Roman Rococo for a Somascan Saint
[CONGREGATION OF RITES.]
Sacra Rituum congregatione … Card. Otthobono Veneta, seu Mediolanen. Beatificationis, & Canonizationis ven. servi Dei Hieronymi Aemiliani fundatoris Congregationis Somaschae. Positio super dubio an constet de virtutibus theologicalibus, fide, spe, & Charitate in Deum, & in Proximum, necnon Cardinalibus, Prudentia, Iustitia, Fortitudine, & Temperantia, earumque annexis in gradu heroico in casu &c. Rome, Tipografia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica, 1734.
Folio, pp. [2, blank], [ii], 6, 47, [1, blank], 26, 19, [1, blank], 33, [1, blank]; woodcut ornament to title, woodcut initials; a few leaves with light marginal foxing, A1 becoming loose, a fine copy; bound in contemporary Roman chestnut morocco richly gilt to a panel design with the Mocenigo arms, central gilt armorial surmounted by a crown supported by two cherubs, within a double frame composed of a narrow roll-tooled border, the inner corners of the central panel filled with vase, flower and acanthus leaf stamps, spine gilt in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, edges gilt, marbled pastedowns; very lightly rubbed, front pastedown partly detached, minor loss to rear pastedown.
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Sacra Rituum congregatione … Card. Otthobono Veneta, seu Mediolanen. Beatificationis, & Canonizationis ven. servi Dei Hieronymi Aemiliani fundatoris Congregationis Somaschae. Positio super dubio an constet de virtutibus theologicalibus, fide, spe, & Charitate in Deum, & in Proximum, necnon Cardinalibus, Prudentia, Iustitia, Fortitudine, & Temperantia, earumque annexis in gradu heroico in casu &c.
A seemingly unrecorded volume supporting the beatification and canonisation of Girolamo Emiliani, the founder of the Somascan Fathers, bound in Rome for presentation to a member of the Mocenigo family of Venice, most likely the future doge Alvise Mocenigo while ambassador in Rome.
The subject of this appeal for canonisation, Girolamo Emiliani of Venice (1486–1537, also known as Girolamo Miani), fought in the Italian wars until the 1520s, when, struck by the living conditions of the poor, he founded a home for destitute children. He expanded these refuges across the Veneto and beyond, eventually forming a religious association called De’ servi dei poveri (The servants of the poor), which was elevated into the Congregation of the Regular Clerics of Somasca by Pius V in 1567, Somasca being a town near Bergamo, on the border between Venetian and Milanese territory. He was finally beatified by Benedict XIV in 1747, and subsequently canonised by Clement XIII in 1767, with his saint’s day on 20 July. This publication contains information regarding Emiliani’s life and works to justify and inform the canonisation process.
The binding was most likely made for Alvise Mocenigo (1701–1778), future doge of Venice, who was in Rome from 1734 to 1737 as ambassador to the papal court, and presumably keen at the prospect of a new Venetian saint. As doge (1763–1778), he issued a commemorative coin for the canonisation of Emiliani in 1767, alongside a donation of 4,000 ducats made by the Venetian Senate to the Somascan Fathers of Santa Maria della Salute.
Other Roman bindings contain the same volutes around the central armorial (Legature papali 253 and 254, both from the 1720s; the latter also has the same dotted foliate stamp to the foot of the armorial), and the distinctive urn stamp at the corners is another Roman feature, for example on a 1761 volume from the press of the Reverenda Camera Apostolica with the arms of Clement XIII (Legature papali 259).
No copies traced in OCLC, OPAC SBN, Library Hub, or KVK. The BnF holds an earlier appeal for canonisation from 1679, Berlin has another from 1714, and Turin one from 1745, finally resulting in Emiliani’s beatification.