The motto is derived from Vergil’s Aeneid, Book X, lines 468-469 (roughly, “this is virtue’s task” [link]). It was adopted by two Italian academies,1 however neither devised an impresa which couples the sentiment with an image of a torch, a symbol of widely different meanings, among them the pursuit of knowledge or truth, perseverance, “generosity of spirit and persecuted virtue”.2 Jacopo Gelli claimed that the first individual to use this motto was the celebrated theorist of images, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1597).3
Born in Bologna, Gabriele was educated locally, at the Collegio Ancarano and the university, where he received a classical humanist education, and obtained in 1546 a doctorate in utroque iure. He became professor of civil law at Bologna and in 1552 advocate of the Bolognese senate. Gabriele’s life took a decisive turn in 1556, when he was appointed Auditor of the Sacra Romana Rota. In 1562, he became counsellor to the cardinal legates in the works of the Council of Trent; in 1565, he was created cardinal by Pope Pius IV; and in 1566, he was ordained and elected bishop of Bologna (promoted to archbishop in 1582). By 1543, Gabriele was associated with Prospero Fontana in Bologna’s Accademia degli Affumati, and by 1550, he was acquainted with Achille Bocchi, author of the Symbolicae Quaestiones (1555). At later dates he became friends with Carlo Sigonio and Ulisse Aldrovandi, and consulted both while preparing his Discorso intorno alle immagini sacre e profane (published in 1582).
Gelli’s grounds for associating Gabrielle Paleotti with the Virgilian motto “Hoc virtutis opus” are left unstated.4 In 1953, Anthony Hobson relied on Gelli when tentatively assigning ownership of one of these five bindings (no. 2 in List below) to Gabriele Paleotti.5 By 1965, Hobson’s doubts about Paleotti’s ownership appear to have dissipated: the book was reintroduced as “bound for” Gabriele Paleotti, with the flaming torch described as Gabriele’s personal, symbolic device, and “Hoc virtutis opus” as Gabriele’s motto.6 Paleotti’s residency in Bologna led Hobson to suppose that the binding was Bolognese work. Both of his attributions (to Paleotti and to a Bolognese bindery) were sustained by Tammaro De Marinis.7 While the general features of these bindings remind of earlier works of the local Pflug and Ebeleben bindery,8 the tools employed have yet to be observed on any Bolognese bindings, and the bindings just as likely were made in a provincial shop elsewhere in Italy. The device of a flaming torch has yet to be associated with Gabriele Paleotti.
Details of tools (from upper cover of no. 2 in List below)
Further investigation of Gabriele Paleotti’s library might help to resolve the question of ownership. In 1953, Hobson consulted a catalogue of the Cardinal’s books compiled in 1586, and found no corresponding entries for two of the “Hoc virtutis opus” volumes (nos. 1-2 in List below).9 But this catalogue listed the books in the Cardinal’s clerical library, which in 1595 became the Biblioteca Arcivescovile.10 Other inventories of Gabriele Paleotti’s books are known; for example, one taken by his secretary, Ludovico Nucci, dated 1561;11 and another, possibly made when Paleotti was sent to Rome, in 1590 (he remained there almost continuously until his death in 1597).12
1. Jennifer Montagu, An Index of emblems of the Italian academies (London 1988), p.11.
2. Guelfo Guelfi-Camajani, Vocabolario araldico ad uso degli italiani (Milan 1897), p.264 no. 737 (“Simbolo di generosità d’animo e di virtù perseguitata” [link]).
3. Jacopo Gelli, Divise-motti imprese di famiglie e personaggi italiani (Milan 1916), no. 850 (“Questa è opera di virtù. Il motto è tolto da Virgilio (Aen., X, 469) e fu usato come divisa da’ Paleotti e dai Callison [sic]. Primo a portarla fu Gabriele Paleotti… Con questa divisa il prelato folle attribuire la gloria della propria famiglia non solo alle sue virtù, ma anche a quelle degli antenati, tra i quali re ne furono molli veramente illustri e benemeriti.” [link]). Cf. Julius Dielitz, Die Wahl- und Denksprüche, Feldgeschreie, Losungen, Schlacht- und Völksrufe besonders des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (Frankfurt am Main 1884), p.134 (citing Collison and Paleotti, only; [link]). “Hoc virtutis opus” does not appear in the index of mottos compiled by Arthur Henkel and Albrecht Schöne, Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart 1976), nor in an index of 1866 mottos found in anthologies of impresa, compiled by Mason Tung, Impresa index: to the collections of Paradin, Giovio, Simeoni, Pittoni, Ruscelli, Contile, Camilli, Capaccio, Bargagli, and Typotius (New York 2006). It appears on a bronze medal (without the torch) cast in 1598 for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini (1571-1621); see Xavier F. Salomon, “Hoc virtutis opus: Antonio Felice Casoni’s medal of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini” in The Medal 43 (2003), pp.3-19.
4. In 1670, the Bolognese genealogist Pompeo Dolfi recorded “Hoc virtutis opus” lettered across the blue fess of the Paleotti family’s heraldic shield: D’oro, una fascia azzurra sostenente un monte di sei colli rosso; capo: d’Angiò. P. Dolfi, Cronologia delle famiglie nobili di Bologna con le loro insegne, e nel fine i cimieri (Bologna 1670), p.569 (“Paleotti, col moto [sic] nella fascia Hoc Virtutis opus” [link]). The present writer has identified no surfaces decorated by “Hoc Virtutis opus” and related to the Paleotti; compare, for example, a terracotta wall relief at Savigno, Bologna [link]; and painted fresco decorations in the Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna [link].
5. A. Hobson, French and Italian collectors and their bindings illustrated from examples in the library of J.R. Abbey (Oxford 1953), no. 65 (“the motto is attributed to Paleotti by Gelli and the attribution seems plausible”).
6. Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books and fine bindings from the celebrated collection; the property of Major J.R. Abbey, London, 21-23 June 1965, lot 199 (“contemporary Bolognese black morocco gilt, decorated with interlaced fillets, fleurons and rosettes, bound for Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti (1522-97, Archbishop of Bologna) with his device, a flaming torch, and motto Hoc Virtutis Opus in the centre of the side”).
7. T. De Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XVI e XVI (Florence 1960), nos. 1402, 1404-1405, placed among the Bolognese bindings (nos. 1, 2, 5 in the List below).
8. In 1953, Hobson dismissed the Pflug and Ebeleben shop as a possible binder, believing that it had ceased about 1551. By 1998, Hobson knew that it remained active throughout the 1560s, binding a copy of the canons and decretals of the Council of Trent (Rome 1564) for Cardinal Paleotti; see A. Hobson & Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del Rinascimento (Bologna [1998]), p.26.
9. “Catalogus bibliothecae illustrissmi et reverendissimi Domini Gabrielis Paleotti … Anno salutis. MDLXXXVI”; see Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d’Italia, 79: Bologna: Biblioteca comunale dell’Archiginnasio (Florence 1954), p.16. Gabriele is said to have decanted into this library his family’s books; see Paolo Prodi, Il Cardinale Gabriele Paleotti (Rome 1959-1967), I, pp.52-53; II, p.264-267. Gabriele’s cousin and successor as Archbishop of Bologna, Alfonso Paleotti, absorbed Gabriele’s collection, and made his own catalogue. See Maria Xenia Zevelechi Wells, The Ranuzzi Manuscripts (Austin, TX 1980), no. 24; Madeline McMahon, Primary Source: An Archbishop’s Lost Library Catalog [link].
10. Giorgio Montecchi, “La biblioteca arcivescovile di Bologna: dal card. Paleotti a papa Lambertini” in Produzione e circolazione libraria a Bologna nel Settecento (Bologna 1987), pp.369-382.
11. Bologna, Archivio Isolani, F.30.99.27 (Cartoni Nuovi 54), described by Prodi, op. cit., I, p.109; and by P.O. Kristeller, Iter italicum, Vol. 5 (Alia itinera III and Italy III) (London 1990), p.505 (“Lists of books owned by Card. Paleotti and others. One list was compiled by Lud. Nucci in 1561 and includes Homer in Greek, Boethius, Averroes, Bembo and Castiglione”).
12. Bologna, Archivio Isolani, F.30.99.27 (Cartoni Nuovi 59), described by Kristeller, op. cit, p.506 (“Elenchi di libri e manoscritti del Card. Paleotti spediti a Roma ecc.”).
(1) Giovanni Candido, Commentarii di Giouan Candido giureconsulto de i fatti d’Aquileia (Venice: Michele Tramezzino, 1544)