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A Culture for the Christian Commonwealth: Antonio Possevino, Authority, History, and the Venetian Interdict by Andreas Mazetti Petersson (review)

2024; The Catholic University of America Press; Volume: 110; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cat.2024.a921740

1534-0708

Emanuele Colombo,

Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

Reviewed by: A Culture for the Christian Commonwealth: Antonio Possevino, Authority, History, and the Venetian Interdict by Andreas Mazetti Petersson Emanuele Colombo A Culture for the Christian Commonwealth: Antonio Possevino, Authority, History, and the Venetian Interdict. By Andreas Mazetti Petersson. [Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia historico-ecclesiastica Upsaliensia, 53] (Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 2022. Pp. 347. $28.59. ISBN: 978-9-15-131553-9.) Diego Laínez, the second superior general of the Society of Jesus, once wrote that his fellow Jesuit Antonio Possevino was a man who "understood more in a fortnight than others managed to comprehend in many years." Notwithstanding this, Laínez acknowledged that Possevino's strong temperament might have rubbed some brethren the wrong way, and his brilliant insights might have appeared utopian to many. Examining Possevino's life, it must be admitted that Laínez was right. Born in Mantua in 1533, Possevino was initially trained as a humanist and served as a tutor to two future Gonzaga cardinals before joining the Society of Jesus in 1559. As a novice, he was sent to Piedmont to negotiate the founding of a Jesuit college and engage in theological debates with the Waldensians. Subsequently, he spent almost ten years in France preaching, writing, and organizing Jesuit colleges. In 1573, Possevino was appointed secretary of the Society of Jesus, a role that immersed him in correspondence with Jesuits worldwide. Over the following years, he undertook diplomatic missions for the pope, including to Scandinavia (1577–80), Poland–Lithuania and Muscovy (1581–82), and Transylvania (1583–84). In 1587, Superior General Claudio Acquaviva recalled him to the Jesuit College at Padua. Possevino then turned to writing, producing his most significant work, the Bibliotheca Selecta (1593–1603–1607), a monumental bibliography influential in the Jesuit network and pivotal in shaping the Jesuit pedagogical code, the Ratio Studiorum. Despite Possevino being frequently quoted and the publication of numerous articles on specific aspects of his life, a comprehensive biography since the eighteenth-century work by the French Jesuit Jean Dorigny has been lacking. Hence, Andreas Mazetti Petersson's book is commendable for attempting to identify a unifying criterion to comprehend the complexity of Possevino's views. The author argues that, throughout Possevino's extensive career and in his numerous publications, he sought to identify a unifying culture for the community of the visible Catholic Church in Europe and Catholics overseas. Possevino believed that this unity required a correct interpretation of the past (history) and an understanding of the pope's role (authority). The book is divided into three parts. The first traces Possevino's career milestones and identifies key features of early modern Jesuit culture (highlighting the role of rhetoric and accommodation). The second part analyzes the Apparato all'historia, an excerpt from the Bibliotheca selecta published independently in Latin and Italian (the author studied the 1598 Italian edition). This text provides evidence of Possevino's conception of culture and his critique of the Renaissance's tendency to praise antiquity indiscriminately without considering its shortcomings, which were overcome only with the advent of Christianity. The third and longest part discusses [End Page 178] Possevino's views during the Venetian Interdict Controversy. Mazetti Petersson analyzes three texts authored by Possevino during the "war of writings" (1606–07)—a significant contribution, considering that these three short books have been mostly ignored by historiography; one of them, entitled Nuova risposta, is available in the appendix of an essay by Mazetti Petersson published in 2017 by Uppsala University. In these pamphlets, Possevino defended the papal interdict against Venice and identified in the spiritual and temporal authority of the pontiff the unifying element of the Catholic commonwealth. Precisely because of the richness of this research, it is unfortunate that the author published his doctoral dissertation rather than reworking it into a fully developed book. The consequences of this choice are at least three. First, the connections between the three parts are often unclear and remain implicit; an overall revision could have clarified the common thread, eliminating some repetitions and redundant passages. Second, the editing of the text could have been more careful, as several errors are left in the text and bibliography, doing a disservice to the book. And third...