Talk:Marco Antonio de Dominis

Article needs work

Hello, I found this page as a hit on google under my name. I have done in 1994-95 the background work for the article on Marcantonio de Dominis you have put in the bibliography. As such I accessed not only most of the secondary literature about him but also the papers held about his trial by the Venetian Inquisition and of the roman one, the latter held by the Collegium Romanum Propaganda Fide (s. Uffizio).

I fear that the article, especially when refers to avarice and greedness of M.A. de Dominis as a fact is dependant too much from the article on the Chatolic Enyclopaedia. And I find this inaccurate and partisan.

I saw the extensive corrections of the inquisitor hand on mansuscripts of the minutae of de-Dominis's own recusation of his work on "the Republica Ecclesiastica", kept in the s. Uffizio Archive, and I believe that the account of this passage of the life of the Archibishop has to be emended: he left england because the pope was a old friend, and once in the hands of the inquisitions he have been used for political purpouses to the extent possible. Once not useful anymore he has been dumped by his protectors, imprisoned and let die in a cell.

Another aspect that is neglected in this article (but is of outmost importance) is the contribution of de Dominis to science, especially in relation of two archivements of the age: the telescope (he has been acknowledged by Newton as the first to publish a theory explaining the phaenomena) and in regard to the theory of the tides. Both his scientific books have a strong anti-galileian trait, and the last, (that is also the last thing he publishes), is crucial to the interpretation of modern science in relation to antiquity. On the particular case of the theory of the tides the work quoted in the bibliography is surpassed by the book published by Lucio Russo in 2003 on the subject (see below) (I don't know yet of a translation in English).

The peculiarty of this figure of herudite in possess of "fragments" of scientific results in a context that is not yet scientific in the modern sense is an impressive and important case for historiography of science as well, as it is well expressed and documented in our paper.

I am not very used to the mechanics of the wikipedia, but I am willing to cooperate to improve this article on such aspects.

Best regards

Federico Bonelli

ref. Lucio Russo (2003): Flussi e riflussi: indagine sull'origine di una teoria scientifica, Feltrinelli

More material to add

We have indications that Bishop Overall was highly favored by the would-be intellectual King James I. Bishop John Cosin, friend and former secretary of Bishop Overall, relates that in 1616 the king sent John Overall to meet the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Spalato, Primate of Dalmatia, who was in conflict with the Pope and who wished to live in England (see: “The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, John Cosin, Lord Bishop of Durham. Now First Collected. Volume the Fourth: Miscellaneous Works,” Oxford: John Henry Parker. MDCCCLI, pp 469-471: Account of Conference between Spalato and Overall).

Bishop Cosin wrote an account that leaves no doubt as to the important role of Bishop Overall in this affair:

A[rchbishop]. Spalato came into England in 1616, being desirous to live under the protection of King James, having before been recommended by Padre Paolo. By King James's bounty and care he was safely conveyed through Germany into England, and lodged in Lambeth Palace: Abbot thinking fit to retire to Croydon, till either Bishop Andrews or Bishop Overall had conferred with him. The King sent Bishop Overall to him, who took in his company his secretary [Cosin], and commanded him to be near him the same morning Spalato arrived, to hear what passed between them.

After dinner, some other being present, the discourse began about the state of the Church of England; of which Overall having given a large account, Spalato received great satisfaction, and made his protestation, that he came into England then to live with us in the union and profession of that Catholic religion, which was so much obstructed in his own country, that he could not with safety and peace of conscience live there any longer. Then he added what satisfaction he had received from the monitory preface of King James to all the Estates and Churches of Christendom; wherein the true ancient Faith and Religion of the Catholic Church is set forth, and no heterodoxies or novelties maintained; to the defense of which Faith, and service of which Church, as he had already a long time applied his studies, and wrote ten books De Republica Ecclesiastica, so, by the favour of God, and King James, he was now come into England to review and publish them, together with the History of the Council of Trent, which he had brought with him from Padre Paolo of Venice, who delivered it into his hands; by whom he was chiefly persuaded and encouraged to have recourse to the King and the Church of England, being the best founded for the profession of true Catholic doctrine, and the freest from error and novelties of any Church in all places besides.

Then they descended to the particular points of doctrine, and abusive practices, &c.; in all which the Archbishop agreed with the Bishop, and said, that they were all, either the fond opinions and bold practices of private men, or the ungrounded conceits and conclusions of the school men, or the papal decrees of Innocent III., Eugenius IV., and other Popes who succeeded them, but no determinations or decrees of the Catholic Church.

He [Spalato] wrote a compendious history of his own life in English, to which he put this Latin title: Vitae meae ab initio, i.e. ab anno 1595, usque ad praesentem annum 1665, brevis enarratio; of which I have seen a small fragment: the rest lost. The English title in another paper is this: "A brief and true enarration of the whole course of my life, set forth in the annals thereof from the year 1595 to this [present year 16—."

Camden’s always terse diary entry on Spalato was:

16 November 1616. Mark Anthony de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Dalmatia, hating the abuses of the Catholics, came to England, and at the King’s command was entertained in the household of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The result of this intervention by Bishop Overall was that Marco Antonio de Dominis, Dean of Windsor and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Spalato (consecrated at Venice using the Tridentine Pontifical in October 1600), on the 14th December 1617, assisted Archbishop Abbot at the consecration of Nicholas Fenton, Doctor of Sacred Theology, rector of St. Mary-of-the-Arches, London, and George Mountaigne, Dean of Westminster, elected, respectively, Bishops of London and of Ely, with the Bishops of Rochester, Lichfield [surely Overall], and Spalato laying on hands, and Dominus Sutton delivering the sermon. The participation of Spalato was a form of giving additional weight to the consecrations.