THE REFERENCE TEXT ON ST. CHARLES BORROMEO

Giussano, Giovanni Pietro.Vita di San Carlo Borromeo prete cardinale del titolo di Santa Prassede, arciuescouo di Milano. Scritta dal dottore Gio. Pietro Giussano nobile milanese. Rome: Stamperia della Camera Apostolica, 1610.

4to, contemporary limp vellum, pp. (10), 716 (i.e. 692), (54). Woodcut coats of arms of pope Paulus V, surrounded by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, woodcut inhabited headletters.

Frontispiece with a xylographic portrait of Saint Charles at the age of 47 years.

Original edition of the reference text on Saint Charles Borromeo's life.

Saint Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584) was a cadet son of a noble family of the Northern Italy, destined to become a prelate at the age of twelve. After being a brilliant student at the university of Pavia, he was called to Rome by his uncle, pope Pius IV, and made cardinal in his twenties. He helped in the organization of the Council of Trent and took part in it: after this experience, he was sent to Milan in order to head the diocese where disorders and immorality have been rampant for long. He imposed a series of reforms meant to revitalize spirituality and frugality, and kept himself a demeanor of abstinence and severity that on the one hand made him a thorn in the privileged people's side, on the other, gained him the admiration of the poors who wanted him to be saint soon after his death. His preferred motto was the single Latin word Humilitas (humility).

References: IT\ICCU\TO0E\003058. OCLC, 6644985.

Light waterstains, but a fine and unsophisticated copy, in its original vellum binding.