Calendar of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century Documents at the Archives of the Irish College, Rome2 (With Index)
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Vera Orschel with John J. Hanly1 Calendar of seventeenth- and eighteenth- century documents at the archives of the Irish College, Rome2 (with index) General introduction This is a calendar of documents concerning the seventeenth- and eighteenth- century administrations of the Irish College in Rome, contained in a series of 27 bound and unbound volumes, and in some folders with loose material at the College archives. Of the original 28 volumes, 26 remain there, one is lost, and another was only recently located at the Archives of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples (hereafter Propaganda Fide). This introduction is followed by a list of the volumes, a calendar of the volumes and loose leaves and two appendices, the fi rst containing material already printed in Spicilegium Ossoriense and the second containing docu- ments with complementary content at the archives of Propaganda Fide. The documents under examination date more precisely to the period 1628–1798, that is the period from the foundation of the College until its closure by the French Republic of Rome.3 Although they are sometimes referred to as ‘the Jesuit documents’, the Jesuit administration of the Irish College does not fully coincide with these years: Luke Wadding, head of the Irish Franciscan community in Rome (founded 1625) and co-founder of this (diocesan) College, remained its administrator until College man- agement passed to the Society of Jesus, in execution of a clause in the will of the College’s other founder and fi nancial patron, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, who died in 1632.4 His will was contested by the Franciscans but in 1635 the court of the Sacra Rota found in favour of the Jesuits, who then managed College affairs until 1772. In 1771/1772 a visitation of the College was held by Cardinal Protector Marefoschi, and following his 1 The following calendar was compiled by the College archivist, Vera Orschel, but was based on a list and commentary prepared by the former rector of the College, Mgr John J. Hanly. Hanly’s list had consisted broadly of the rubricella entries, expanded to a full examination of the contents of three volumes (Libri i, x, xvi), and of contextualising and summarising commentary on those and three other volumes. The present introduction and subsequent commentary draw in parts on Hanly’s list, but all errors remaining are unmitigatedly mine. 2 The citation convention for these volumes is: Pontifi cal Irish College Rome Archives MS17– 18/Liber (number)/f. (number and side). 3 The only exceptions are a stray accounts sheet of 1838 (Liber vii, f. 15r) and a legal memorandum of 1820 (Liber xiv, f. 327rv). 4 For his will see Liber xiii, f. 17r and Liber xvi, f. 170v. 7 Archivium Hibernicum report, and indeed the suppression of the Jesuits as an order, an Italian secular priest, Luigi Cuccagni, became college rector. Following the establishment of the French Republic of Rome, the Irish College was closed, and it was not until 1826 that a former student of Cuccagni, the Dublin priest Michael Blake, re-opened the College. For a close study of the College’s foundation and earliest history the reader is referred particularly to the prefatory matter by Thomas O’Connor and John J. Hanly for the edition of the College’s earliest historical account, the so-called Manuscript History (contained in Liber i).5 The majority of these documents refl ect the more mundane, admin- istrational activities of the College staff and particularly of the 35 rectors ruling the College during this period. About a third of the material is made up of fi nancial accounts, with details arising from the management of the College’s properties and investments: while annual ledgers were generally kept separate from these volumes,6 there are seven accounting volumes that found their way into this collection, not comprising ledgers but annual summaries, or smaller specimen such as bills and receipts (particularly Libri iii, vi–x, xvii–xviii). Another big share of the material concerns admissions of students and discipline, with rules, character accounts, references, lists of former students, correspondence (espe- cially Libri iii pars i, xi, xii, xiv, xix, xxvii). Two volumes are dedicated to Marefoschi’s visitation, with many of the original documents later printed in his Relazione della Visita Apostolica del Collegio Ibernese (Rome, 1772). Two others deal exclusively with cases of litigation (Libri xiii, xv). There is also a signifi cant amount of documents of wider historical interest, namely the rectors’ correspondence with Irish clergy at home and abroad (especially in Liber xxvi), letters and memoranda in circulation and pre- served for their historical value, particularly on the church in Ireland (Libri xvi and xix–xxii), and some documents of specific interest for members of the Society of Jesus and their missions, not only in Ireland 5 Thomas O’Connor, ‘The Irish College, Rome in the age of religious renewal’ and John J. Hanly, ‘The 1678 Manuscript History of the Ludovisian Irish College, Rome’ in Albert McDonnell (ed.), The Irish College, Rome 1628–1687: an early manuscript account of the foundation and development of the Ludovisian College of the Irish in Rome (Rome, 2003), pp 13–32 and 35–43 (hereafter Irish College Rome 1628–1678). For particular aspects of the College’s seventeenth-and eighteenth-century history, based partly on the sources calendared here, and for an overview of the College archives, see the essays by Patrick J. Corish, Thomas O’Connor, Charles Burns, Hugh Fenning, Clare Carroll, and Vera Orschel, in Dáire Keogh and Albert McDonnell (eds), The Irish College, Rome and its world (Dublin, 2008). There is also a valuable and detailed description of College life during this period by Patrick Devitt in the College annual journal The Coelian (1968), pp 7–20, unfortunately without citation of sources. 6 These comprise nine volumes dated 1681 to 1797, the bulk is from the eighteenth century. There are general ledgers as well as day-books usually for kitchen expenditure, specialised ledgers and day-books (e.g. for the vineyard, the missions, for dealings with the Banco di S. Spirito di Roma), and bundles of receipts. It is not clear why volumes such as Liber iii pars 2, and Libri ix, x, xvii and xviii were not also classed and separated as such. 8 Documents of the Irish College, Rome (especially in Libri iii pars i, xx, xxv, xxvii, xxviii). There is also a curious fi le of eighteenth-century documents regarding the Irish Capuchins in Liber xvi. It is not known what the now missing Liber ii contained. The contents of what was Liber xiv is lost, containing litigation papers (its rubricella is preserved among the loose leaves) – what is now bound as Liber xiv contains documents culled from other volumes. Further, one section of Liber xx is now missing, with formulae and template letters for all purposes. For a further key to the collection, a breakdown of volumes is offered below. What follows are some observations on four areas pertaining to admin- istration of the College (fi nances, students, management and complaints, cases of litigation) to help contextualising items in the list. As has been shown before, these areas are no less politically pertinent than the histori- cal accounts per se, and they give an insight into the vagaries of managing the College, and into daily life there. College properties and fi nances For the fi rst fi fty years, the documentation in the Manuscript History is detailed in matters of property, the writer drawing selectively on docu- ments still at the College. In the early years, the Irish diocesan students were accommodated variously at the English College, the Maronite College, and at another location, until in 1627 a house was rented on Monte Pincio near the Franciscans’ house of St Isidore’s, and 1 January 1628 has been traditionally taken to be the beginning of the College’s history, with the arrival of the fi rst six students. Cardinal Ludovisi’s bequest to the College in 1632 was that of a yearly income of 1,000 scudi (crowns), to be levied from a property at Zagarolo (south east of Rome) which his family retained management of, and of a vineyard and farm at Castel Gandolfo which the College managed itself. He also instructed his family to acquire a house for the College. It seems that in 1633 the College was granted ownership of their residence near St Isidore’s by Duchess Lavinia Albergati de Ludovisi Fiano, and Rector James Forde was therefore in a position to sell it in 1636 to the Contessa Ricasoli (di S. Secondo).7 St Isidore’s, some claimed, was too far from the Collegio Romano where the students attended lectures. At fi rst Rector William Malone rented another house, then bought one in Piazza Morgana in January 1639 from Sir Iacovacci, but the College vacated the premises in unclear circumstances. One writer inimical to the Jesuits claimed they were evicted over an unpaid debt.8 7 The Duchess bought three houses on the Pincio near St Isidore’s, one of which was inhabited by the College. See Liber v, ff 234r–241v, 215r–225r for the purchases in 1633, and ff 15r–16r for the sale of 1636. This is also dealt with in Irish College Rome 1628–1678, pp 64–7. 8 See Liber viii, ff 1r–9v. There is also a fi le of documents about this property in Liber v, ff 153–197. Irish College Rome 1628–1678 does not touch on this matter. 9 Archivium Hibernicum Eventually, Rector Malone bought a house from Girolamo Rosolini south of the Quirinal in one branch of the Via Baccina, now Via degli Ibernesi, in April 1639 (for 8,000 scudi).