Ignazio Gaetano de Buset. Visita Spirituale del 1788 in Istria ed. by Elvis Orbanić (review)

Elvis Orbanić, Ph. D., is an assistant professor, historian, and Director of the State Archives in Pazin. The book is co-published by the Croatian State Archives and the State Archives in Pazin. It deals with the record made during the spiritual visitation on 178 sheets preserved in the archives of the Diocese of Pićan (Pedena) and today kept in the Diocesan Archives in Trieste. The four small tomes recording the visitation were written in Italian and were drafted between March 31 and August 31, 1788. It is worth mentioning that the Pićan Diocese was dissolved on August 20, 1788, as part of the major changes of the diocesan borders carried out by the Austrian Emperor and King Joseph II, and continued after his death until the prominent reform of 1828 under the papal bull issued by Leon XII Locum beati Petri. intervened.

The volume comprises a transcription of the visitation and its translation into the Croatian language. It also brings the Report on the behavior of the parish priests and curators of the Pićan Diocese and the Austrian part of the Poreč Diocese, and the internal status of the churches.

The author of the spiritual visitation, Ignazio Gaetano de Buset (1745–1803), was external vicar of the Poreč Diocese for its Austrian part. The understanding of this spiritual visitation requires familiarity with the administrative and ecclesiastical structure of Istria, in particular of the Pazin County. Orbanić, the editor and author of the introductory chapter, offers the readers and the scientific community an overview of the relevant bibliography essential for the church history whereby, unlike numerous other historiographers, he integrated the authors and archives of Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy.

If Josephinism was the context in which this visitation was undertaken, the year 1788 can be considered as the "heart" of Josephinistic measures adopted in the area. Namely, the dissolution of monasteries and fraternities and the rearrangement of the diocesan borders were well under way. Josephinism was in the background of this visitation in the sense that measures and observations made by de Buset, an engaged church officer, cannot be understood without familiarity with its bearings. De Buset asked the priests of Pićan about the burial of the dead, education, collection of alms, and processions. State intervention in spiritual matters is obvious in cases when liturgical books had to be censored if contrary to Josephinism. The regular questions asked by de Buset were also those relating to processions and the cult of relics. Josephinism, and its later component Jansenism, presented a reaction to Baroque piety. Processions and relics were important constituents of the Baroque-type religious life, which shaped the time of Catholic renewal, i.e., the Counter-Reformation. The Josephinistic intention to reform the religious life is obvious in these questions.

The visitation shows to what degree the State, shaped under the Josephinistic principles, counted on the role and operation of the Church and its servants to improve the life and promote health and hygienic measures among the population. Regardless of the numerous anti-church measures, Josephinism, this Austrian-type enlightenment, furthered the life conditions of people in most respects.

The 1788 visitation by de Buset took place in the times of the most forceful interventions of the state authorities into church life. In the same year the Diocese of Pićan and the Diocese of Trieste were dissolved (permanently and temporarily respectively), together with numerous monasteries and fraternities.

The translation of the text from the Italian language into the Croatian language was made by Jakov Jelinčić and Elvis Orbanić. An excellent translation from Croatian into Italian was made by Marino Manin.

The text is accompanied by geographical maps presenting the borders of the Austrian and Venetian division of the Istrian peninsula. Diocesan borders crossed the secular borders and the carrying out of the regular church administration required finding various ways...