Operae
The series Monumenta Sirletana Romanae Curiae presents a multi-volume critical edition of Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto’s (1514- 1585) complete correspondence and unpublished works. Cardinal Sirleto is considered one of the most productive Church prelates of sixteenth-century Rome. During his lifetime, he established himself as one of the most esteemed cardinals in the Roman Curia due to his erudition, ultimately earning himself the moniker of il sapientissimo Calabro ("the all-knowing Calabrese"). Sirleto’s vast correspondence and his numerous unpublished works attest to the important role he played in shaping Roman and papal ecclesiastical government in Reformation Europe. For the first time in modern scholarship, the critical editions published in the series Monumenta Sirletana Romanae Curiae provide access to Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto’s numerous works and his literary correspondence, which are held as manuscripts in the archives and libraries of Rome and the Vatican. The edition comprises three sections: Section A (Epistolarium) contains Sirleto’s letters in five volumes, Section B (Operae) his works in twelve volumes. Section C (Regestae) consists of the registers of his letters in five volumes.
Guglielmo Sirleto has generally been acknowledged as a crucial contributor to defending the papacy’s claims over St Peter’s primacy, including the apostle’s legendary arrival to Rome before his martyrdom. Sirleto established himself as a pivotal prelate, who assisted Pope Paul IV in rearranging the ceremonial apparatus for the solemn celebrations of the Cathedra Petri (St Peter’s Throne).
Scholars, however, were unable to properly examine his De praestantia basilicae Vaticanae, because the manuscripts of this discourse were never completely identified. The edition of this treatise will therefore primarily provide a reconstruction of Sirleto’s working methods in readjusting the ceremonial solemnities prescribed for the feast day of the Cathedra Petri according to Curial Ceremony.
The second discourse concerns, on the other hand, a description of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline Hill, which Sirleto composed for the Cardinal Bishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo. In contrast to the edition of the first discourse in this volume, the Trattato sopra la chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore is presented according to the correspondence between Borromeo and Sirleto.
