RINUCCINI, Gio. Battista. Il Cappuccino Scozzese. Di Monsignor Gio. Battista Rinuccini Arciuefcouo, e Prencipe di Fermo. All ‘Illustriss Signore, Padron Colendiss. Il Signor Christosoro Schinchinelli Conte di Cafal Buttano, e Prencipe dell’ Accademia delli Animofi.

Cremona: Peril il Belpiero Comlic. De Super, 1645. 12mo. pp. [2], 213, [1], + Imprimatur leaf at end. Engraved armorial shield on titlepage. Contemporary full calf. Covers framed by triple black fillets. Lacking original strings. Early owner’s signature crossed out in ink. A fine copy.
COPAC locates 1 copy only. WorldCat 1.
Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592-1653) was born in Rome. Educated by the Jesuits at Rome and in courses of law at the Universities of Bologna and Perugia, he was ordained a priest, having at the age of twenty-two obtained his doctor’s degree from the University of Pisa. He was accepted into the Accademia della Crusca. Returning to serve his uncle at Rome, although a fever permanently damaged his health, he won distinction as an advocate in the ecclesiastical courts. He was a noted legal scholar and became chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV, who made him the Archbishop of Fermo. He is best known for his time as Papal Nuncio to Ireland during the Irish Confederate Wars (1645-49) during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Rinuccini became the dominant figure of the Clerical Faction of the Confederate leadership, pushing for greater concessions to the Catholic Church in any treaty of alliance with Irish Royalists.
Rinuccini returned to Rome, where he wrote an extensive account of his time in Ireland, the ‘Commentarius Rinuccinanus’. His account blames personal vainglory and tribal divisions for the Catholic disunity in Ireland. In particular, he cites the treachery of the Old English in Ireland for the Catholic defeat. The Gaelic Irish, he writes, despite being less civilised, are more sincere Catholics.