Rare books 23: Reading the Small Print

In a volume of bound pamphlets, a learned encomium for Saint Simon Stock (circa 1165-1265), the English Carmelite who, according to legend, had a vision of the scapular. This list of great deeds and good was delivered, it seems, by Andrea Mastelloni (1641-1723) Neapolitan Carmelite in the presence of Cardinal Decio Azzolino (1623-1689) in the Roman titular church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in 1680. (Naples, 1680) Notes: The magnifying glass was the only way to read the engraved title page. Transcription of early imprints requires capitalisation as given in the text, contrary to the Rules for modern books. Fortunately, the BLOCK LETTERING for important people and places is no longer required, a style of rare book cataloguing let go of in the middle of the last century. Scholars interested in the legend of the Marian devotion and its promotion will find this document invaluable. It is also a charming footnote for those who follow the fortunes of Cardinal Azzolino, one of the Vatican’s best cryptographers, capable not just of analysing the indecipherable small print but knowing how to interpret it for political advantage. Azzolino is thought by many historians to have been more than just the papal appointee to the court of Queen Christina of Sweden.  He handled her financial affairs and they wrote many letters over a lifetime. Pope Alexander VII shifted him to Romania to allay suspicions. On the 26^th of January 1667, Christina wrote (in French) that she never would offend God or give Azzolino reason to take offence, but this "does not prevent me from loving you until death, and since piety relieves you from being my lover, then I relieve you from being my servant, for I shall live and die as your slave". Azzolino’s wiki follows this stunning declaration with the enigmatic note: ‘Maintaining celibacy, his replies were more reserved.’