Descrizzione dell'entrata dell'Illustriss., e Reverendiss. Monsig. Ascanio Piccolomini, alla possession del suo arcivescovado in Siena, il dì xxj di novembre 1589

4to (203x147 mm). [4], 91, [1] pp. Collation: †² A-L⁴ M². Piccolomini's woodcut coat of arms on the title page. Roman and italic types. Woodcut ornament and initials. Contemporary flexible vellum (worn and soiled, spine repaired). On the title page ownership entry of the Senese musician Ettore Romagnoli (1772-1838). Some occasional pale foxing and staining. A good, genuine copy.

First and only edition. Ascanio was born in Siena around 1548 into the branch of the Piccolomini family that could boast descent from Enea Silvio, Pope Pius II. He first studied literary and legal studies at the University of Perugia, and then at the University of Bologna. Upon returning to Siena in the late 1570s, he pursued a career in the Church. However, he also had the opportunity to engage actively in the city's cultural life, particularly through his involvement with the circles of Scipione Bargagli and Bellisario Bulgarini. His interest in poetry and linguistic issues - the subject of lively debate in Siena - is evidenced by a vocabulary list, now apparently lost, which he is said to have compiled during this period with the aim of selecting Italian words that were acceptable in literary discourse. In June 1585, Orazio Lombardelli dedicated his punctuation manual, L'arte del puntar gli scritti (Siena, 1585), to him.

In 1579, despite his young age, Piccolomini was appointed coadjutor to the Archbishop of Siena, Francesco Maria Bandini, with the approval of Pope Gregory XIII, who on this occasion assigned him the archbishopric of Rhodes. The appointment included the right of succession, so that when Bandini died in 1588, Piccolomini inherited the role of archbishop. However, he did not take full possession of this new office until the end of 1589, probably due to health problems. The importance of the event, as well as the spectacular manner in which it was managed, is recorded in the Descrizione dell'entrata dell'Illustriss. e Reverendiss. Monsig. Ascanio Piccolomini alla possessione del suo arcivescovado in Siena, il dì XXI novembre 1589 (Siena, 1590), written by Scipione Bargagli. The volume provides an in-depth account of all the stage sets prepared for the event, which involved the active participation of political and ecclesiastical authorities. It also includes numerous poems written for the occasion (pp. 61-91), both in the vernacular by Diomede Borghesi, Bellisario Bulgarini, Flavio Figliucci and Scipione Bargagli, and in Latin by members of the Accademia Partenia, a Jesuit-controlled institution in Siena. Piccolomini soon set about reorganising the bishopric, which, due to the absence of his predecessor, was in need of realignment with the decrees of the Council of Trent. He also oversaw the restoration of the family palace known as delle Papesse, as well as the reorganisation of Siena's churches. During this period, his collection of poems, mostly written in his youth, was published for the first time (Siena, 1594). Piccolomini died in Siena on 13 May 1597 (cf. F. Tomasi, Piccolomini, Ascanio, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 83, Rome, 2015, s.v.).

“After Siena's incorporation into the Medici state, traditional civic functions such as the priors' two-monthly entrances into office were no longer marked with public processions and festivities. But ecclesiastical functions were another matter, and the lingering desire to celebrate things Sienese found an outlet, at least on one occasion, in the welcome given to Siena's newly elected archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini on 21 November 1589, when he made his formal entrance into the city to claim possession of his bishopric. The date of the festivities was approved beforehand in Florence by the grand duke, though the ceremonies were devised by the Sienese. The archbishop, in the words of Scipione Bargagli, who wrote an account of the event, was received ‘according to the usual custom and ancient usage of his beloved homeland'. And as Bargagli makes clear, it was a reception equal in grandeur to any that might have been given an emperor or a grand duke. As might be expected, music, vocal and instrumental, sacred as well as secular, played a prominent part in the various events scheduled throughout the day. The procession that was to march to the city's gates to greet the archbishop assembled at the cathedral's main portal after the sounding of the bells. Heading it was a huge banner with an image of the Virgin. This was accompanied by thirty pairs of youngsters dressed as angels in long white robes, all of them bearing Palm fronds. In their wake, one after the other, were various companies of priests, all dressed in their distinctive robes. In their wake, one after the other, were various companies of priests, all dressed in their distinctive robes. Following were a number of individuals costumed to represent personifications of virtues and vices such as Pride, Liberality, Chastity, Patience, Abstinence, Charity, Envy, and Diligence, they too accompanied by a group of angels. Behind them walked another angel, richly garbed in a bishop's cope, ‘holding the crosier of the glorious saint Ansano in one hand'. Escorting him on either side were two young angels and behind were twenty more angels walking two abreast, ‘who together with the others ahead of them gracefully sang Iste Confessor', apparently in plainchant. Then came the confraternities and religious companies of lay people in good number and the monks and brothers, followed by all of the other priests and clerics of the diocese and the cathedral canons. Preceding them was the baldachin under which the new archbishop would be received and behind them the Opera's banner with representations of city's four patron saints. Bringing up the rear were four youths representing the moral virtues, and after them, various other groups of marchers. The baldachin was in place at the city's outside gates when the archbishop arrived and under it he was given a cross to kiss. Then, ‘with great reverence and devotion he knelt and kissed the ground, whereupon the chapel singers from the duomo were heard joyously singing Ecce sacerdos magnus'. This was sung a cappella and may very well have been Victoria's setting of the text (1572), a copy of which was in the cathedral library. A Latin oration was pronounced before the procession recommenced. Entering through the city's gates, the procession slowly made its way to the cathedral. En route, the crowd's ovations were such that ‘one could not sing with words nor describe with pen the great noise and joyous sounds that were heard all at once', as the archbishop walked from place to place, past the Porta Romana under the Arco, past the churches of San Galgano, Santa Maria de' Servi, San Maurizio, and San Giorgio, all of whose facades were adorned with banners bearing Latin mottos and painted canvases. The decorations at the church of San Giorgio were particularly notable and included a throne adorned with the Piccolomini coat of arms -five half-moons forming a cross- below which were depicted the five virgins of biblical lore. The throne wat placed in the little piazza and street outside the church. This was covered by a painted canvas depicting the sky that extended from the church roof to the roofs of the houses opposite. The walls surrounding the throne were draped in blue cloth and reached from the roof to the pavement. From the sky above, suspended in air, ‘the personification of Religion, dressed in white with a mitre in her right hand and a model of the duomo in her left', descended to earth, slowly and imperceptibly, on a round cloud. As she did so, she sang the hymn Pontifex noster domini urbem in a very sweet voice'. Bargagli further explains that it was a boy singer who depicted Religion and that ‘behind [him] were a portable organ, a lute, bass viols, and other musical instruments, which accompanied his singing with very sweet harmony, and to this the echo within the church apposite made some response'. Clearly, this was music especially composed for the occasion, perhaps monodic, to judge from the description, though it could just as easily have been written in four or five parts, only one of which was sung. In any case, its similarity to the various kinds of music performed at the renowned Medici wedding festival that same year is certainly worthy of note. Arriving at the cathedral, the archbishop entered through the middle portal and proceeded to the main altar, which was adorned with the church's most holy reliquaries and richest silver, silk paraments, and cloths of gold, resplendent with the light of a thousand candles. ‘There the archbishop prayed devotedly to God on behalf of all and devout praises sounded from both the chapel singers and the organ, giving thanks to His divine majesty'. The archbishop was then conducted to his throne, whereupon the cathedral provost and all of the priests came and knelt before him. A number of speeches followed, among them one by the archbishop himself. At the conclusion of the ceremony he was accompanied to the doors of the bishop's palace, where more speeches were made. The palace had been richly decorated with paintings of allegorical and historical figures. Activities continued into the night, and at sunset the little square in front of the palace was illuminated with the light of candles, held by bands of people standing there, and from the glow of tapers placed in the windows of all of the buildings surrounding the square -the hospital, the Opera, the church, and the bishop's palace. Thunderous sounds, almost like cannon fire, were heard, and then from the cathedral's bell tower came ‘the most solemn and joyous sound of the trumpets'. Meanwhile in the square a joyful concerto of trombones, curtals, flutes, cornetts, and other wind instruments filled everyone with pleasure and reawakened, or rather increased, in the souls of all citizens what was there already from the day of the entrance'. The crowning moment of the evening's festivities was the lighting of candles in a lantern placed at the top of the bell tower. Rays of various colors streamed forth, amid the joyous sounds of the bells in the tower and of bells elsewhere in the city, and it was a sight ‘deemed wondrous by all' ” (F.A. D'Accone, The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Chicago-London, 1997, pp. 675-677).

Scipione Bargagli was the brother of Girolamo Bargagli, author of the renowned Dialogo de' giuochi (Siena, 1572). After studying philosophy at the Jesuit College in his hometown of Siena, he joined the Accademia degli Intronati under the name “Schietto” and became a highly sought-after orator. He delivered speeches at the wedding of Francesco de' Medici and Joan of Austria and at the funeral of the humanist Alessandro Piccolomini, and an oration in praise of academies. He was at the centre of Siena's cultural life in the last decades of the 16^th century, publishing an important treatise on emblems, Dell'imprese (1578-1594), as well as the dialogue I trattentimenti (1587). He later became a member of the Accademia Veneziana and was knighted by Emperor Rudolph II, who also made him a Count Palatine (cf. N. Borsellino, Bargagli, Scipione, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 6, Rome, 1964, s.v.).

Edit 16, CNCE4208; USTC, 812311; D. Moreni, Bibliografia storico-ragionata della Toscana, Florence, 1805, I, p. 85.

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