Vittoriano
CICLO: Una capitale internazionale: Roma e gli stranieri.
RELATORE: Gaetano Platania
DATE: Thursday 26 June, 6 pm
People have always travelled (and still travel today) for different reasons. For political or diplomatic necessity, for strictly family business, for study, military, economic reasons, as simplex servus Dei, or, in the words of Michel de Montaigne, for profitable exercise. In addition to these typologies, there is also a particular form of travel that falls squarely within the need to reach a certain place to perform a certain task. In the particular case I am going to present, it is the going ‘elsewhere’ undertaken by two members of the Polish magnate nobility who arrive in Rome with the aim of renewing their act of obedience to the pope. An ancient act of great political significance that took place through a complex and colourful ceremonial and scenographic ritual. The reasons for declaring allegiance to the Roman Pontiff were closely linked to the political relations that existed between the Catholic princes and the Holy See as well as the desire to renew the spiritual bond with the successor of Peter particularly at the beginning of the pontificate.
Two pompous and festive embassies of obedience will therefore be presented. The first, by Jerzy Ossoliński, the second by Michał Radziwiłł, both ‘extravagant’ characters in their solemn entrances to the city, both hiding the need to best represent their respective sovereigns eager to submit to papal power as well as discuss politics and overcome, if possible, the many large or small differences that existed between the two courts (Warsaw and the Holy See)
