Abstract EN:

Pietro Speziale from Cittadella (1478-1554), a character as prolific as it is underestimated, is remembered by the general historiography for having been the author of one of the most important treatises about the God’s grace and free will – the Tractatus de Gratia Dei – of the so-called Italian Reformation. But Speziale was also the author of a Latin grammar enchiridion, of satires and more; he had a correspondence with the circles of humanists of Vicenza and Padua; during the years of his imprisonment, he was exalted as a "martyr of the Gospel" by Italian Protestants and by German radicals. Speziale lived a transition "from Catholicism to Catholicism", passing through the reading, the study and the re-elaboration of the main writings of the Reformation, such as Luther’s De servo arbitrio; the imprudent disclosure of his ideas caused him the imprisonment, charged of heresy. In an attempt to consider together the different perspectives of analysis, the thesis is divided into three sections: after a summary of the historiography that dealt with the topic, I considered the biography of Pietro Speziale from Cittadella (1478-1554) in light A) of archival sources; B) literary sources; C) of his correspondence. The first section describes the subject of the research through what has been possible to recover from the archive sources (councils, notaries and litigation), highlighting the potentials and the limitations of this type of research. The second part, however, has as its object the edition of the texts (the so-called "minor works") of the author, with a discussion that takes into account the sources (ancient and contemporary authors), the information that the author provides self or events that proves to know - without forgetting its point of view with respect to the subsequent historical and historiographic reconstruction - and their place in the context of religious reform in Italy. The third part, describes the dense network of central and peripheral relations, of which Speziale had characterized his experience as humanist, demonstrating how the parameter of "geographical border" is insufficient - and indeed, impeding - in research and reconstruction of the biography of such a complex personality.