# Memoria, e Narrazione riguardanti alla Chiesa de' R.R. Padri della SS.ma Annunciata di Parma ('History and Account of the Church of the Most Reverend Fathers of the Most Holy Annunciation in Parma'). Manuscript on paper in Italian and Latin. [Parma?, ca. 1777]

**Autore:** Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Parma
**Dati Editoriali:** S.D.
**Codice Archivio:** 151
**Prezzo:** 2000 USD
**Stato Commerciale:** Disponibile
**Link Ufficiale Collezione:** https://www.govirarebooks.com/products/parma-ss-annunziata-memoria-narrazione-1777

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## Descrizione Accademica e Analisi
Folio (311x215 mm). [2] pages, 74 numbered in the upper right corner, plus one additional leaf at the end, not part of the main text. Complete. Written in a single, elegant, and very legible hand, in a single column with footnotes. Period cardboard binding covered with colored paper, handwritten label with inked title on the front cover (minor losses on the spine). Slight foxing and occasional faint staining, but overall in excellent condition.An interesting manuscript, apparently unpublished, which recounts in an extremely accurate and detailed manner the history of the construction of the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Parma, whose building work began under Ottavio Farnese in 1566 and was completed around 1650.The pre-existing church, assigned in 1445 to the Observant Friars Minor, was torn down in 1546 as a result of the demolition of all buildings located against or near the city walls, ordered for defensive purposes by Duke Pier Luigi Farnese. The Franciscans were then temporarily housed at the parish of San Gervaso and Protaso, which was later ceded to them and transformed into the new church and convent of the SS. Annunziata. The construction of the new church was entrusted to the architect Giovanni Battista Fornovo, a student of Vignola. At the time of the laying of the cornerstone, through a papal bull dated 1566—which is quoted in full in the manuscript—Pius V assigned the rights and assets of the new church to the Observant Friars Minor.The author of the lengthy report then relates the subsequent history of the church's construction, from the financing of the work through alms and donations to the succession of custodians and “church wardens” (a report by architect Domenico Campanino states that the church was covered with a “simple roof” in 1616, “with the planned facade and the entire exterior wall still to be completed,” p. 36), from the changes and additions made during construction to the various historical vicissitudes—such as the collapse of part of the temporary roof in 1626 and the occupation of the cloister by French troops (1734) and Piedmontese troops (1742)—, from the completion of the church and the convent to the various petitions submitted from time to time to seek new funds, from the description of the interiors (including the numerous precious objects that were moved from the old church to the new one) to the account of the expenses incurred for the construction and maintenance of the monumental complex. The author also includes the inscription on the commemorative plaque erected in 1726, focusing on its content, which he harshly criticizes for its numerous historical errors.The final section of the report (pp. 71-74 and the final appendix), titled “Additional Memoirs,” describes the renovations carried out between 1771 and 1776. On that occasion, architect Antonio Brianti designed a new high altar in polychrome marble, flanked by angel heads and floral ornaments in bronze, which was crafted by the Ticino sculptor Francesco Albertolli. Brianti also redesigned the organ façade and the two choir lofts. The new altar—for which the manuscript also provides a detailed breakdown of all costs—was unveiled on Christmas Day 1776, while a few months earlier, on June 12 of the same year, the convent's guardian and provincial minister of the order, Francesco di Cortemaggiore, had solemnly placed a casket containing the relics of the Holy Martyrs Vincent and Pellegrino; since the casket had room for other relics, the author also provides instructions on how to open it in the event that “any other more distinguished relic, or the entire body of a saint, should be placed there, since sufficient space has been left” (p. 73).The last unnumbered page of the manuscript, added at the end and written in a different hand only on the front, contains a sort of statement, dated March 1777, in which Francesco Albertolli declares that he was an “eyewitness” to the placement in the urn of the casket containing the relics of Saints Vincent and Pellegrino, “indeed, I nailed shut the very same casket containing the same relics, and authenticated it in the presence of all the aforementioned gentlemen and a young man named Bernardo Realini of Besascio, in the province of Lugano, who assisted me in carrying out this task.” The page also contains a list of those present at this important event.Francesco Saverio Albertolli of Bedano (b. 1701) was the founder of the “Ticino family of artists—painters, architects, and stucco artists—who, in the 18th century and the early decades of the following century, played a significant role in Northern Italy in the renaissance of the drawing arts, which were turning toward neoclassical forms” (cf. P. Mezzanotte, Albertolli, in: "Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani", vol. 1, 1960, s.v.).As for the author of this report, it seems likely that he could be identified with Father Flaminio Bottardi of Parma (d. 1766), who studied the history of the churches of the Observant Friars Minor in the province of Bologna (see below). Among his manuscripts preserved in the archives of the Convent of the SS. Annunziata in Parma is one bearing a posthumous addition (as in our case) concerning the “construction of the two choir lofts and the marble high altar, work carried out in the years 1771 and 1776” (cf. G. Dotti Messori, Convento francescano dei frati minori osservanti della SS. Annunziata di Parma: inventario, 2008, p. 21).

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## Bibliografia di Riferimento
Flaminio di Parma, Della Chiesa, e Convento della Ss. Nunziata di Parma, in: “Memorie istoriche delle chiese, e dei conventi dei Frati Minori dell'osservante, e riformata Provincia di Bologna”, Parma, 1760, II, pp. 159-253; Ireneo di Busseto, Ricerche storico-canoniche intorno la chiesa, il convento, e la Fabbrica della Ss. Annunziata di Parma, Ivi, 1796; A. Aversano & D. Pompignoli, Traversie dei Frati Minori Osservanti a Parma: distruzione e ricostruzione della chiesa del convento della SS. Annunciata (1545-1632), G. Pompignoli, ed., Parma, 2014.

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