La Civiltà Cattolica in its early days, 170 years of history
It has passed its four-thousandth issue, it is 170 years old this year, and it is the oldest magazine in the Italian language: today we deal with La Civiltà Cattolica
It is one of the magazines edited by the Society of Jesus in Italy, certainly the oldest.
Let us therefore look at the circumstances of its birth.
The College of Writers (this is the name of the editorial staff) of La Civiltà Cattolica is based at Villa Malta, in Rome, where there is a historical archive that bears witness to the history of the magazine and that of the Jesuits who have written and worked in it over the last century and a half.
However, not everyone knows that La Civiltà Cattolica was born in Naples. The archives of the Eum Province preserve the first stamps, visible in the photo on which the address of the first headquarters is stamped, in via S. Sebastiano at the Neapolitan Province of the Society of Jesus, adjacent to the Gesù Nuovo. The seat was however moved almost immediately to Rome, as the political climate was rather unstable in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which fell nine years later in the siege of Gaeta, then part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Civiltà Cattolica was considered dependent on the Roman Province until 1950. As of this year it was included among the DIR the international houses of the Society of Jesus. For this reason the Province archives do not preserve any documents after 1950, since as DIR it was no longer obliged to provide informative documents to the Provincial.
Its activities can however be followed and reconstructed thanks to a small documentary nucleus that each residence sends to the Province, such as the historiae domus or correspondence with the Provincial.
A draft of the foundation minutes is preserved, in which the protagonists are recalled, the foundation on 11 November 1850, in the presence of the Fr General of the Society of Jesus and the Jesuits: Fr Curici, Fr Pellico, Fr Piccirillo and Fr Betti.
An interesting reminder of the historical-political climate in which the magazine saw the light and helps to understand the reasons for its birth:
“In our times, public opinion [così nel documento]is established by the newspapers or by the writings that are most in vogue: whereby it happens that even the sound doctrines of our schools can be discredited, if they are attacked either by the newspapers or by the works that are raised in clamour.
And in fact, on the one hand, the newspaper under the title Annales de philosophie Chrétiene, directed by Bonnetty, propagates traditional philosophy and, by fighting our rationalist call, brings it into disrepute even among Catholics themselves: on the other hand, Gioberti, who also finds some followers among us, not only fights our philosophy, but also discourages the uniformity of opinions so much recommended by our institute.
The Province archives also preserve the personal files of the Jesuits who gave life to La Civiltà Cattolica and the documents related to their life and activities in the Society,
A research wishing to reconstruct the activities of the magazine would have to be conducted both in the historical archives of the Province and in those of La Civiltà Cattolica.
The photo shows the first stamps of the magazine and a memoir tracing its beginnings.
Maria Macchi
