doi.org
Staging a Christian World and Shaping the “Orient(s)” in the Apostolic Palace (ca. 1560–1630)
Abstract This study, based on largely unpublished primary sources, examines the incorporation, display, and reconfigurations of the “Orient(s)”—a Western-constructed concept encompassing multiple decontextualized cultural realities—within the Vatican Apostolic Palace during the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the first quarter of the seventeenth century. It brings to light, in several cases for the first time, the early modern papal Kunst- und Wunderkammern, the palatine treasures, the Vatican Library, Castel Sant’Angelo and other spaces in which artefacts and natural marvels from Asia, America, and Africa were preserved, exhibited and reframed within new schemes. The Apostolic Palace constitutes a unique case embodying the collections, worldview, and agenda of the head of a religious state in Europe that articulated a Christianized vision of a proto-global world tied to spiritual authority. Particular attention is given to the materialities associated with the Orient(s) and their politico-theological and ideological valences, as well as to their interaction with apostolic spaces and their role in shaping the Holy See’s early modern worldview. The study privileges a focus on East Asia—an especially documentable and revealing context—while also considering the Ottoman Empire, and opening a comparative perspective on practices involving other early modern “Orient(s).” Ultimately, this inquiry constitutes a critical step not only toward recovering and reconsidering dematerialized proto-global histories, but also to assess the Holy See’s engagement with the world through these histories, the construction of Orientalism, and the significance of the Vatican’s ethnographic collections today.
![They are Fools that Reason thus,
Communis Error facit Jus [kə-
ˈmju:-nɪs ˈer-ə ˈfeɪ-sɪt ʤᴧs].
(Robert Dixon, Canidia, or the Witches (1683), XVI.718–19)
To what Absurdities will you hale us?
Semel malus semper præsumitur esse malus
[ˈsi:-məlˈmeɪ-ləs ˈsem-pə prɪ-
ˈsᴧm-ɪ-tɜ:
ˈes-i:ˈmeɪ-ləs].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vpepa7tkir7iaia3risvyjc6/bafkreie6gpnktsjiv44h7m2hmp6wwhsixbaegpuoauu7yfa6lrdykejaeq)
![Culpam in Jovem rejicias [ˈcᴧl-pəm ɪn ˈʤəʊ-vəm rə-ˈʤɪʃ-əs],
Say’twas the Gods, not you that were vicious.
(ibid. XVI.1073–4)
To prove that Peers should never vary,
Nor Leges Anglice mutari [ˈli:-ʤi:zˈæɳglɪ-si mju:-ˈteə-ri]35
.
(Thomas Tickell, For England’s Injured Church and Law (1730), lines 79–10)
Watches, when first invented– seek’em,
In brother Trusler’s Vade Mecum[ˈveɪ-di:ˈmi:-kəm].
(William Mason, King Stephen’s Watch. A Tale (1782), lines 13–14)
Your subtile spirits, or your mighty,
Your aqua fortis, aqua vitae [ˈæk-wə ˈfɔ:-tɪs, ˈæk-wə ˈvaɪ-ti:].
(Thomas Holcroft, Human Happiness, or the Sceptic (1783), I.151–2)
With nonsense in verse can elate and delight’em,
And gives them variety ad infinitum [æd ˌɪn-fɪ-
ˈnaɪ-təm].
(Anthony Pasquin, The Children of Thepsis (1789), Part II.795–6)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vpepa7tkir7iaia3risvyjc6/bafkreifzhr2r4fcwtvbsm2n6swodsrycanniohaz2xu5fvqikxf3a32dyq)
![But peace to her– her Emperor and Diet,
Though now transferred to Buonapartè’s ‘fiat’ [ˈfaɪ-ət].
(Byron, The Waltz: An Apostrophic Hymn (1813), lines 55–6)
But that, indeed, was hopeless as can be,
Quite a poetic felony‘de se’[di: si:].
(Byron, The Vision of Judgement (1822), XCIV.751–2)
And had told all the party a great booming lie, he
Cook’d up, that‘the fête was postposed sine die’ [ˈsaɪ-ni:ˈdaɪ-i:].
(Thomas Ingoldsby, The Lay of St Cuthbert (1840), lines 74–5)
So unless you’re a dunce, You’ll see clearly, at once,
When you come to consider the facts of the case, he,
Of course never gave her his Vade in pace [ˈveɪ-di: ɪn ˈpeɪ-si:].
(Thomas Ingoldsby, The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey (1840), lines 263–5)
Your thoughts, opinions, freely state’em.
Then, here they follow seriatim [ˌsɪə-ri-ˈeɪ-tɪm].
(Robert Story, Reply to an Epistle from Mr. Gourley (1857), lines 31–2)
May thy hand be fierce as Ate’s [ˈeɪ-ti:z]
Fighting for our old Penates [pe-ˈneɪ-ti:z]
(Lady Wilde, The Old Man’s Blessing (1864), lines 13–14)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vpepa7tkir7iaia3risvyjc6/bafkreih3k6z37bfspfsdcpdy434dgi4evq44twfnvl7jucsgen4vf5uzs4)
