Abstract

One of the main pillars of the more or less confessionalized "res publica literaria" was the refutation. That's why it may astonish at first glance that especially a work like Sarpi's "Historia del Concilio Tridentino" remained for nearly half a century without a proper response from curial circles. This circumstance is, on the one hand, owed to the jealous wrangling between Roman scholars who all wanted to be the one who refuted Sarpi and who tried to thwart each other's efforts to see the archive documents. On the other hand, there was the pope's nephew, Francesco Barberini, who directed the refutation project, being very careful to mask the curia's involvement. In this struggle there was certain risk of career failure, as in the case of the Blackfriar Abraham Bzowski.