Nuova Risposta : On the Conception of Papal Superiority in Spiritual and Temporal Matters During the Interdict Crisis of 1606–1607

Venice and Rome was not always on good terms, which the interdict crisis of 1606 and 1607 clearly manifests. Interdicts had been placed on Venice before, but the one of 1606 set about a veritable flood of pamphlets and tracts, either in favour or against the interdict of Pope Paul V (1605–1621). One of these tracts, which was written in favour of the Papal interdict, was the Nuova Risposta di Giovanni Filoteo di Asti, alla lettera di un theologo incognito scritta ad un sacerdote suo amico, sopra le censure, & interdetto di Papa Paolo V, contro la Signoria di Venetia, which I intend to analyse in this thesis. The Nuova Risposta was a text born out of the Guerra delle scritture. It was published in 1606 in Bologna and in Ferrara, both locations were, at that period of time, a part of the Papal States. This text manifests the troublesome relations between the Venetian government and the Papal Court in Rome, but also the importance of adhering to a historiographical framework in which the author Antonio Possevino elaborates on Papal claim to superiority in spiritual and in temporal matters