["TRAGIC AND AMOROUS EVENTS" OF NAPLES, INCLUDING A HERETICAL SEX CULT] Istoria di Suor Giulia, di Marco, P. Aniello Arcieri suo Confessore, D. Giuseppe de Vicariis. Loro Eresie, ed Abiure [The story of Sister Giulia of Marco, Father Aniello Arcieri, her confessor, and D. Giuseppe de Vicariis. Their heresies, and abjurations]. Followed by a unique manuscript version of Successi tragici et amorosi occorsi in Napoli, et altrove a’ Napoletani [Tragic and amorous events that occurred in Naples and elsewhere to the Neapolitans].

[Italy, ca. 1700–1750]. Quarto (26 × 19 cm). Somewhat later (nineteenth-century) quarter calf over marbled-paper covered boards, retaining leather spine of earlier binding; 242, [5] leaves of manuscript text in ink to rectos and versos, on laid paper, including 10 pp. of index, followed by three blank leaves. Decorative calligraphic chapter titles. The index is written in a different but roughly contemporary hand, in brown ink. Possibly later rebacked and with new pastedowns; spine cracked; edges and corners rubbed and scuffed; occasional foxing and minor staining throughout; else internally about very good. Item #55087

The first 44 pp. of this manuscript volume contain an abridged version of a seventeenth-century narrative about a case of heresy, spiritual deception, and sexual abuse involving a nun, her confessor, and another cleric (Istoria di Suor Giulia). A lengthier version of this account is held by Johns Hopkins University, which notes that "Giulia di Marco (1575-after 1615) and her two accomplices [were] accused and ultimately convicted of having operated an early modern sex cult in Spanish Naples during the first decades of the 17th century. The Storia survives in a handful of copies but remains unprinted (and certainly untranslated) to this day; a manuscript kept at U Penn contains significant textual differences (including omissions) relative to the present example. Forming much of the basis for modern scholarship on Suor Giulia, the scathing Storia is thought to have been authored by a Theatine archivist, Valerio Pagano, in the second half of the 17th century. The procedural documents of Suor Giulia’s trial apparently remain inaccessible to the public in the Vatican archives."

The bulk of the volume consists of a unique version of "Successi tragici et amorosi occorsi in Napoli, et altrove a’ Napoletani", a collection of episodes consisting of scandalous gossip and fascinating anecdotes about famous citizens of Naples. This work, attributed to Silvio Ascanio Corona, also circulated in manuscript form in the mid-seventeenth and well into the eighteenth centuries. Although Borzelli's 1908 work contains short summaries of the individual stories and functions as a guide to the extant manuscripts in Italy, none of the full versions have ever been published or translated into other languages. Most known copies contain between roughly thirty and eighty episodes, with most tending toward the lower end. Our copy features 116 stories, likely making it one of the more extensive copies in circulation.

See: Fabio Romana, La carità carnale: cronaca dell'eresia di suor Giulia di Marco inquisita nella Napoli del Seicento (Naples, 2016). / Silvia Raucci, "Charismatic Phenomena in Europe in the 17th Century: Female Political Prophetism in France, Spain and Italy (In Gremium, 14/2020) / Angelo Borzelli, Successi Tragici et Amorosi di Silvio et Ascanio Corona (Naples, 1908).

As of December 2025, we can trace a copy of the account of Suor Giulia at Johns Hopkins University (which refers to another version held by the University of Pennsylvania that we could not located). Versions of the Corona "chronicle" are located at UC Berkeley, Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Cavagna Sangiuliani Collection), and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Price: €4,500.00

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