Educating the Catholic nobleman

Projects and Models in Padua and Poland

Abstract

In the 1560s and 1570s, Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Commendone (1524–1584) and his secretary Antonio Maria Graziani (1537–1611) were entrusted with important papal commissions in German and Polish lands, gaining a deep understanding of the political and religious situation of Central-Eastern Europe. The role of these two papal diplomats is highlighted by their political archives, an extraordinary collection of documents which has been the subject of the research project The Nuncio’s Secret Archives: Papal Diplomacy and European Multi-denominational Societies Before the Thirty Years’ War (NSA), financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. This rich documentation, in particular, underscores the importance of Padua in the network of relationships established by Commendone and Graziani. They frequently returned to the university city during breaks in their Alpine missions, taking part in circles and gatherings, and meeting with Venetian patricians, professors, and foreign students. In this context, the correspondence between Graziani and the Polish student Mikołai Tomicki —the son of a prominent nobleman who had embraced the Reformation —is of particular significance. A parallel reading of the letters written by Graziani and those written by Tomicki reveals the educational project offered to the young Pole by the two papal envoys. Moreover, it sheds light on the perspective of Commendone and Graziani, in which diplomacy and culture were closely intertwined.

Riferimenti bibliografici

Graziani Archive, Vada (Livorno), Fondo Antonio Maria Graziani (AGV, FAMG), 62B.

Kenneth Spencer Research Library of Kansas University, Lawrence, GrazianiCommendone Collection, ms. 87, 23r-25v.

New York Public Library, Manuscript and Archive Division, MssCol 603, G.F. Commendone, Diplomatic Correspondence, 1563–1565.

Acta Nuntiaturae Polonae, III/1: Aloisius Lippomano (1555-1557), ed. Henryk Damian Wojtyska (Romae: Institutum Historicum Polonicum, 1993).

Poggiani Giulio, Epistolae et orationes alim collectae ad Antonio Maria Gratiano nunc ab Hieronymo Lagomarsinio e Societate Jesu adnotationibus illustratae ac primum editae (Rome: Generoso Salomoni, 1758).

Spicilegium Romanum, VIII, ed. Angelo Mai et al. (Rome: Tipografia del Collegio Urbano, 1842).

Barycz Henryk, Polacy na studiach w Rzymie w epoce Odrodzenia (1440-1600) (Kraków: Nakł. Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, 1938).

Bem Kazimierz, Calvinism in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth 1548-1648.

The Churches and the Faithful (Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2020).

Bonora Elena, Giudicare i vescovi. La definizione dei poteri nella Chiesa postridentina (Rome–Bari: Laterza, 2007).

Cipriani Giovanni, La mente di un inquisitore. Agostino Valier e l’Opusculum De cautione adhibenda in edendis libris (1589-1604) (Firenze: NICOMP, 2008).

Odrzywolska-Kidawa Anna, Biskup Piotr Tomicki (1464–1535). Kariera polityczna i kościelna (Warszawa: Semper, 2004).

Pietras Tomasz, Oporowscy herbu Sulima. Kariera rodziny możnowładczej w późnośredniowiecznej Polsce (Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2014).

Pizzorusso Giovanni, Governare le missioni, conoscere il mondo nel XVII secolo.

La Congregazione de Propaganda Fide (Viterbo: Settecittà, 2018). Pociūtė Dainora, La Riforma in Lituania (Turin: Claudiana, 2021).

Almasi Gabor, “Studenti padovani in Europa centrale e orientale nel Cinquecento”, in Stranieri. Itinerari di vita studentesca tra XIII e XVIII secolo, ed. Maria Cristina La Rocca, Giulia Zornetta (Rome: Donzelli editore and Padova University Press, 2022), 165–181.

Barzazi Antonella, “Fuori dalle aule: circoli e accademie”, in Libertas. Tra religione, politica e saperi, ed. Andrea Caracausi, Paola Molino, Dennj Solera (Roma: Donzelli editore and Padova University Press, 2022), 121–136.

Barzazi Antonella, “Vielmi, Girolamo”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 99 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2020), 209-211.

Benzoni Gino, “Dolfin, Giovanni”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 40 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1991), 511–519.

Biedrzvcka Agnieszka, “Tomicki, Mikołai”, in Polski słownik biograficzny, 54 (Warszawa-Kraków: IH-PAN, 2022), 326-328.

Bonora Elena, “Comprendre et décrire un autre monde. Le voyage d’un nonce dans l’Europe des confessions et du pluralisme religieux (1560-62)”, in Le Langage et la foi dans l’Europe des Réformes, ed. Tiphaine GuillabertMadinier, Julien Ferrant (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2019), 215–224.

Caccamo Domenico, “Commendone, Giovanni Francesco”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 27 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1982), 606–613.

De Caro Gaspare, “Caligari, Giovanni Andrea”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 16 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1973), 711–717.

Koller Alexander, “Lippomano, Luigi”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 65 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2005), 243–246.

Kosthorst Lotte, “Studiare trans Alpes. La mobilità degli studenti di area germanica verso lo Studio di Padova (XV-XVII secolo)”, in Stranieri. Itinerari di vita studentesca tra XIII e XVIII secolo, ed. Maria Cristina La Rocca, Giulia Zornetta (Rome: Donzelli editore e Padova University Press, 2022), 51–62.

Marsili Marcella, “Graziani, Antonio Maria”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 58 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2002), 801–804.

Miziołek Jerzy, “The Bishop Piotr Tomicki Chapel in the Cracow Cathedral, and its Altarpiece Depicting «The Adoration of the Magi»”, in Die Jagiellonen. Kunst und Kultur einer europäischen Dynastie an der Wende zur Neuzeit, ed. Dietmar Popp, Robert Suckale (Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2002), 385–394.

Nuovo Angela, “The Creation and Dispersal of the Library of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli,” in Books on the Move. Tracking Copies through Collections and the Book Trade, ed. Robin Myers, Michael Harris, Giles Mandelbrote (Newcastle–London: Oak Knoll Press–British Library, 2007), 39–67.

Solera Dennj, Valente Michaela, “La Patavina libertas nell’età della Controriforma”, in Libertas. Tra religione, politica e saperi, ed. Andrea Caracausi, Paola Molino, Dennj Solera (Roma: Donzelli editore and Padova University Press, 2022), 167–184.

“Tomicki, Jan”, in Encyklopedia katolicka, vol. 19 (Lublin: TNCUL, 2013), 767.

Bonora Elena, “Come s’egli non fusse al mondo. Paolo IV e l’Europa”, Tiempos modernos 37/2 (2018): 361–386.

Bonora Elena, “Gli archivi segreti del nunzio”, Riforma e movimenti religiosi 12 (2022): 177–184.

McCuaig William, “Andreas Patricius, Carlo Sigonio, Onofrio Panvinio, and the Polish Nation of the University of Padua”, History of Universities 3 (1983): 87–100.

Piacentini Marcello, “Qualche nota sul soggiorno padovano di Mikołai Tomicki e di alcuni suoi connazionali”, Romanica Cracoviensia 2023: 349–359.

Pubblicato
2025-06-25
Come citare
Barzazi , A. (2025). Educating the Catholic nobleman: Projects and Models in Padua and Poland. Rocznik Filozoficzny Ignatianum, 31(2), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.35765/rfi.2025.3102.6
Sezione
Związki polskich elit z kulturą Republiki Weneckiej