Donation for condemned & indigent prisoners. Unrecorded Turin document.

[Death Penalty] / [Prisoners]. Misericordiam et veritatem diligit deus. Confesso io sottoscritto Confratello del M. Venerando Oratorio di S. Gioanni Decollato detto della Misericordia della presente Città … [Torino], s.n., signed 21 June 1781. 4to [25.7 x 17.5 cm], [1] f. letterpress form filled out in manuscript, with woodcut of head of John the Baptist on a charger. Laid to paper, toned spots at top and bottom of sheet, pencil annotation at top right corner.
 
 
Record of a donation made in 1781 by a certain Giochim Ancquier to the Oratorio di S. Giovanni Decollato (known as the Misericordia) in Turin, a document notable for the large woodcut of the severed head of John the Baptist on a charger at the top of the sheet. Founded in 1578, this confraternity had as its mission the comforting of those condemned to death and the care of indigent prisoners, and it counted among its members “many cavalieri, and women, and several convents of nuns” (Guida de’ forestieri per la Real Città di Torino [Torino: Rameletti, 1753]).  
 
 
This form is not recorded in OPAC, OCLC or KVK.
 
*G. Muzio, A. Scarantino, M.  Scarantino, et al., La Confraternita di San Giovanni Dacollato detta della Misericordia di Torino (1541-1866); L’arciconfraternita S. Giovanni Battista decollato e patronato liberati dal carcere detti della Misericordia, nel VII cinquantenario della fondazione in Torino: Studi e ricerche (1928).