Crowning the Madonna delle Grazie icon at Montepulciano. 1 U.S. copy.
Relazione della incoronazione della prodigiosa imagine della SS.ma Vergine detta delle Grazie di Montepulciano. In Roma: presso Ottavio Puccinelli, nel vicolo de’ Cartari, 1742. 4to in 8s [21.8 x 16.4 cm], [1] f. title, III-XIV pp., [1] f. integral blank, with woodcut device on title. Disbound. Remnants of sewing string. Fore-edge a bit toned, otherwise very well preserved.
Rare (1 U. S. copy) first and only edition of the account of the official ceremonies surrounding the crowning in 1741 of the Marian icon at the Carmelite church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Montepulciano. The ritual coronation of Marian paintings had become widespread in Italy by the middle of the 18th century, but only occasionally were separately issued reports printed, and then usually only in small numbers, and so today such items are scarce.
The Relazione della incoronazione della prodigiosa imagine della SS.ma Vergine detta delle Grazie di Montepulciano records how the Carmelite brothers applied to Rome for papal approval and received patronage not only to have the gold crown financed, but also to have the church partially renovated in advance of the ceremonies (gilded bas-reliefs on the ceiling, gilded stucco “alla Cinese” [p. iv], etc., all of which still can be seen in the church today). Mentioned is the history of the miraculous Madonna (it had been attacked by a dissipated, card-playing youth and bled). There follows a full account of the multi-day festivities, including information on grandees in attendance, the shape of the ceremonies, descriptions of ephemeral decorations “dipinto a chiaro scuro” (with inscriptions displayed on banners made of cartellone), special indulgences granted, etc.
Although the crowning of statues and paintings occurred occasionally in antiquity and the Middle Ages, the early modern practice of canonical coronation began with the Capuchin friar, Jeronimo Paolucci di Calboldi di Forlì (1552-1620), who in 1601 crowned the Madonna now enshrined at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. He continued the practice of icon coronation, and at his death the mission was taken up by Count Alessandro Sforza Pallavicini (he is mentioned in this account), who later bequeathed a quantity of gold to the Chapter of St. Peter’s as a coronation endowment.
“The canons were charged with the responsibility of judging the merits of the representations to be made on behalf of particular cases, according to the quality of the miracles and the antiquity of the cult. The model in broad terms was the process used for the canonization of saints. Roman goldsmiths made the crowns to measurements supplied by the petitioners, and the formal ceremony of coronation would follow, performed with an apposite liturgy either by a local minister or upon special request and payment, by a cardinal dispatched from Rome. A copy was to be made of each crowned images, to be retained at St. Peter’s. Between 1631 and 1981, when the Chapter of St. Peter’s ceased to be involved, about 1,000 Marian images were crowned in this way … Local and unlicensed coronations of images [took] place after the early seventeenth century; but the prestige of the Roman ceremony made it enormously attractive, even—perhaps especially—to small communities with limited resources” (Garnett & Rosser, p. 130).
OCLC, KVK and OPAC locate copies of the Relazione della incoronazione della prodigiosa imagine della SS.ma Vergine detta delle Grazie di Montepulciano at the Biblioteca nazionale centrale Roma, Victorian & Albert Museum, and University of Dayton.
* IT\ICCU\BVEE\109720; Pellegrino da Forlì, L’apostolo della Madonna, ossia Il cappuccino istitutore della pubblica e solenne incoronazione delle sante immagini di Maria; Ottavio da Alatri and Anselmo da Remo, “L’incoronazione delle immagini mariane,” L’Italia francescana, 8 (1933), pp. 159–80, 308–18, 415–31, 530-42, 651-65; Guglielmo Marcocci, Montepulciano: chiese esistenti ed esistite; Mario Dionori, Le Grazie: La chiesa e l’antico organo; Jane Garnett and Gervase Rosser, Spectacular Miracles: Transforming Images in Italy from the Renaissance to the Present.