Acta Nuntiaturae Polonae, Tomus IX: Vincentius Lauro (1572-1578), Volumen I (25 VII 1572-30 IX 1574) ed. by Miroslaus Korolko and Henricus Damianus Wojtyska, C.P. (review)

722book reviews Acta Nuntiaturae Polonae, Tomus G?: Vincentius Lauro (1572-1578), Volumen I (25VII 1572-30 LX 1574). Edited by Miroslaus Korolko and Henricus Damianus Wojtyska, CP. (Rome: Institutum Historicum Polonicum Romae. 1994.Pp.xlvUi,448.) I reviewed for this journal (LXXVII [July, 1991], 516, and LXXXL [April, 1995], 270-271) the first volume of this series, which presented an overview of the whole series, and the volume covering the years 1552-1557. The current volume covers the nunciature of Vincenzo Lauro to Poland during the pontificate of Gregory XIIL (L572- L585). This first volume devoted to Lauro's nunciature covers the period July 25, 1572 (when he was designated PoUsh nuncio), to September 30, 1574; Lauro did not actuaUy arrive in Krakow until January, 1574. The main part of the volume presents 163 documents; 123 of the documents are in ItaUan, and the other forty are in Latin. A series of appendices prints twenty-five more documents, eleven in Latin, thirteen in ItaUan, and one Ln French, which Ulustrate Lauro's nunciature. Both sets of documents are arranged chronoIogicaUy; aU are prefaced by a Latin summary, and there are copious explanatory footnotes in Latin. Indeed, in some cases we find the Latin summary without the actual document, usuaUy where the document is basicaUy a copy of a letter aheady printed here but sent to a different recipient. By far the largest group of documents in the main coUection are letters between Lauro and Tolomeo GaIUo, Cardinal Secretary of State for Gregory XIII: forty-six letters of GaLUo to Lauro and fifty-four of Lauro to Gallio. Twelve of the items in the appendices were written by or sent to GaUio. The introduction traces Lauro's career. Lauro (1523-1592) was born in Calabria and studied at Naples and Padua before serving in the households of several cardinals in Rome and France. Appointed bishop of Mondovi in Piedmont in 1566, he served as nuncio to Scotland and later to Savoy. He was named nuncio to Poland the same month QuIy, 1572) that King Sigismund II died without heir. The PoUsh nobUity elected Henry ofValois their king over a Hapsburg candidate . At Paris Henry took an oath to uphold the reUgious Uberties of both Catholic and Protestant nobles. Lauro labored hard but in vain, first in France, then in Poland, to get the king to retract that oath. Henry was in Poland only four months when his brother Charles LX died on May 30, L574; Henry sUpped out of Poland and hastened home to become King of France. When he refused to return to Poland, the nobility declared the throne vacant and began the protracted election which brought Stephan Bathory of Transylvania to the Polish throne in 1575. Lauro and the papacy favored first aValois and then a Hapsburg candidate. This volume ends shortly before Bathory took over the kingdom, but Lauro's role in the disputed election undermined his relations with the new king. Although his was not a happy or successful nunciature, he was rewarded with a cardinal's hat and worked in the Curia until his death. Wojtyska, who has pubUshed four previous volumes in this series, here takes on a younger co-editor. Like the other volumes in this series, this is a model of book reviews723 sturdy scholarship. Libraries which have coUections in PoUsh or church history should purchase this and the other volumes in this monumental series. John Patrick Donnelly, SJ. Marquette University Robert Persons:The Biography ofan ElizabethanJesuit, 1546-1610. By Francis Edwards, SJ. (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources. 1995. Pp. xvü, 411. $42.95.) For many years now there have been caUs for someone to complete a scholarly edition of the letters of Robert Persons (or Parsons). The first volume of his correspondence down to 1588 edited by Leo Hicks, SJ.,for the CathoUc Record Society (Volume 39) appeared in 1942. Now more than fifty years later we have this fuU-length biography based on his letters. One has the impression that it was written some time ago. Only a third of the "more often used printed sources" were pubUshed since World War II. But then since the retirement of Father...