The Jesuit Antonio Possevino was undeniably a man of his time. His biography provides a vivid account of some of the major events in the sixteenth century, recounted with the passionate authority of firsthand, sometimes even fervent, testimony.
Born in Mantua, with a likely Jewish ancestry, Possevino initially served as a tutor for the Gonzaga family, a court where Renaissance and humanistic culture thrived. After completing his studies in Padua, he entered the Society of Jesus and embarked on a series of politically sensitive missions. Possevino attempted to win the favor of the Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Savoy, against the Waldensians. Then he was in Lyon on the night of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and narrowly escaped from the Jesuit college in the city. He spent months trying to convert John III, King of Sweden, to Catholicism (possibly succeeding in this) and later mediated peace negotiations between Poland and Russia. He played a pivotal role in establishing Jesuit colleges across regions ranging from Transylvania to what is now Lithuania. Possevino also served the Pope in the matter of King Henri IV's conversion and was among the expelled Jesuits when the Pope issued the Interdict on Venice.
A dedicated member to the Society of Jesus, he held the position of secretary to the superior general Everard Mercurian. He vigorously opposed the limpieza de sangre policy introduced by the Jesuits, which sought to exclude new members with converso ancestry. His relationship with superior general Claudio Acquaviva was often marked by disagreements, particularly on political matters, including the political posture Jesuits should take toward Venice before and after the Interdict.
Not only could Possevino be found always on the ground when major events were happening, politically battling for the Roman Catholic Church, but he was also a relentless prolific author, one whose writings can still serve for us as antennas to have a grasp of the major trends in the culture of the times. His monumental works, such as the Bibliotheca Selecta and the Apparatus Sacer, are complex and encyclopedic, defying simplistic classification as mere responses to the Indexes Librorum Prohibitorum, as has been suggested in the past. In addition to these grand projects, Possevino published treatises, reports, speeches, and a wealth of pamphlets. He engaged in extensive correspondence with other authors, collaborators, and scholars, much of which is still preserved at the Jesuit archive in Rome (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu). Possevino was actively embedded in the political tissue of sixteenth-century society and proved to be an acute, sensitive observer of its cultural debates.
Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that Possevino had a theory about authority that he consistently applied to both his political actions and writings. Andreas Mazetti Petersson's recently published doctoral dissertation, sponsored by Uppsala Universitet, offers an intriguing and well-structured analysis of this theory.
Building upon the idea that Jesuit-shared ideas of rhetoric and accommodation are integral to Possevino's mindset, Mazetti Petersson takes readers on a semantic journey into some of Possevino's writings that are most relevant in outlining his concept of authority. In particular, Mazetti Petersson delves into the Apparato all'Historia, a volume that Possevino extracted from his Bibliotheca Selecta and published in Italian vernacular. He also examines the belligerent pamphlets Possevino wrote under pseudonyms during the Interdict period.
Through a thoughtful analysis, the volume guides readers from the concept of authority as a source for history, historiography, and human actions to the concept of authority as the subject of political legitimation. In short, Mazetti Petersson aims to demonstrate that Possevino regarded his literary production primarily as a political weapon to support the respublica christiana (what could be called the Catholic Commonwealth) and, most importantly, a form of education—a powerful tool for nurturing individuals by providing them with a coherent, holistic, and cohesive system of institutio christiana. The author derives this system from Possevino's adoption of the Latin term “cultura,” which encompasses both cultural and agricultural domains.
As Mazetti Petersson correctly says, “The establishment of sources for the proper cultivation of talents is embedded in [Possevino's] literary ambition and, as such is one of the most vital interpretative keys of his authorship” (69). Therefore, one of the main goals of Possevino's writings was that of proposing such a model of cultivation in dialectical opposition to what he calls “the fallacious culture,” which includes the Renaissance attitude of praising antiquity without consideration of what aspects of it could not be Christianized; contemporary authors who held opinions in conflict with the political power of the Roman Catholic Church; and, of course, the cultural production of non-Catholic, Protestant, or crypto-protestant authors.
Encapsulated within these major lines of the narrative, readers will also discover an intriguing chapter on Possevino's monistic concept of space and time. In this chapter, Mazetti Petersson convincingly argues that Possevino's distinctive approach was to trace all differences in the world back to the unity of the biblical God. Prime examples of this approach are found in Possevino's theory that all languages originated from Adam's language and his emphasis on world chronology, both of which play fundamental roles in his work De cultura ingeniorum. Furthermore, Possevino draws models of political legitimation from Scripture, particularly adopting the Mosaic model to counter Niccolò Machiavelli's and Paolo Sarpi's theories of the state.
While this analysis delves deeply into Possevino's concept of Catholic authority and the structure of the volume is clear, some readers may find some passages a bit redundantly theoretical for a study that could well stand on its own merits. Nevertheless, the reader will appreciate the main themes of this research, which are promising, rich, and likely just the beginning of a larger exploration.
