Gli agenti presso la Santa Sede delle comunità e degli stati stranieri. II: Secoli XVIII-XX

Matteo Sanfilippo – Péter Tusor (ed.)

Gli agenti presso la Santa Sede delle comunità e degli stati stranieri II. secoli XVIII-XX. a cura di Matteo Sanfilippo, Péter Tusor, (Studi di storia delle istituzioni ecclesiastiche 9) Viterbo: Sette Citta 2021.

The initiation of the series of conferences, which introduce the relations of the Holy See’s diplomacy with the (nation-)states is the result of the academic cooperation of the Fraknói Research Group and the Università della Tuscia of Viterbo. The operational framework of the agents in Rome, who represented certain local churches, national communities, namely the representatives in the 19–20th century was analysed on the conference in 2019 that was organized in the Instituto Nationale di Studi Romani. The volume of studies containing ten essays in Italian and in English besides the foreword of the editors examines this topic.

Through the examination of the Polish agents’ activities, Alessandro Boccolini states that the Polish historians carried out research in the Vatican Archives to find out whether the three castles and thirteen towns in Szepes – that were pawned by Sigismund of Luxembourg for the Polish crown – were only owned by rights of mortgage law, therefore, they had to give them back to Hungary. Gaetano Platania examines the issue of the agents through the life of Tommaso Antici, while Antonio Salvatore Romano from the Sicilian point of view. Andreas Gottsmann analyses the activity of the K. u. K. Agentie für Geistliche Angelegenheiten, which was founded by Charles III and represented the daily church affairs of the Danubian Monarchy in the Eternal City up until 1918. Oliver Panichi deals with a unique, Eastern-focused segment of the Propaganda Fide’s activity in the 18–19th century. Luca Codignola analyses the British, Canadian and American agential activity of Robert Gradwell, the rector of the Collegio Inglese, while Matteo Binasco touches upon the topic from Irish angle, and Matteo Sanfilippo examines the question’s Canadian relations. Krisztina Tóth introduces the Franciscan procurators of the 20th century by analysing the activity of three procurators of the general order – that was performed for the sake of Hungary –, Bernardinus Klumpere, Callistus Zuccottie and Aloysius Susáe. Finally, Balázs Rétfalvi presents the Piarist General Vince Tomek’s role in the Vatican diplomacy.