Life
?1592-1653; b. Rome; ed. by Jesuits and at Univ. of Bologna, then Perugia
and Pisa; Archbishop of Fermo, 1625; Papal Nuncio to the Confederation
of Kilkenny in Ireland, 1645-49 (‘Pro Deo, Pro Rege, Pro Patria Unanimis’);
instructed by Pope Innocent X to secure freedom of religion for Catholics,
to arrange for the installation of Catholic viceroys in Ireland; and to
gain eligibility of Catholic bishops to the Irish House of Lords [DNB:
promote Catholic supremacy]; arrived Kenmare Bay on board San Pietro,
1645; objected to truce presented by Ormond, 28 March 1646, as failing
to guarantee the place of Catholicism; excommunicated accordingly all
Catholics who signed the truce [var. of 1648] with the ‘heretic’
viceroy; Commentarius Rinuccinianus compiled by two Capuchins,
1661-62, and written in vindication of his conduct at the Confederation
of Kilkenny; includes reports, correspondence, memoirs, copied from originals
preserved in the Vatican Office of Propaganda; unfavorable to Old English
and also to Luke Wadding; his correspondence with the Pope and other prelates,
together with his own final “Report on Affairs of Ireland”,
were translated from Gaiazza’s Italian edition by Annie Hutton and
issued as Embassy in Ireland (1873). DNB OCIL
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Works
R O’Ferrall & R. O’Connell, [eds.,] Commentarius Rinuccinianus
de sedis apostolicae legatione ad foederatos Hiberniae catholicos per
annos 1645-1649; compiled by Fr Barnabas O’Ferrall and Fr Daniel
O’Connell and edited from the Manuscript by Fr Joaness Kavanagh [Fr.
Stanislaus], 6 vols. [Dublin: Irish MSS Commission 1932-49), 8o.
Annie Hutton, trans. & ed., Embassy in Ireland 1645-49 (Dublin [Abbey St.]: Alex. Thom 1873) [infra].
Thomas Moore includes Rinuccini’s “Relazione della Battaglia d’Ultonia Seguita fra i Cattolici e gli Scozzesi” in Thomas Moore (History of Ireland, 1846, pp.289-90, dealing with the Battle of Benburb [Bemborbending : ‘Dei nostri son morti solamente ettanta, e fra questi un Sig. principale Ultoniese, ma venturiere. Cento soli feriti uno dei quali è il colonnello Fenel percosso in una spalla, che se è segnalato fra gli altri con inredibil bravura.’ The Irish leaders are ‘Generali Eugenio e Felice O’Neil’, Rinuccini himself is Monsignor Nunzio’, and the Scottish Protestants are called ‘gli Puritani’.
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Criticism
Michael J. Hynes, The Mission of Rinuccini, Nuncio Extraordinary to
Ireland 1645-49 (Dublin: Browne & Nolan, 1932) 332pp.
Annie Hutton, trans., Embassy in Ireland 1645-49 (1873
Edn.), “Introduction”.
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael, Amsterdam: Blom: 1986), p.297.supra.]
Thomas Bartlett, reviewing Michelle O’Riordan, The Gaelic Mind and the Collapse of the Gaelic World (1991), in Linen Hall Review, April, 1992, pp.18-19.
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Notes
Frank O’Connor (Book of Ireland, 1959, p.176), spells ‘Rinucinni’, with date ‘c. 1641’ [but note that his
own hist. calendar gives nuncio’s arrival correctly as 1645]; also
quotes, ‘No nation in Europe is less given to industry or is more
phlegmatic than this. They do no concern themselves with ecclesiastical
or political amelioration.’ See also Irish Booklover, Vol.
2.
J. C. Beckett, The Making of Modern Ireland (1987), Bibl. cites S. Kavanagh, ed., Commentarius Riniccinianus, 6 vols. (Irish MSS Commission 1932-49; here p.487).
R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), bio-note, p. 47, remarks that he opposed all peace proposals that failed to provide for full recognition of Catholicism and the appointment of Catholic Viceroys and excommunicated those involved in the April truce of 1648.
Norman Vance, Irish Literature: A Social History (Basil Blackwell 1990), cites R O’Ferrall and R. O’Connell, [eds.,] Commentarius Rinuccinianus [1658], 6 vols. (Dub: Stationary Office 1932-49).
British Library holds An Inquiry into the Share, which King Charles I. had in the Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, afterwards Marquis of Worcester, for bringing over a Body of Irish Rebels to assist that King, in the years 1645 and 1646 in which Mr Cart’s imperfect account of that affair, and his use of the MS. memoirs of the Pope’s nuncio Rinuccini, are impartially consideredl; the whole drawn from the best authorities printed and manuscript [By Thomas Birch, D.D.] London: A. Millar 1747), viii, 343pp., 8o.; G. Aiazzi, Nunziatura in Irlanda di Monsignor G. B. Rinuccini ... negli anni 1645 a 1649, pubblicata per la prima volta su’MSS. originali [...] con documenti illustrativi, per cura di G. Aiazzi (Firenze [Florence] 1844), lxviii, 486pp., 8o.; [trans. as] A. Hutton, The Embassy in Ireland of ... G. B. Rinuccini ... translated for the first time into English (Dublin 1873), 8o.; The Papal Nuncio (Archbishop Rinuccini) among the Irish Confederates, 1645-1649 [and extract from ‘Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Irland’] translated from the German [...] by the Rev. W. McLoughlin (Dublin: Catholic Truth Society of Ireland: 1908), pp. viii. 73, 8o.; Commentarius Rinuccinianus de Sedis Apostolicae legatione ad foederatos Hiberniae catholicos per annos 1645-1649. Florentiae opus susceperunt atque absolverunt per annos 1661-1666 Fr. Pater Richardus-Barnabas O’Ferrall [and] Fr. Pater Robertus-Daniel O’Connell. Nunc primum e fontibus totum edendum curat Fr. Pater Stanislaus-Joannes Kavanagh, 6 vols. (Dublin: Newport B. White 1932-49), Synopsis and indices, 8o.; The Mission of Rinuccini, Nuncio Extraordinary to Ireland, 1645-1649 (Dublin: Browne & Nolan [printed in Louvain] 1932), xxiii, 332pp., map., 8o.
Library of Herbert Bell (Belfast) holds bound copies of The Papal Nuncio among the Irish Confederates, trans. from German of Very Rev. Dr Alphonsus Bellesheim, canon of Collegiate Church of Aix la Chapelle, trans. the Rev. W McLoughlin, Pt. I (Dublin: CTS 1908), 32pp; 2nd Pt., pp.34-73. Note, Marsh’s Library holds papers.
Michael Hynes (author of Mission of Rinuccini, 1932) is variously listed as Doctor of Science & History, Louvain, and Professor at St. Mary’s Seminary, Cleveland, Ontario.
Dionysius Massari, dean of Fermo, sec. to Archbishop Rinuccini, letter to Rinuccini’s brother, in Florence (1645): ‘The men are fine-looking and of incredible strength, swift runners, and ready to bear every kind of hardship with cheerfulness. They are all trained in arms, especially now that they are at war. Those who apply themselves to letters are very learned, and well fitted to the professions and sciences. / The women are distinguished by their grace and beauty, and they are as modest as they are lovely. Their manners are marked by their extreme simplicity, and they mix freely in conversation on all occasions without suspicion or jealousy. Their dress differs from ours, and is somewhat like the French. They also wear cloaks reaching to their heels and tufted locks of hair, and they go without any licad-dress, content with linen bands bound up in the Greek fashion, which display their natural beauty to much advantage. Their families are very large. Some have as many as thirty children, all living; not a few have fifteen or twenty, and all these children are handsome, tall and strong, the majority being fair-haired, white-skinned and red-complexioned. / Food is abundant, and the inhabitants eat and entertain very well. They are constantly pledging healths, the usual drinks being Spanish wines, French claret, very good beer and excellent milk. Butter is used abundantly with all kinds of food. . . . There is also plenty of fruit -apples, pears, plums and artichokes. All eatables are cheap. A fat ox costs sixteen shillings, a sheep fifteen pence, a pair of capons, or fowls, five pence; eggs a farthing each, and other things in proportion. A good-sized fish costs a penny, and they don’t worry about selling game. They kill birds almost with sticks. Both salt and fresh water fish are cheap, abundant, and of excellent flavour. [...] The horses are numerous, strong, wellbuilt, and swift. For five pounds you can buy a nag which in Italy could not be got for a hundred gold pieces.’ (Quoted in John Philip Cohane, The Indestructible Irish, NY: Hawthorn Books 1969, p.107.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)