Anthologica Annua

Bernardo de Toro (1570-1643), the Immaculate Conception and the memory of the Congregation of la Granada

Pablo González Tornel — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Bernardo de Toro (1570-1643) was a Sevillian priest who spent the last twenty-seven years of his life in Rome promoting the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. He was the last leader of a mystic group called the Congregation of la Granada (Congregation of the Pomegranate) and, despite his prolonged absence from Seville, he tried to preserve his and his predecessors’ memory through the use of relics and images. This article analyses the different actions undertaken by Bernardo de Toro to create two memorials of the Congregation of La Granada in the nuns’ convents of La Concepción in Lebrija and La Encarnación in Seville. Both memorials disappeared decades ago, but this essay reassembles their original components, which were to have included the remains of the four successive leaders of the congregation. Moreover, it investigates how Toro combined the relics of the four men with their portraits and the image of the Immaculate Conception in order to protect their spiritual legacy from oblivion.

Canon Bartolomé Llorente (1540-1614) and his defence of El Pilar as the first cathedral of Zaragoza

Eliseo Serrano Martín — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In 1592, Canon Bartolomé Llorente wrote a Memorial defending the cathedral primacy of the Pilar Basilica over the La Seo cathedral. The argument was that being the church of El Pilar an apostolic foundation, it was there where the episcopal chair was obligatorily seated and that after the reconquest of Zaragoza in 1118, the seat was moved and not restored, leaving preeminences in El Pilar proper of a cathedral. Juan de Arruego, among others, wrote against this argument.

A Venetian ‘rinfresco’ by the Marquis of Castromonte, First Ambassador of the Two Sicilies: The Celebration of the Wedding of Charles of Bourbon and Maria Amalia of Saxony

Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira, Marta Isabel Sánchez Vasco — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This article examines the study of a refreshment held on the occasion of the wedding of Don Charles of Bourbon and Maria Amalia of Saxony in the Venetian court, documented through an Advertencia Ceremonial which was found among the codices of the Spanish Embassy in Rome. To date, this is the only known testimony of the celebration at this venetian venue. The account not only attests to the importance of the marriage itself and the manner in which the celebration unfolded, but it also allows us to speculate about a series of connections between embassies, highlighting the existence of an efficient communication network among the Spanish legations, with its central hub in Rome.

Memory and Fiction in the Legacy of the Chapel of the Resurrection (1583-1881)

James W. Nelson Novoa — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

The article presents the legacy of the family chapel of the Portuguese converso merchant banker Antonio da Fonseca in what was once the national church of the Kingdom of Castile in Rome, Santiago de los Españoles as a project of careful memory elaboration. Through cultural patronage and the use of fiction regarding his family's past, Fonseca was able to obtain lasting grounding in the memory of the national church of Castile and the city of Rome for centuries. The publication of some unpublished documents from both the archive of the Spanish National Church and the National Historical Archive sheds light on a claim by the Amadei counts, descendants of the Fonseca family at the end of the 19th century over the chapel after the church left of being the national church of Castile in 1825. The claim of the counts, which was, for almost ten years, an important diplomatic matter between the Kingdoms of Italy, Spain and the Obra Pía. It demonstrates the extent to which the development of the memory of the Fonseca-Amadei family, together with the fictions created by the Portuguese banker, lasted several centuries.

The spiritual and material responsibilities of the archconfraternity of the Resurrection, of Rome (1579-1808), in 1603

José Antonio Calvo Gómez — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This historical research work aims to identify and interpret the responsibilities that, in 1603, the arch confraternity of the Resurrection, of Rome, had acquired throughout its first years of existence. At that time, the general congregation promoted the drafting of new statutes that better responded to the transformation of the institutional conditions recognized, in 1579, by the bull of Pope Gregory XIII. In 1591, Pope Gregory XIV had established that the small Roman brotherhood became an arch-brotherhood, head of each of the brotherhoods consecrated in honor of the resurrection throughout the Catholic Monarchy. The testamentary orders had gradually increased and it was appropriate to clarify the acquired responsibilities. The drafting of the Master book made it possible to identify the main documents that supported his actions, the statutes of 1582 and 1603, and the clauses of the wills of those who, in articulo mortis, had entrusted their assets to him to implement some works of charity, such as endowment of maidens, and the health of their souls, especially in the Eucharistic offering pro vivis et defunctis.

Approach to the Historical Context of Religious Persecution in Spain in the Early Decades of the 20th Century

José Jaime Brosel Gavilá — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In the first decades of the 20th century, the Church in Spain suffered a terrible persecution that led to the murder of thousands of Christians simply because they were Christians, as well as the destruction of a very significant part of its artistic heritage. At the root of this was an exacerbated anti-clericalism that sought to deprive religion of any social significance. This article explores the various social, political and religious factors that lay at the root of this situation, while describing chronologically the persecutory events, which reached their peak in the first months of the Spanish Civil War.

Las campanas de Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli

Alex Rodriguez Suarez — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

La historia y el arte de la Iglesia nacional española de Roma, conocida como la iglesia de Santiago, San Ildefonso y Santa Maria di Monserrato degli Spagnoli, ha sido objeto de investigación. Sin embargo, sus campanas no han suscitado hasta ahora ningún interés académico. Esta breve contribución se ocupa de estos artefactos, cuatro campanas datadas en los siglos XV, XVIII y XX. Se describen sus inscripciones y características artísticas y se las ubica en la evolución de la fundición de campanas en Roma. Además, se comentan dos documentos relacionados con una de las campanas (n.º 2), el contrato entre la iglesia y el fundidor de campanas y el recibo, que proporcionan detalles sobre la producción de la campana en 1746.

A national chaplaincy: the foundation of Pedro Marco Martínez in the Church of Santa María de Montserrat in Rome (XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries)

Daniel Ochoa Rudi — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In the present study we present a chaplaincy founded in the Church of Santa María de Montserrat by the Zaragoza merchant Pedro Marco Martínez in 1596. Among its main functions was to provide daily sustenance to the poor priests of the kingdom of Aragon in the Eternal City. In this way, we approach the biography of the founder and his social environment, as well as carry out an analysis of his testamentary provisions and the implementation of these by his testamentary executors.

The collection of the 'Partituras Antiguas' from the Musical Archive of the Spanish National Church in Rome

Gloria Nicole Marchetti — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

The present study aims to provide an initial survey of the contents of the «Partituras Antiguas» fund kept in the musical archive of Santa Maria in Monserrato in Rome. The fund, consisting of the liturgical production of the chapel of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, unpublished to date, is in fact in the process of being catalogued and covers a period ranging from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. This production, exclusively in manuscript, reflects the main ordinary and extra-ordinary celebratory activities that took place both within the Church of San Giacomo and those involving Piazza Navona; it is the music written for the latter activities that makes the «Partituras Antiguas» collection peculiar and unique. The study also presents profiles of the main composers who served at San Giacomo degli Spagnoli as titular or coadjutor chapel masters and of whom more than 90 autographs have been catalogued to date. Throughout the 18th century, the chapel masters of San Giacomo attracted the best instrumentalists and singers active in the city and in Roman theatres for extra-ordinary services. Moreover, as many of them were active opera singers on the Roman stage, they introduced forms, languages and new types of instruments into their scores for these functions. The rediscovery of the «Partituras Antiguas» fund brings to light the musical workshop that was the Chapel of St. James of the Spaniards and whose music, produced in little more than a century, is still unpublished. It is hoped that the publication of the catalogue will serve as a stimulus for the study and recovery of compositions related to the great extra-ordinary events of the celebrations in Piazza Navona with a view to their future edition and performance. Moreover, this collection could be a valuable source of research on the evolution of the way sacred music was written during the eighteenth century because it offers material ranging from the beginning of the century to the dawn of the nineteenth.

Cardinal Francisco Javier Zelada and the Devotion to Saint Campio in Galicia (18th-19th centuries)

Anxo Rodríguez Lemos — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In May 1795, a «saint called Saint Campio, sealed and closed in Rome with the formalities customary in such cases and in a wooden box», arrived at the Convent of Carmen in Santiago, accompanied by its authenticity certificate. The urn, containing «a human body in a deceased state», according to the recognition of the Archbishop of Compostela, Malvar y Pinto, had been sent to the Church of Santo Ourente de Entíns (Outes, A Coruña) by Cardinal Francisco Javier Zelada following its recovery from the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus in Rome. The canon of Compostela, Simón Díaz de Rábago, was commissioned by the Roman cardinal, Archdeacon of Santa Tasia, to act as a link between Rome and Galicia in the devotional dissemination of this corpi sancti sent to the northwest of the peninsula.

The volumes in Paris of the canonization process of Saint John of Avila

Juan Miguel Corral Cano — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In the Bibliothèque nationale de France there is a series of volumes from the canonization process of Saint John of Avila. These volumes had already been made known by the great Avila scholars of the mid-twentieth century, but they were not examined in depth. In this article we explain the historical context of these volumes, describe their content, and reflect on their academic interest. Their main interest, in addition to some usefulness in the biographical aspect, lies in the testimonies they collect about the enormous extent of Master Avila's fame for holiness, particularly outstanding along the 16th-18th centuries.

Gaietà Barraquer i Roviralta, Barcelona canon and church historian

Albert Montalbán Arenas — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This article exposes the life, ecclesiastical and scientific career of Gaietà Barraquer i Roviralta (1839-1922). It will discuss his university and religious training, his institutional journey in the diocese of Barcelona, and his scientific publications, which are of excellent documentary and methodological relevance and are famous for their content and object of study. Furthermore, his social circle, which belongs to the high Catalan ecclesiastical hierarchy of the time and is of great intellectual relevance, is studied. Finally, the death of the canon and the bibliographic legacy that he left is, today, in part, unknown. All this has been possible thanks to the author's contemporary press, as well as the documentation present in archives of various types and origins, also due to the existing bibliographical references, both contemporary to the author and current, which confirm the lack of knowledge of the life of a critical figure in the ecclesiastical historiography of Catalonia at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, famous for his works on the houses of religious, but not because of their role in the metropolitan diocese.

Fray Alfonso Ruiz de Virués and Erasmus of Rotterdam: new perspectives of an epistolary relationship

Alejandro Martín Bolaños, Manuel De Paz Sánchez — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

The present work constitutes an analysis of the five letters that have been preserved from the epistolary relationship that developed between the humanist and Erasmist friar Alfonso Ruiz de Virués and Erasmus of Rotterdam. In our opinion, the letters offer very valuable information regarding the unique friendship that was forged between the young Olmedan and the Roterodamense magister that can shed light on the issue, which today is not free of gaps and shadows. The analysis, in addition to leading us to delve deeper into the purpose of Virués' sending of the Collationes to Erasmus, reviewing the interpretations of the research that preceded us on the subject and providing new nuances in this regard, has allowed us to delimit and outline the details and stages of the relationship maintained, as well as giving Virués the relevant place that he deserves to occupy among the staunch Spanish Erasmians.

Jubilant devils. Cultural hybridisation in the diabladas in honour of Baroque Saints in the Colonial Andes

Eduardo Ángel Cruz — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This essay examines diabladas performed in honour of Counter-Reformation saints in the colonial Andes, with a particular focus on the cult of Isidro Labrador in Ichocán, Peru. Moving beyond the traditional anthropological emphasis on pre-Columbian influences and the historical analysis of the ‘demonisation’ of indigenous beliefs during the viceregal period, I argue that the diabladas served as a bridge between the preservation of indigenous religious identities and the colonial acculturation campaigns of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By analysing the Andean adaptation of a cult closely associated with Spanish colonialism, the article demonstrates that indigenous agency was not limited to overt acts of rebellion but was often expressed through subtle and sophisticated strategies of cultural intermediation. Finally, the article illustrates how Andean communities, by joyfully embracing the cults of new saints canonised in Baroque Rome, managed to sustain their ritual traditions—especially dances connected to agricultural life—despite the strict oversight imposed during the campaigns to ‘extirpate’ idolatry in colonial Peru.

75 años investigando

José Jaime Brosel Gavilá — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Miguel Ángel Dionisio Vivas. Victoriano Guisasola, el cardenal demócrata. Valencia: Ultreia, 2024, 379 pp. ISBN: 978-84-128605-1-1

Francisco Juan Martínez Rojas — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Josep Lluís Martos. Una trilogía de incunables inmaculistas valencianos. Valencia: Ultreia, 2024, 240 pp. ISBN: 978-84-128605-6-6

Anna Isabel Peirats Navarro — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

José Francisco Serrano Oceja. Iglesia y el poder en España. Del Vaticano II a nuestros días. Madrid: Arzalia Ediciones, 2024, 375 pp. ISBN: 978-84-19018-53-3

Francisco Juan Martínez Rojas — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100