Immaculate Instruction: A Brescian Book of Indulgences

[Church / Indulgences].

Brescia, Appresso Iacomo, e Policreto Turlini, 1580.

Libro dell’indulgenze, gratie, e stationi che sono in Roma, concesse alla Confraternita della Immaculata Concettione, Posta nella Chiesa di San Francesco di Brescia. Per esser unita con l’Archico[n]fraternità di san Lorenzo in Damaso di Roma.

8vo (14 x 9 cm), 80 pp. With a full-page woodcut illustrations, several woodcuts in text, and ornamental woodcut vignettes. In carta rustica. Ink stain on inside of back cover. Overall, very good.

An exceedingly rare (with no copies recorded in OCLC) pocket-sized booklet, published in 1580 for the Franciscan-observant Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Church of San Francesco in Brescia. It details the indulgences and privileges, granted under unification with the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Conception of San Lorenzo in Damaso of Rome. A rare and fascinating example of the intersection of Catholic institutional reform and popular religiosity at the end of the sixteenth century, it is also a testament to increasing veneration of the cult of Virgin Mary. The book provides valuable insight into early modern lay piety, penitential culture, sacred geography, and the intense bureaucracy of the Tridentine church.

The portable Latin and Italian booklet opens with an address from the famed cardinal Alessandro Farnese, patron of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Conception of the Church of San Lorenzo in Damaso, his titular church (and minor basilica), which notes the privileges bestowed on the archconfraternity in 1537 by Pope Paul III. The publication closes with a 1476 testament by Brescian master general of the Franciscan Order, Francesco Sanson, affirming devotion to the Immaculate Conception, addressed to both lay sisters and brothers. This dogma was contested in the sixteenth century and was staunchly defended by the Franciscans at the time.

The text provides a monthly calendar of specific indulgences throughout the year. Confraternity members, by virtue of their affiliation with the archconfraternity, could earn these remissions of sin upon reciting three Pater Nosters and three Ave Marias at designated churches on their pilgrimage (p. 16). Listing indulgences for the seven principal churches of Rome, it also provides notable indulgences to acquire at other Roman churches. It closes with an affirmation of devotion to the Immaculate Conception—contested dogma in the sixteenth century that was staunchly defended by the Franciscans, often in publications like this to popularize and legitimize the doctrine.

Confraternities—lay brotherhoods and sisterhoods dedicated to charity and pious devotion—grew in popularity in the sixteenth century, encouraged by the Tridentine Church in order to promote lay religiosity. Popular Marian devotion increased as well, with the Virgin becoming the focus of confraternities and religious organizations in this era. Confraternities “remained a major part of Italian society until the eighteenth century... They are a key to the religious spirit of the age, as the arenas of lay piety, or ‘religiosity’ in a non-pejorative sense. Their social and religious rituals remained important in defining and patterning social relationships... The confraternities played a significant role in various cultural ways” (Black, pp. 21-22).

Indulgences could only be earned through a prescriptive formula, hence the need to inform newly united confraternities, like that in Brescia, of the specifics concerning indulgences afforded to members upon incorporation. Confraternity aggregation facilitated Catholic Reformation goals of streamlining and standardizing church organization, calendars, customs, and popular religious practices. This guide is therefore not only a manual to inspire lay piety and participation but is also an administrative document meant to ensure religious uniformity amongst confraternity members (and the laity at large) while also promoting piety, pilgrimage, and the purchase of indulgences.

The ornamental vignette on the title page features a papal figure kneeling to venerate the crucified Christ. The full-page woodcut illustrates the seal of the archconfraternity of San Lorenzo in Damaso with the image of Virgin Mary crowned Queen of Heaven after the Assumption. The woodcut above the colophon depicts Saint Francis receiving the stigmata during his vision of a crucified seraph, a frequent motif in Franciscan iconography.

There may exist only ten extant pamphlets from other Italian confraternities of the Immaculate Conception, each unique. The Brescian Libro Dell’Indulgenze is the earliest of these, and the sole exemplar of its locale. The OCLC locates no institutional copies. Censimento Nazionale delle Edizioni Italiane del XVI Secolo (EDIT16) lists a related copy from 1583.

With thanks to Nazanin Sullivan.

*Black, Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century (2003).

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