La verità svelata discorso in forma d'apologia del signor Othormando Evangelico Romita, nel quale si dimostra che la vendita del Monastero, Isole, e Fortezza di S.M. di Tremiti, la quale disegnavano d'effettuare i Superiori Maggiori della Congregatione de' Canonici Lateranensi, riusciva di gran pregiuditio, non solo alla già detta Congregatione de' Lateranensi, mà parimente alla Maestà Cattolica, che Dio guardi. Con che si dà esatta notitia delle Ragioni del pieno, et assoluto dominio, che la Maestà Cattolica tiene sopra la Fortezza di Tremiti et si risponde adeguatamente à i motivi che i predetti Superiori Maggiori appalesarono in iscritto per difendere la loro risolutione. Impressa in ††, nelli XIIII. di Febraro MDCLXXVI

THE ABBEY-FORTRESS OF SAN NICOLA IN THE TREMITI ISLANDS

4to (209cx150 mm). [8], 142, [2 blank] pp. and an engraved allegorical frontispiece of the Truth. Collation: [π]⁴ A-S⁴. Nicely bound in contemporary richly gilt morocco, spine with four raised bands, gilt edges (worn and rubbed, bottom of the spine missing, joints weakened and partly cracked). On the front pastedown bookplate of the bibliophile Arturo Dazza. Small marginal holes to the first two leaves not affecting the text, half title soiled, some occasional foxing and light browning.

Rare first edition of this polemical work in which the author challenges the attempt of the Lateran fathers to sell the famous abbey-fortress “S. Maria” of San Nicola in the Tremiti Islands in favor of the Celestine fathers.

Founded in the 9^th century by the Benedictines as a direct dependency of the Abbey of Montecassino, in 1412, by order of Gregory XII, after the refusal of several religious orders, a small community of Lateran fathers, coming from the Church of San Frediano in Lucca, moved to the island to repopulate the ancient religious center. They restored the abbey complex and enlarged its buildings. In 1567 the abbey-fortress managed to resist the attacks of the fleet of Suleiman the Magnificent. The abbey was later suppressed in 1783 by King Ferdinand IV of Naples, who in the same year established a penal colony on the archipelago.

Romita bases his arguments on historical-legal facts, arguing that the alienation would have been detrimental not only to the Lateran Order, but also to the rule of the King of Spain over the Tremiti Islands.

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\NAPE\006795; Piantanida, Autori italiani del ‘600, no. 997; Lozzi, 5558.

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