‘An Infernal Sower of Discord’
[GUASCO, Francesco Eugenio.]
Lettera del primicerio di Mondorbopoli a monsignor Scipione de Ricci episcopo di Pistoia e Prato. ‘In Mondorbopoli’ [Alessandria?], 1788.
8vo, pp. 85, [1]; bound without final blank; tear to blank lower margin of B7, small repair to foot of D1, a few small marks; a very good copy sewn long stitch in contemporary card wrappers, old shelfmark label to spine; light marks to upper cover, ink stain to lower cover; manuscript note in Italian in a near-contemporary hand regarding this work and the author pasted to front flyleaf.
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Lettera del primicerio di Mondorbopoli a monsignor Scipione de Ricci episcopo di Pistoia e Prato.
Rare first edition of this anti-Jansenist attack on Scipione de’ Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, by Francesco Eugenio Guasco (1725–1798), priest, historian, and custodian of the Capitoline Museum in Rome.
Scipione de’ Ricci’s daring attempt to secure a foothold for Jansenism in Italy through the 1786 Synod of Pistoia aroused both popular opposition and official displeasure. Ricci was comprehensively attacked by Giovanni Marchetti in his enormously popular Annotazioni pacifiche, to which Ricci naturally responded in a pastoral letter.
It is Ricci’s response that is here attacked by Guasco, who begins by listing in detail the hostile language employed by Ricci against Marchetti (‘an infernal sower of discord’) and his book (‘an endeavour of the blackest malice’). Guasco notes that Ricci employs no less than 171 insults in his reply of only 124 pages, in sextodecimo format. Thoroughly warmed up for the fight, Guasco published a Lettera seconda in 1791.
The false imprint ‘Mondorbopoli’ likely stands for Alessandria in Piedmont, Guasco’s hometown.
No copies located in the UK or US.