Giussano, Giovanni Pietro.

[CHARLES BORROMEO – A JESUIT ABUSE SCANDAL – COUNTER-REFORMATION – SOURCE OF BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE AND ICONOGRAPHY] Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo prete cardinale del titolo di Santa Prassede Arcivescovo di Milano [Life of St. Charles Borromeo, cardinal priest of the title of Santa Prassede Archbishop of Milan].

Rome: Stamperia della Camera Apostolica, 1610. Octavo (22.5 × 16.5 cm). Contemporary full vellum with mounted spine label; [12]; pag. 716 [recte: 692], [56] pp. with woodcut title page and some woodcut vignettes and initials. Pagination skips forward from page 97 to 113 and from page 145 to 153; bottom edge with contemporary inscription “Vita di S. Carlo”; binding with signs of use and ageing; some scuffing to corners; only a few pages somewhat foxed; else good or better. Item #55105

First edition of the authoritative vita of Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, published in the year of his canonization. Charles Borromeo (1538–1584) is important not only for church history, but above all for the history of art and architecture. Thus, his work “Instructiones fabricae et supellectilis ecclesiasticae” (Instructions for church construction and furnishings), published after the Council of Trent, was formative for the development of church architecture and furnishings in the Baroque period. To name just one example, the confessional, which was not introduced until after Trent. Borromeo made a significant contribution to its establishment by developing its characteristic structure in his treatise: between the confessor and penitent there should be a partition with a window opening consisting of a perforated sheet of iron covered with a thin veil on the confessor's side. (Cf. Gisevius, J., & Sommer-Krick, M. "Beichtstuhl", in: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit). In art historical research, his “Instructiones” have been an important source for the interpretation of changes in architecture and painting during the Counter-Reformation since Anthony Blunt's 1940 published book “Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1600”.

But Borromeo's significance for the history of architecture is not limited to his “Instructiones” to architects, sculptors and painters. After his canonization and shortly after the publication of the vita offered here, a pioneering building of Baroque design language was erected under his patronage in Rome: “San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane” became groundbreaking with its richly structured, strongly curved façade and also in the interior with its rhythmic interplay of forward and backward swinging building sections. The architect was Francesco Castelli, who had trained as a sculptor in Milan and eventually called himself Francesco Borromini in Rome. Alongside Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Pietro da Cortona and Carlo Maderno, he was one of the most influential architects of the Roman Baroque. While Borromeo's instructions once dealt with how the lives of the saints should be depicted artistically, his life itself now became a motif. In the year of his canonization, not only was this Vita of the saint published, but work also began on the large Roman church “Santi Ambrogio e Carlo”, where the heart relic is still kept today. But his veneration went far beyond Rome. Thus in 1714, Emperor Charles VI initiated the construction of Vienna's “Karlskirche” under the patronage of St. Charles Borromeo. The architectural competition was won by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. His domed building, framed by two Tranjan columns, is one of the most important Baroque churches north of the Alps. The choice of patronage, however, was not only due to the fact that Borromeo was one of the patron saints of the Habsburg emperor. The foundation of the church by Maria Theresa's father was the fulfillment of a vow he made during the last major plague epidemic in Vienna, which he publicly gave in St. Stephen's Cathedral while calling on the saint for intercession. Borromeo, who during a plague outbreak in Milan had established numerous hospitals and emergency shelters as bishop, and who contracted the disease while caring for the sick, ultimately died at the age of only 46, greatly weakened by his ascetic lifestyle. He was regarded, alongside Saint Roch, as a patron saint against the plague.

This vita by Giovanni Pietro Giussano's (1548–1623), commissioned by Cardinal Cesare Baronio (a pupil of Philip Neri and collaborator on the Martyrologium Romanum) and others, significantly shaped the image of the saint. Despite some criticism of the extensive work by Carlo Bascapè, the Bishop of Novara and a close friend of Borromeo, for being imprecise and poorly written, the work, it was republished several times from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century and translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. Giussano was Borromeo's assistant and secretary for many years. (Cf. Dizionario biografico degli Italiani)

This first edition caused a scandal when it was published. The “correction” demanded by the Jesuit General, which was intended to prevent the scandal, reached the printer too late, so that a secret investigation into allegations of abuse in the Society of Jesus initiated by Borromeo became public after all. Only in later editions was the case no longer mentioned. The accused was Borromeo's former confessor, against whom Borromeo initiated the investigation after allegations emerged that Juan Bautista de Ribera had abused a page of Borromeo's sister-in-law. Although the investigation found Ribera innocent, the Jesuit's reputation remained tainted by suspicion. (See: Ulrich L. Lehner, Inszenierte Keuschheit: Sexualdelikte in der Gesellschaft Jesu im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin and Boston 2024, p. 73f)

As of April 2025, OCLC shows seven copies in North America.

Price: €1,800.00

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