Bound for Francesco Borghese, Captain General of the Saint Roman Church

Palazzolo (Palazzuolo), Cesare (fl. 16th-17th century).

Il Soldato di Santa Chiesa per l’institutione alla pieta de i cento mila Fanti, & de i diece mila Soldati à cavallo delle Militie dello Stato Ecclesiastico. Sotto Paolo Quinto Pontefice Massimo. Co’l Regolamento delle dette Militie, posto in luce dal sig. Cesare Palazzuolo Gentil’huomo Milanese, & Romano, & Generale Commissario, & Collaterale del detto Stato Ecclesiastico. Per ordine dell’Illustrissimo, & Eccellentissimo Signore Francesco Borghese fratello di sua Santità, & Generale di Santa Chiesa. Rome, Luigi Zannetti, 1606.

First edition of this important work, likely Palazzolo’s presentation copy to the dedicatee of the work itself, Francesco Borghese, whose coat of arms is stamped on its fine binding.
Francesco Borghese, Duke of Rignano, was the younger brother of Camillo, who had been elected Pope as Paul V on 16 May 1605. Since his ascent to St Peter’s throne, the pope had vigorously fought for the development and reinforcement of the Papal Army and named his brother Generale di Santa Romana Chiesa, i.e., Captain General of the Saint Roman Church. In this context, the Milanese nobleman Cesare Palazzolo – Generale collaterale, i.e., the general inspector for the papal armed forces – was commissioned with the redaction of the present work, which contains not only the outlines of the reform, but above all its theoretical justification. The work traces the spiritual basis of the disciplined soldier and re-defines military duties in terms of Christian piety. The soldiers of the Pope should be not only well organized and courageous, but also disciplined and devoted. The pattern of conduct proposed by Palazzolo is thus dual natured, both military and religious.

As noted, Palazzolo dedicates his book to Francesco Borghese, whose coat of arms as Captain General of the Saint Roman Church stands out on the title-page. The same coat of arms, with its well-known Borghese-affiliated design of alternating heraldic dragons and eagles, also stands out on the covers and spine of the fine binding housing the copy of Il Soldato di Santa Chiesa presented here, presumably the very copy gifted by Palazzolo to Francesco Borghese.

The handsome gilt-tooled vellum binding was executed – as the gold-tooling clearly attests – in the most renowned and sought-after workshop then active in Rome, that run by the Soresini binders, who worked for the papal court as well as other high-profile clients from the 1590s to ca. 1630. Credit for this particular binding may belong to Baldassare Soresini, who was so active for the Borghese family that he was known as the ‘Borghese Binder’. The choice of such a refined atelier could therefore reveal Palazzolo’s intention of offering this copy to an outstanding recipient, as indeed Francesco Borghese was.

STC 17th century Italian 642; G. Vianini Tolomei, “I ferri e le botteghe dei legatori”, Legatura romana barocca. 1565-1700, pp. 31-2, and pls. i-ii; G. Brunelli, Soldati del papa. Politica militare e nobiltà nello Stato della Chiesa (1560-1644), Rome 2003, ad indicem; Idem, “Cultura politica e mentalità burocratica nei carteggi dell’organizzazione militare pontificia (1560-1800)”, A. Jamme – O. Poncet (eds.), Offices, écrits et papauté (xiiie- xviie siècles), Rome 2007, pp. 301-310.