Law, Medicine, and Engineering in the Cult of the Saints in Counter-Reformation Rome: The Hagiographical Works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556-1605

354 Pages·2014·11.13 MB·English

by  Jetze Touber

Law, Medicine, and Engineering in the Cult of the
Saints in Counter-Reformation Rome
Studies in Medieval and
Reformation Traditions
Edited by
Andrew Colin Gow
Edmonton, Alberta
In cooperation with
Sylvia Brown, Edmonton, Alberta
Falk Eisermann, Berlin
Berndt Hamm, Erlangen
Johannes Heil, Heidelberg
Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Tucson, Arizona
Martin Kaufhold, Augsburg
Erik Kwakkel, Leiden
Jürgen Miethke, Heidelberg
Christopher Ocker, San Anselmo and Berkeley, California
Founding Editor
Heiko A. Oberman †
VOLUME 178
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/smrt
Law, Medicine, and Engineering
in the Cult of the Saints
in Counter-Reformation Rome
The Hagiographical Works of Antonio Gallonio,
1556–1605
By
Jetze Touber
Translated from Dutch by
Peter Longbottom
LEidEN • BOSTON
2014
This publication has been made possible by the generous support of the following organizations:
Stichting Historiae Medicinae
MAOC Gravin van Bylandt Stichting
Cover illustration: Giovanni Guerra and Antonio Tempesta, ‘instruments for piercing and maiming’,
detail from engraving from: Antonio Gallonio, Trattato de gli instrumenti di martirio (Rome: A. and
G. donangeli, 1591) 117.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Touber, Jetze.
 Law, medicine, and engineering in the cult of the saints in counter-Reformation Rome : the
hagiographical works of Antonio Gallonio, 1556–1605 / by Jetze Touber.
  pages cm. — (Studies in medieval and reformation traditions, iSSN 1573-4188 ; VOLUME 178)
 includes bibliographical references and index.
 iSBN 978-90-04-26513-4 (hardback : alk. paper) — iSBN 978-90-04-26514-1 (e-book) 1. Christian
hagiography. 2. Gallonio, Antonio, –1605. 3. Martyrdom—Christianity—History. 4. Church
history. i. Title.
 BX4662.T68 2014
 282.092--dc23
2013045974
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters
covering Latin, iPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the
humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
iSSN 1573-4188
iSBN 978-90-04-26513-4 (hardback)
iSBN 978-90-04-26514-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements  ........................................................................................ vii
Abbreviations  ................................................................................................... ix
List of illustrations  .......................................................................................... xi
1. introduction  ................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Gallonio and the Oratory  .............................................................. 2
1.2 Social discipline and intellectual History  ............................... 14
1.3 Working Method  ............................................................................. 24
1.4 Vero figliuolo del nostro Padre ...................................................... 28
2. Hagiography and Historiography  ......................................................... 45
2.1 Hagiography and Historia sacra  .................................................. 46
2.2 Gallonio’s Sources  ........................................................................... 62
2.3 The Christian History of the Oratorians  .................................. 83
2.4 Conclusion  ......................................................................................... 98
3. Judicial Proceedings and Malicious Torture  ..................................... 101
3.1 Canonization Process  ..................................................................... 102
3.2 Confessors  .......................................................................................... 125
3.3 Martyrs  ................................................................................................ 138
3.4 Conclusion  ......................................................................................... 151
4. Health and Holiness  ................................................................................. 155
4.1 Spiritual and Physical Health  ...................................................... 156
4.2 Gallonio and the Physicians ......................................................... 170
4.3 The Body of the Saint  ..................................................................... 180
4.4 Conclusion  ......................................................................................... 191
5. Martyrological Technology  ..................................................................... 193
5.1 Nobility, Emblems, Machinery  .................................................... 194
5.2 Technical Operation  ....................................................................... 210
5.3 illustration  ......................................................................................... 222
5.4 Conclusion  ......................................................................................... 246
vi contents
6. Collecting Material about Saints  .......................................................... 251
6.1 Collection  ........................................................................................... 252
6.2 Classification  ..................................................................................... 268
6.3 Presentation  ...................................................................................... 283
6.4 Conclusion  ......................................................................................... 291
7. Epilogue  ........................................................................................................ 295
Bibliography  ..................................................................................................... 307
Works by Antonio Gallonio  .................................................................... 307
Primary Sources  .......................................................................................... 308
Secondary Works  ....................................................................................... 313
Index of Names  ................................................................................................ 329
Index of Places  ................................................................................................. 336
Index of Subjects  ............................................................................................. 338
ACKNOWLEdGEMENTS
Over the years during which i conducted research, wrote my doctoral dis-
sertation and prepared this book for publication, there have been many
people who have supported me in one way or another whom i would like
to thank. i owe a great debt of gratitude to Catrien Santing, who awak-
ened my interest in Counter-Reformation Rome, that energetic and lively
world of intense devotion and unfathomable erudition. Her enthusiasm,
patience and efforts were vital to keep me on course in completing this
book. i am also very grateful to my co-supervisor, Klaas van Berkel, for
his discerning and practical advice. i thank Sible de Blaauw, Wietse de
Boer and Philiep Bossier for the care with which they commented on ear-
lier versions of this study, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their
meticulous and thoughtful assessments of the manuscript. i am grateful
to Peter Longbottom for his patience and perseverance in translating the
dutch dissertation into English. Thanks are also due to Andrew Gow for
accepting this book for the Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions
series, to ivo Romein and Pieter te Velde of Brill for promptly responding
to the many questions i raised prior to submitting the manuscript, and to
Monica MacFadzean for thoroughly copy-editing the manuscript.
Many colleagues helped me in gathering my sources and developing
my thoughts. My thanks for the assistance in searching for, making avail-
able, deciphering, translating, explaining and interpreting sources and lit-
erature go—in alphabetical order—to Lorenzo Abbamondi, Stefan Bauer,
iris Becher, Susanna de Beer, Carolin Behrmann, Joshua davies, Antonio di
Giorgio, Simon ditchfield, Giuseppe Finocchiaro, Massimiliano Ghilardi,
Giuseppe Antonio Guazzelli, Luigi Gulia, ingo Herklotz, Gerda Huisman,
Tobias Kämpf, Rolien Scheffer, Minou Schraven, Francesco Scorza Barcel-
lona, Charlie Smid, Kees Teszelsky, Bert Treffers, Angelo Turchini, Hans
de Valk, Alberto Venturoli (†), Gregory Waldrop and Alessandro Zuccari.
A number of institutes have been essential for the realization of this
book because of their financial support and facilities. The M.A.O.C. Gravin
van Bylandt Stichting and the Stichting Historia Medicinae have contrib-
uted generously to financing the translation of this book into English,
for which i am very grateful. The Netherlands Organization for Scientific
Research (NWO) financed the Aspasia project ‘The Heart of the Matter’,
of which my research was part. The Royal Netherlands institute in Rome
viii acknowledgements
(KNiR) has on a number of occasions extended a warm welcome to me,
and for a period of four months let me be part of their academic staff. The
employees of libraries and archives in Rome have been invariably helpful.
in particular i thank the people of the Biblioteca Vallicelliana for tirelessly
fetching books and manuscripts and making my visits to the reading room
such a pleasurable experience. Furthermore, i thank the employees of
the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Biblioteca Angelica, the Archivio
Segreto Vaticano and the Archivio della Congregazione delle Cause dei
Santi. in recent years the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
and the descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and
the Humanities, both of Utrecht University, have provided stimulating,
intellectual environments which enabled me to finalize this publication.
My thanks go to my family for the support they have always given me
in pursuing my interests. in particular i owe a great debt of gratitude to
my father Lex, who put his lifelong experience in teaching and translat-
ing to the service of the myriad of linguistic issues i encountered, to his
wife Marjo for sharing her insights in academic life with me, and to my
late mother Marijke who nurtured the seeds that have come to fruition in
this book. Finally, i must thank Annechien van Velzen, who never tired of
listening to my ruminations and always endured my periods of absence,
either physical or mental, good-humoredly. For her support she deserves
my heartfelt gratitude.
ABBREViATiONS
ACO Archivio della Congregazione dell’Oratorio di S. Filippo Neri
(Rome)
ASR Archivio di Stato di Roma (Rome)
ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano (Vatican City)
BA Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Milan)
BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vatican City)
BibVal Biblioteca Vallicelliana (Rome)
BibAng Biblioteca Angelica (Rome)