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  • L’inquisizione in età moderna e il caso milanese. Atti delle giornate di studio 27–29 novembre 2008
  • Paul F. Grendler
L’inquisizione in età moderna e il caso milanese. Atti delle giornate di studio 27–29 novembre 2008. Edited by Claudia di Filippo Bareggi and Gianvittorio Signorotto. [Studia Borromaica, 23.] (Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana; Rome: Bulzoni Editore. 2009. Pp. 552. €28,00 paperback. ISBN 978-8-878-70443-5.)

This volume is the product of a conference sponsored by the Accademia Ambrosiana and held at the Ambrosian Library in Milan in November 2008. The volume offers two kinds of articles. The first kind focuses on the Inquisition in Milan and Lombardy. Although the Milanese Inquisition’s records were destroyed in the late-eighteenth century, scholars have made good use of the Inquisition records in the archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opened to scholars in the late 1990s.

Alain Tallon discusses a north Italian count and soldier who served the French king and was arrested for heresy in 1570, then was freed as a result [End Page 376] of French diplomatic pressure. Massimo Carlo Giannini studies two Milanese Inquisition trials of Ascanio Marso, secretary to a high Milanese council; he concludes that politics more than heresy led to his arrest. Wietse de Boer studies the cases of four Swiss Protestant soldiers in the service of Venice who were arrested in Milan in 1619. He finds that a soldierly sense of honor made them steadfast in their faith; they were probably expelled rather than punished. Miguel Gotor discusses the Milanese cult of Elisabetta Peragalli, which came under the Inquisition’s suspicion in 1657. Angelo Turchini discusses the jurisdictional powers and limits of the Inquisition in various parts of Lombardy and provides a useful list of Inquisition officials. Cinzia Cremonini studies the confraternity of the Sign of the Cross, the organization of the familiars of the Inquisition in Lombardy, and provides a membership list. Flavio Rurale studies the relations between the religious orders and the Inquisition in Lombardy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Gianvittorio Signorotto sees a crisis of the Milanese Inquisition in the seventeenth century in the face of the growing authority of the state. Claudia di Filippo Bareggi discusses issues concerning confession and the Inquisition.

The other group of articles addresses broader Inquisition topics. In the longest article Andrea Errera analyzes the rules and duties of the fiscal procurator of the Inquisition by studying Inquisition manuals. Ugo Baldini asks if there was change in ecclesiastical censorship of scientific books between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, and answers with a qualified and cautious “yes.” Franco Buzzi asks if there was a theological justification for the Inquisition and pursues the answer from ancient Christian sources to Francisco Suárez. The Inquisition was justified as necessary for the public good of Christian society. Mario Infelise compares Venetian and Milanese press censorship and adds comments on Paolo Sarpi and John Milton, who visited Italy. Elena Brambilla analyzes the Inquisition criteria for judging miracles and holiness in the period 1680 to 1710 and sees Cartesianism influencing Inquisition thinking. John Tedeschi comments on the diaspora of Italian Protestant intellectuals, while Adriano Prosperi briefly assesses the Inquisition in terms of the history of justice. Gigliola Fragnito notes that the Congregation of the Index failed to implement a coordinated policy for the seizure and destruction of books at the time of the Clementine Index of 1596; it then lost the initiative to the Inquisition. Finally, José Martínez Millán surveys the statutes on the purity of the blood and the consequent disputes in the Spanish Inquisition.

Although a few authors reprise material that they have discussed in more detail elsewhere, there is much original scholarship in the volume. The overall quality is high. Almost all of the articles provide rich bibliography for scholars seeking to learn more. [End Page 377]

Paul F. Grendler
University of Toronto (Emeritus) and Chapel Hill, NC
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