Conferring a doctoral degree in 18th-cent. Florence: You’re invited! Unrecorded.

[University of Florence]. Excellentissime Domine. Jubente Excellentiss. P. Magistro Almae Universitatis Florentinae Decano Theologorum, conveniemus in Metropolitanam Ecclesiam die [3] Mensis [7mbr] ab hora [9] ad horam [10] ante Meridiem ad Doctorem creandum cum Gal. Ego [Petrus Massai] Dict. Univ. Canc. & Archiv. [Florence]: s.n., [early 18th century(?)]. Single sheet [20.5 x 14.1 cm], [1] f. letterpress form filled out in manuscript, with woodcut borders and woodcut initial, manuscript notes on verso. Minor toning and soiling. 
 
Unrecorded early 18th-century letterpress form used to notify/remind faculty members and other notable figures at the University of Florence of an upcoming conferral of a doctoral degree. Ephemeral material of this sort rarely survives from this era. The new doctor (unnamed) was scheduled to be “created” on 3 September between 9 and 10 A.M. at the Metropolitan Church (e.g., Florence Cathedral). The form is signed by a certain Petrus Massai.
 
The use of a letterpress blank form for this task suggests that in scheduling such an appointment word of mouth could not be relied on and that such events occurred often enough and involved enough people that a printed form provided some convenience over the use of manuscript reminders. The woodcut border (putti cavorting in foliage) provides a modicum of formality, but the fact that the sheet was printed on wastepaper (dense manuscript notes on Peter Lombard’s Sententiae are to be seen on the verso) suggests that among faculty members the formality of arranging degree conferral meetings extended only so far. 
 
The document is not dated by year, and although the somewhat archaizing woodcut border might recall 16th- or 17th-work, the woodcut initial would seem to date from the early 18th-century. If this is the case, then the Petrus Massai who signed the form is likely the ‘Abate Pietro Massai’ who in 1748 questioned University of Florence doctoral candidates on astronomical topics (Novelle letterarie pubblicate in Firenze, vol. 9 [1748], cols. 386 & 388) and/or the ‘dottore Pietro Massai’ who in 1755 wrote the Lettera del dottore Pietro Massai sopra il dialetto rustico de’ greci e de’ latini.  
 
 
This letterpress form is not recoded in OCLC, KVK or OPAC.
 
*Constitutiones, et decreta sacrae Florentinae Uniuersitatis theologorum (1683); Lettera del dottore Pietro Massai sopra il dialetto rustico de’ greci e de’ latini all’editore dell’Idillio erotico di Francesco Baldovini (Florence: Riccardi, 1755); Novelle letterarie pubblicate in Firenze, vol. 9 (1748), cols. 386 & 388.