effective. The world from which these foreigners hailed was treacherous and its boundaries were often undefined and instilled fear. For the Roman Church, these territories had proven difficult to reclaim, marked by heresy, which was regarded as an infection whose irre- sistible vectors – foreign travelers, merchants, artists, vagabonds and phony pilgrims – were being deviously disseminated. Letters arriving at the Roman Inquisition, from a Europe lacerated by political and religious conflicts – like those sent from the Inquisition to bishops, nuncios and vicars – employed medical terms and metaphors in seeking a surefire defense against enemies who, despite the restrictive papal bulls, had infiltrated society with their wares – mainly books – and detrimental ideas (idee perniciosissime). Between the late-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries, a uniform vision, monolithic and unyielding in its negativity, serves as the backdrop to the letters of those who, in Rome, looked to the world beyond the Alps. The austerity of the insti- tutions, and traditionalism of the Church and States, clashed with a torrent of diverse and elusive individuals who could not be easily governed. This multi- faceted reality was in constant flux and shaped by issues arising from the in- evitable daily contact with foreigners arriving in Italian cities. Once again, theory and practice were speaking different languages and would only come to be modified and integrated later on, and not without difficulty. Since the Middle Ages, and especially during the papacy of Martin V (1417- 31), the migration, mobility and stable or transient presence of foreigners re- mained consistent until the eighteenth century, even in Rome. By this time most of the families registered in the parish records, housed at the Archives of the Vicariate of Rome, were of Roman origin. Thus a distinctive characteristic of the city had been upended, one disdainfully emphasized by Marcello Al- berini who, following the Sack of Rome, wrote in his Diario that, “the minority of the inhabitants are Roman, for here all foreigners take refuge, as if it were a common world residence.”4 Yet, while the presence of foreigners, from the late Middle Ages to the tragic events of 1527, has been considered with respect to business and economy, less attention has been paid to their presence in the second half of the sixteenth century. The immigration and assimilation of peo- ple from other parts of the peninsula, attracted to the city, curia, court and

4 This statement, repeatedly cited by those who study the presence of foreigners in Rome during the sixteenth century, is found in the introduction of Anna Esposito’s essay, “I ‘forenses’ a Roma nell’età del Rinascimento: aspetti e problemi di una presenza ‘atipica’,” in Dentro la città. Stranieri e realtà urbane nell’Europa dei secoli XII-XVI, ed. Gabriella Rossetti (Naples: GISEM, 1989), 177-190.