Books by Dennj Solera
La società dell'Inquisizione. Uomini, tribunali e pratiche del Sant'Uffizio romano, 2021
Come funzionò davvero l'Inquisizione romana, al di là della leggenda nera che ne ha connotato l'i... more Come funzionò davvero l'Inquisizione romana, al di là della leggenda nera che ne ha connotato l'immagine sin dall'epoca moderna? Chi furono gli uomini che la governarono e favorirono? Quali gli assetti istituzionali e le pratiche sociali che ne sostennero l'azione repressiva? Il volume ricostruisce l'attività ordinaria del Sant'Uffizio con particolare attenzione alla penisola italiana, dove operò a lungo un'autentica "società inquisitoriale", composta non soltanto da giudici di fede, ma anche da consultori, avvocati, carcerieri e da centinaia di altri collaboratori, uomini che, in cambio di ampi privilegi, permisero al tribunale di controllare l'ortodossia, la moralità e il pensiero dei fedeli fino alle soglie della contemporaneità.
Che cosa fu l’Inquisizione romana? In che modo gli inquisitori operarono nella società italiana d... more Che cosa fu l’Inquisizione romana? In che modo gli inquisitori operarono nella società italiana del Cinque-Seicento? Per tentare di rispondere a tali quesiti, l’autore prende in analisi la familia inquisitoriale, il nutrito gruppo di assistenti del tribunale di fede. Alla luce di una ricca documentazione inedita, vengono ricostruite per la prima volta le vicende del personale del Sant’Uffizio, composto da vicari, notai, avvocati, consultori, sbirri, guardie del corpo e altri. Nel libro vengono indagate la trattatistica inerente a questi patentati, la loro distribuzione geografia e le confraternite entro le quali furono inquadrati. In seguito sono analizzati i privilegi di cui godettero i familiari e gli abusi spesso efferati che essi commisero, dimostrando come l’Inquisizione sia divenuta un elemento di disordine sociale e morale ogniqualvolta venne messa in dubbio la sua autorità.
Books edited by Dennj Solera
Libertas. Tra religione, politica e saperi, 2022
Universa universis Patavina libertas: così recita il celebre motto dell’Università di Padova, una... more Universa universis Patavina libertas: così recita il celebre motto dell’Università di Padova, una delle più antiche e prestigiose d’Europa, di cui nel 2022 ricorrono gli 800 anni della sua fondazione.
Nessun altro aspetto ha caratterizzato più a fondo e più a lungo l’istituzione accademica padovana rispetto alla sua celebre libertas. Dalla fondazione nel 1222 alle dispute accademiche sulla mortalità dell’anima, dagli anni in cui in cattedra sedeva Galileo Galilei – al cui insegnamento nel volume è riservato ampio spazio – ai moti del 1848 sino alla Resistenza, la libertas padovana ha rappresentato un riferimento costante per chiunque abbia corso il pericolo di essere limitato nel corpo quanto nel proprio intelletto.
La libertas è tuttavia un termine ambiguo, impiegato in questi otto secoli per indicare fenomeni e concetti diversi, talvolta quasi opposti. Il volume mira quindi a ricostruire la sua lunga storia, prestando attenzione alle istituzioni, agli spazi, alle pratiche e ai conflitti che più hanno costellato questa lunga evoluzione.
I saggi raccolti nell’opera dimostrano da punti di vista diversi ma costantemente intrecciati come la Patavina libertas sia stata fondamentale per l’affermarsi di alcune delle libertà individuali che oggi sono considerate inalienabili. La libertà religiosa, la libertà politica e il diritto a una libera speculazione scientifica ebbero nella città di Padova e nel suo antico Studio una fase di profonda maturazione, i cui benefici non smettono di influire sulle nostre vite al principiare di questo nono secolo.
Papers by Dennj Solera
The opening of the ACDF has facilitated new research perspectives aimed at a more comprehensive u... more The opening of the ACDF has facilitated new research perspectives aimed at a more comprehensive understanding of the history of the ecclesiastical court. This article examines one of the most recent approaches to the study of the documents of the Holy Office, that of material history. Through the analysis of the inventories drawn up by the territorial offices of the Inquisition and sent to Rome, it is possible to reconstruct the environment in which the inquisitors and their deputies operated, describing the objects present (from books to paintings, fabrics to utensils), their use and their significance in the culture of the time. In this way it is possible to return the “terrible” Tribunal to its historical materiality, to avoid over-interpretations and errors of perspective. The information from the catalogues is supplemented with data from the correspondence and accounts of the various tribunals, showing that these funds are a valuable testimony of historical knowledge and not a mere descriptive erudition, as they have sometimes been considered.
El ensayo pretende investigar un tema hasta ahora
descuidado por los historiadores, a saber, el ... more El ensayo pretende investigar un tema hasta ahora
descuidado por los historiadores, a saber, el extenso y
problemático personal que sirvió a la Inquisición romana en
Italia y a los tribunales de fe activos en otros lugares durante
tres siglos. La metodología empleada ha sido doble,
inspirándose tanto en los estudios religioso-institucionales
como en los de historia social. La amplia indagación
documental realizada en los archivos vaticanos e italianos ha
permitido reconstruir los principales rasgos de la familia
inquisitorial italiana, observar su evolución en el tiempo, su
distinta geografía y la variación de las relaciones que a través de
ella estableció la Iglesia pontificia con las élites culturales y
políticas de Italia durante el antiguo régimen. Ello ha
permitido llegar a importantes consideraciones históricas, que
insisten en un fenómeno hasta ahora investigado en otros
frentes, como las relaciones entre la Iglesia de la
Contrarreforma y los fieles entre los siglos XVI y XVIII. El
sistema de patentes permitió al ala más intransigente de la
Iglesia entablar una relación de protección y connivencia con
miles de notables violentos, que a cambio garantizaron apoyo
intelectual, material y político a las jerarquías eclesiásticas de la
península hasta el Risorgimento italiano.
This essay aims to investigate a subject hitherto
neglected by historians, namely the extensive and problematic
personnel that served the Roman Inquisition in Italy and the
tribunals of faith operating elsewhere over three centuries. The
methodology used is twofold, drawing on both religiousinstitutional and social-historical studies. The extensive
documentary research carried out in the Vatican and Italian
archives has made it possible to reconstruct the main features
of the Italian Inquisitorial staff, to observe its evolution over
time, its different geographical locations and the varying relations that the papal Church established through it with the
cultural and political elites of Italy during the Ancien Régime.
This has led to important historical considerations that
highlight a phenomenon that has been studied on other fronts,
such as the relations between the Counter-Reformation
Church and the faithful between the sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries. The clientelist system allowed the most intransigent
wing of the Church to establish a relationship of protection
and acquiescence with thousands of violent notables. They, in
return, guaranteed intellectual, material, and political support
to the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the peninsula until the
Italian Risorgimento.
Euntes in mundum universum. IV Centenario dell’istituzione della Congregazione di Propaganda Fide - 1622-2022, 2023
Pure in un contesto come quello attuale, in cui tali enti hanno mutato nome e parte dei loro comp... more Pure in un contesto come quello attuale, in cui tali enti hanno mutato nome e parte dei loro compiti, rimane impossibile scindere del tutto le rispettive aree di competenza. Nei secoli scorsi le relazioni fra Sant'Uffizio e Propaganda sono state sovente contrastate, caratterizzate da periodi di collaborazione e altri di diffidenza reciproca, in un complesso contesto geopolitico in continua evoluzione, connotato da delicate relazioni diplomatiche e aspirazioni religiose che coinvolsero monarchie e imperi, patronati reali e compagnie mercantili, ordini religiosi e clero secolare, altre congregazioni romane e popolazioni da rieducare o di prima cristianizzazione.
La tradizione degli Studia comunali nelle città di età moderna. Storia, mito e memoria dell’università delle origini., 2023
La Chiesa di San Gaetano in Padova. Archeologia, Storia, Arte, Architettura e Restauri, 2023
Saint Gaetano Thiene represents one of the most important profiles connoting the early moder... more Saint Gaetano Thiene represents one of the most important profiles connoting the early modern age and yet the tremendous amount of biographical and hagiographical investigation carried out has not dispelled the many doubts concerning certain phases of his life, especially his youth. The purpose of this essay is, therefore, to present the results of a study looking into those earlier years spent at the Studium of Padua where he is known to have obtained his doctorate in 1504. The extant documents analysed, issued at the beginning of the 16th century by the University and its institutions, clearly state that Gaetano was in Padua well before his degree (1500) and even later (1505) inasmuch as, in addition to his own, the noble student attended four other graduation ceremonies in the company of illustrious lecturers and scholars part of distinct social groups. The current essay has carefully investigated such groups thus shedding new light on both the context in which Gaetano had developed as a young man and how, consequently, he would confront his future life in Rome.
"Conoscere il passato per progettare il futuro. Studi per l’Ottavo Centenario dell’Università di Padova", a cura di G.P. Brizzi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2022
Fonti per la storia delle popolazioni accademiche in Europa - Sources for the History of European Academic Communities. X Atelier Héloïse, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2022
Il network Héloïse, impegnato da oltre dieci anni nel coordinamento di progetti e ricerche sulle ... more Il network Héloïse, impegnato da oltre dieci anni nel coordinamento di progetti e ricerche sulle popolazioni universitarie dal medioevo fino ai nostri giorni, rivolge qui l'attenzione al tema della documentazione utile allo svolgimento di ricerche prosopografiche. Avvalendosi degli strumenti e dei metodi propri delle Digital humanities, le informazioni desunte dagli archivi universitari sono state progressivamente arricchite attingendo ai libri amicorum degli studenti, a fonti giudiziarie, alla memorialistica, ai registri delle professioni di fede, alla documentazione e alla stampa prodotta dalle associazioni dei docenti, ai periodici e ai numeri unici promossi dagli studenti, ai necrologi, alla documentazione fotografica. Il confronto fra l'utilizzo di queste fonti secondarie, che emerge dalle ricerche svolte o in corso in vari Paesi, costituisce il tema proposto dalle esperienze qui presentate.
15. La Patavina libertas nell'età della Controriforma, 2022
14. Le minoranze religiose allo Studio, 2022
12. Annali di Storia delle università italiane, 2021
The essay critically discusses the graduation report of Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese student proc... more The essay critically discusses the graduation report of Roderigo Lopez, a Portuguese student proclaimed artium et medicinae doctor at the Paduan Studium in 1559. The meticulous analysis of the document and the reconstruction of the social, political, scientific and academic context of the time, allows us to recognize a celebrity of the 16th century in the Lusitanian student Roger Lopez (1517/1525-1594). He was personal physician of Elizabeth I of England and an important intermediary between the last court of the Tudors, Portugal and Spain of Philip II; he was finally sentenced to death by quartering. Shakespearean scholars believe that the poet was inspired by Lopez personal tragedy to outline the figure of Shylock, the Jew of the Merchant of Venice (about 1596-1598). The article proposes the thesis according to which the Paduan student is the future Elizabethan doctor, as many biographical information and some aspects of the English literary masterpiece seem to confirm. This would finally explain what prompted the Portuguese to move to England, how he was able to make such a prestigious career and to enjoy such a vast credit at court, and why he was executed. That was a complex story in which Francis Walsingham’s stay in Padua and Lopez’s real adherence to Judaism could have played a decisive role. The true archetype of Shylock could therefore have been a «Paduan» doctor.
Keywords: Jews – William Shakespeare – Portugal – Elisabeth I – Francis Walsingham
Revue historique, Dec 2020
The theme of the Counter-Reformation was among the most debated by European historiography in the... more The theme of the Counter-Reformation was among the most debated by European historiography in the second half of the 20th century. Historians have argued how the Roman Church managed to overcome the deep crisis of the early sixteenth century by proposing a new model of Christian, who must be orthodox, educated, purified and more attentive to the evangelical mission. The article aims to partially
deconstruct this classical thesis, by discussing largely unpublished documentation from the Congregation of the Holy Office. The proposed case is that of the Inquisition of Malta, where there was one of the most important tribunals of this ecclesiastic institution. The analysis of the documents shows how the inquisitors, in agreement with the Inquisitorial Congregation, spent most of their time protecting their collaborators, who were very often criminals, not orthodox, offenders of the orthopraxy and contrary to morality. The Holy Office used its large staff to challenge the authority of civil and religious institutions, by guaranteeing to the employees extraordinary fiscal, judicial, military, political and spiritual privileges. Paradoxically, as the Maltese example testifies, the inquisitors often became an obstacle for the discipline proposed at the Council of Trent, by protecting their collaborators and their privileges.
Dis/simulazione e tolleranza religiosa nello spazio urbano dell'Europa moderna, a cura di E. Boillet e L. Felici, Torino, Claudiana, 2020
Studi Storici, 2019
Information about the Roman Inquisition’s familia is still fragmented, despite the progress in In... more Information about the Roman Inquisition’s familia is still fragmented, despite the progress in Inquisition studies and the abundance of documents produced by these employees. Firstly, the article offers a general study of this topic’s bibliography and, secondly, it tries to improve our knowledge regarding the familia with some new documents from the Vatican and Italian archives. In order to understand the importance of this entourage for the functioning of the Roman Inquisition, wherever it was operative, attention has been focused on the Medi eval period of the familia, when the inquisitors realised the need to have helpers and guards of their own. A considerable part of this study is dedicated to the confraternities that assisted the inquisitors: the most important was the Compagnia della Croce or di San Pietro Martire. Its Late Medieval evolution, albeit hard to reconstruct historically, is fundamental for understanding the apologetic way through which the Holy Office in 1542, and the inquisitors of the Counter-Reformation, tried once again to use this religious association. The example used here is that of the Dominican inquisitor Cipriano Uberti, author of the Opera della Croce (1585-1586): this work allows us to appreciate how strategic these confraternities were for an inquisitor at the end of the 16th century. The inquisitorial familia was to become a very useful instrument for the division and control of the ruling class on the Italian peninsula.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 2020
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Books by Dennj Solera
Books edited by Dennj Solera
Nessun altro aspetto ha caratterizzato più a fondo e più a lungo l’istituzione accademica padovana rispetto alla sua celebre libertas. Dalla fondazione nel 1222 alle dispute accademiche sulla mortalità dell’anima, dagli anni in cui in cattedra sedeva Galileo Galilei – al cui insegnamento nel volume è riservato ampio spazio – ai moti del 1848 sino alla Resistenza, la libertas padovana ha rappresentato un riferimento costante per chiunque abbia corso il pericolo di essere limitato nel corpo quanto nel proprio intelletto.
La libertas è tuttavia un termine ambiguo, impiegato in questi otto secoli per indicare fenomeni e concetti diversi, talvolta quasi opposti. Il volume mira quindi a ricostruire la sua lunga storia, prestando attenzione alle istituzioni, agli spazi, alle pratiche e ai conflitti che più hanno costellato questa lunga evoluzione.
I saggi raccolti nell’opera dimostrano da punti di vista diversi ma costantemente intrecciati come la Patavina libertas sia stata fondamentale per l’affermarsi di alcune delle libertà individuali che oggi sono considerate inalienabili. La libertà religiosa, la libertà politica e il diritto a una libera speculazione scientifica ebbero nella città di Padova e nel suo antico Studio una fase di profonda maturazione, i cui benefici non smettono di influire sulle nostre vite al principiare di questo nono secolo.
Papers by Dennj Solera
descuidado por los historiadores, a saber, el extenso y
problemático personal que sirvió a la Inquisición romana en
Italia y a los tribunales de fe activos en otros lugares durante
tres siglos. La metodología empleada ha sido doble,
inspirándose tanto en los estudios religioso-institucionales
como en los de historia social. La amplia indagación
documental realizada en los archivos vaticanos e italianos ha
permitido reconstruir los principales rasgos de la familia
inquisitorial italiana, observar su evolución en el tiempo, su
distinta geografía y la variación de las relaciones que a través de
ella estableció la Iglesia pontificia con las élites culturales y
políticas de Italia durante el antiguo régimen. Ello ha
permitido llegar a importantes consideraciones históricas, que
insisten en un fenómeno hasta ahora investigado en otros
frentes, como las relaciones entre la Iglesia de la
Contrarreforma y los fieles entre los siglos XVI y XVIII. El
sistema de patentes permitió al ala más intransigente de la
Iglesia entablar una relación de protección y connivencia con
miles de notables violentos, que a cambio garantizaron apoyo
intelectual, material y político a las jerarquías eclesiásticas de la
península hasta el Risorgimento italiano.
This essay aims to investigate a subject hitherto
neglected by historians, namely the extensive and problematic
personnel that served the Roman Inquisition in Italy and the
tribunals of faith operating elsewhere over three centuries. The
methodology used is twofold, drawing on both religiousinstitutional and social-historical studies. The extensive
documentary research carried out in the Vatican and Italian
archives has made it possible to reconstruct the main features
of the Italian Inquisitorial staff, to observe its evolution over
time, its different geographical locations and the varying relations that the papal Church established through it with the
cultural and political elites of Italy during the Ancien Régime.
This has led to important historical considerations that
highlight a phenomenon that has been studied on other fronts,
such as the relations between the Counter-Reformation
Church and the faithful between the sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries. The clientelist system allowed the most intransigent
wing of the Church to establish a relationship of protection
and acquiescence with thousands of violent notables. They, in
return, guaranteed intellectual, material, and political support
to the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the peninsula until the
Italian Risorgimento.
Keywords: Jews – William Shakespeare – Portugal – Elisabeth I – Francis Walsingham
deconstruct this classical thesis, by discussing largely unpublished documentation from the Congregation of the Holy Office. The proposed case is that of the Inquisition of Malta, where there was one of the most important tribunals of this ecclesiastic institution. The analysis of the documents shows how the inquisitors, in agreement with the Inquisitorial Congregation, spent most of their time protecting their collaborators, who were very often criminals, not orthodox, offenders of the orthopraxy and contrary to morality. The Holy Office used its large staff to challenge the authority of civil and religious institutions, by guaranteeing to the employees extraordinary fiscal, judicial, military, political and spiritual privileges. Paradoxically, as the Maltese example testifies, the inquisitors often became an obstacle for the discipline proposed at the Council of Trent, by protecting their collaborators and their privileges.
Nessun altro aspetto ha caratterizzato più a fondo e più a lungo l’istituzione accademica padovana rispetto alla sua celebre libertas. Dalla fondazione nel 1222 alle dispute accademiche sulla mortalità dell’anima, dagli anni in cui in cattedra sedeva Galileo Galilei – al cui insegnamento nel volume è riservato ampio spazio – ai moti del 1848 sino alla Resistenza, la libertas padovana ha rappresentato un riferimento costante per chiunque abbia corso il pericolo di essere limitato nel corpo quanto nel proprio intelletto.
La libertas è tuttavia un termine ambiguo, impiegato in questi otto secoli per indicare fenomeni e concetti diversi, talvolta quasi opposti. Il volume mira quindi a ricostruire la sua lunga storia, prestando attenzione alle istituzioni, agli spazi, alle pratiche e ai conflitti che più hanno costellato questa lunga evoluzione.
I saggi raccolti nell’opera dimostrano da punti di vista diversi ma costantemente intrecciati come la Patavina libertas sia stata fondamentale per l’affermarsi di alcune delle libertà individuali che oggi sono considerate inalienabili. La libertà religiosa, la libertà politica e il diritto a una libera speculazione scientifica ebbero nella città di Padova e nel suo antico Studio una fase di profonda maturazione, i cui benefici non smettono di influire sulle nostre vite al principiare di questo nono secolo.
descuidado por los historiadores, a saber, el extenso y
problemático personal que sirvió a la Inquisición romana en
Italia y a los tribunales de fe activos en otros lugares durante
tres siglos. La metodología empleada ha sido doble,
inspirándose tanto en los estudios religioso-institucionales
como en los de historia social. La amplia indagación
documental realizada en los archivos vaticanos e italianos ha
permitido reconstruir los principales rasgos de la familia
inquisitorial italiana, observar su evolución en el tiempo, su
distinta geografía y la variación de las relaciones que a través de
ella estableció la Iglesia pontificia con las élites culturales y
políticas de Italia durante el antiguo régimen. Ello ha
permitido llegar a importantes consideraciones históricas, que
insisten en un fenómeno hasta ahora investigado en otros
frentes, como las relaciones entre la Iglesia de la
Contrarreforma y los fieles entre los siglos XVI y XVIII. El
sistema de patentes permitió al ala más intransigente de la
Iglesia entablar una relación de protección y connivencia con
miles de notables violentos, que a cambio garantizaron apoyo
intelectual, material y político a las jerarquías eclesiásticas de la
península hasta el Risorgimento italiano.
This essay aims to investigate a subject hitherto
neglected by historians, namely the extensive and problematic
personnel that served the Roman Inquisition in Italy and the
tribunals of faith operating elsewhere over three centuries. The
methodology used is twofold, drawing on both religiousinstitutional and social-historical studies. The extensive
documentary research carried out in the Vatican and Italian
archives has made it possible to reconstruct the main features
of the Italian Inquisitorial staff, to observe its evolution over
time, its different geographical locations and the varying relations that the papal Church established through it with the
cultural and political elites of Italy during the Ancien Régime.
This has led to important historical considerations that
highlight a phenomenon that has been studied on other fronts,
such as the relations between the Counter-Reformation
Church and the faithful between the sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries. The clientelist system allowed the most intransigent
wing of the Church to establish a relationship of protection
and acquiescence with thousands of violent notables. They, in
return, guaranteed intellectual, material, and political support
to the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the peninsula until the
Italian Risorgimento.
Keywords: Jews – William Shakespeare – Portugal – Elisabeth I – Francis Walsingham
deconstruct this classical thesis, by discussing largely unpublished documentation from the Congregation of the Holy Office. The proposed case is that of the Inquisition of Malta, where there was one of the most important tribunals of this ecclesiastic institution. The analysis of the documents shows how the inquisitors, in agreement with the Inquisitorial Congregation, spent most of their time protecting their collaborators, who were very often criminals, not orthodox, offenders of the orthopraxy and contrary to morality. The Holy Office used its large staff to challenge the authority of civil and religious institutions, by guaranteeing to the employees extraordinary fiscal, judicial, military, political and spiritual privileges. Paradoxically, as the Maltese example testifies, the inquisitors often became an obstacle for the discipline proposed at the Council of Trent, by protecting their collaborators and their privileges.
evolution of curiosity and the eve of solid knowledge. Perhaps it is precisel for this reason that the writings of many Renaissance students were
organised according to doubts rather than notions and subjects. The study
of some manuscripts by Giovan Vincenzo Pinelli conserved in the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan makes it possible to highlight how
common this practice was within the Paduan student community,
animated by young minds from all over Europe in the second 16th century.
Contrary to modern scientific sectarianism, those scholars were grappling
at the same time with quite different perplexities. The paper will be
dedicated to analysing three debates described by Pinelli in great detail
and which aroused heated conflicts inside and outside the University. Was
it appropriate to dictate lectures to students or was it preferable to leave
them free to take notes? Was theory sufficient to become good physicians
or did one need practical (and humble) knowledge such as clinics and
botany? Finally, a surprising doubt with catastrophic consequences: could
making corn biscuits cause the ruin of the state? As it will be shown, all
these questions were answered for the benefit of past and present
doubters.