Lawyer for former Vatican employee says manuscript is mysterious

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

1 3 minutes read

ROME (CNS) — Lawyer for former Vatican employee accused of trying to sell St. Peter's Basilica a 17th-century manuscript allegedly stolen from plans for the massive canopy above the altar principal of the basilica stated that the illustrated manuscript is different from that listed in the archives and was subsequently reported missing.

Angelo Coccìa, the lawyer, told Catholic News Service on June 10 that even the arrest warrant for his client, Alfio Maria Daniele Pergolizzi, showed doubt when it claimed that the item Pergolizzi tried to sell could “likely to be attributed” to a booklet purchased in 1879 for the archives of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office that oversees the maintenance of the basilica.

Pergolizzi was arrested by Vatican police on May 27 after an undercover operation in which he handed the manuscript to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the basilica and president of the Fabbrica, in exchange for a check for 120 000 euros (about $130,700).

From 1995 to 2011, Pergolizzi worked for Fabbrica, as photo-archivist and de facto communications manager. He founded a publishing house specializing in art books and, after leaving the basilica, pursued a career in publishing full-time until the company declared bankruptcy in 2022 or 2023.

Coccìa said his client had been in a cell in the Vatican police barracks since his arrest. The Vatican prosecutor questioned Pergolizzi on May 27 and 28 and scheduled another hearing for June 10. Coccìa said that on that date he would present a second formal request for Pergolizzi's release.

The manuscript that Pergolizzi tried to sell to Cardinal Gambetti is called “Oro messo nelli bronzi” (Gold placed in the bronzes), Coccìa said, while the Vatican has repeatedly referred to the missing or stolen manuscript, including included in the arrest warrant, as “a manuscript entitled “Little Golden Book”.

The Vatican described its stolen manuscript as containing 16 numbered pages, Coccìa said, while the piece in Pergolizzi's possession has 36 pages and is not numbered.

The lawyer said the Pergolizzi manuscript appears to have been prepared by collaborators of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1633 to raise money to pay for the Baroque master's massive canopy or canopy over the main altar of the Basilica of St. -Rock. The 36-page manuscript, Coccìa said, details the weights and measures of the gold Bernini wanted to use on the baldachin, drawings illustrating where the gold would be placed and descriptions of how it would be affixed to the bronze canopy.

Pergolizzi claimed that in 2007 or 2008, Msgr. Vittorino Canciani, one of the canons of St. Peter's Basilica, asked him to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript and its value. Later, the priest gave him the manuscript, telling him that if he sold it, he would have to give part of the money to charities in Rome run by nuns. Mgr. Canciani died in 2014.

Because the manuscript was a gift, Coccìa says, Pergolizzi never had a certificate of ownership.

Coccìa said Msgr. Canciani told his client that the manuscript had been given to him by friends and was not the property of Fabbrica. The theory of the Pergolizzi and Bernini scholars he worked with is that the manuscript was presented to Pope Urban VIII, who placed it in his private collection, which was then passed to his family, the Barberinis.

The Vatican prosecutor, however, said the manuscript was purchased in 1879 by the Fabbrica archivist and was listed as missing by the Fabbrica archivist in 1994. Then, the prosecutor said, in April, Pergolizzi contacted Fabbrica to ask if they had any documents. attesting to the existence of the “little golden book”.

Pergolizzi counts on the testimony of Maria Grazia D'Amelio, professor of architectural history and author of a 2021 book on Bernini and the gold of the baldachin, a book published by the Pergolizzi company and containing a fac- copy of the 36-page manuscript.

Coccìa said D'Amelio had previously told the Vatican court that during her research in the Fabbrica archives between 1979 and 2017, she never saw any trace of reference to the manuscript that Pergolizzi owned.