Diego Gucciolone

Basic information

Patronymic
Other names
Bernardino da Montalto, Diego Giavolone, and Diego Giovolone
Genre
Male
Place of origin
Palermo, Kingdom of Sicily
Date of birth
1585
Attributed date of birth
No
Age at the time of execution
50
Marital status
Not applicable
Last occupation / Qualification
hermit friar
Previous occupations

Friar Minor of the Observant branch

Religious status
Cleric
Religious order
Franciscans
Accusations

Proceedings

Start date
1633
End date
22 April 1635
Courts involved
Congregation of the Holy Office
Extradition
No
Other judges involved
Notes

The friar fled the Kingdom of Sicily and assumed a new identity to escape investigation by the Spanish Inquisition, though the year of this inquiry remains unknown; so the start date referes to the Roman Inquisition proceeding.

Sentence

Court
Congregation of the Holy Office
Local judge
Sentence date
22 April 1635
Sentence place
Rome, Papal States, Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Crime category
Magic & witchcraft
List of crimes

Having performed various acts of sorcery to bring about the death of Pope Urban VIII through rituals involving a wax effigy, with the aim of securing the election of Cardinal Felice Centini to the papacy.

Reason for conviction
crimen laesae maiestatis divinae et humanae (papal bull Inscrutabilis Iudiciorum Dei 1/04/1631)
Accessory penalties
Degradation from all major and minor ecclesiastical orders.

Execution

Execution date
23 April 1635
Authority
Governor of Rome
Execution place
Rome, Papal States, Campo de' Fiori
Execution type
Hanged and Burned
In effigy
No
After death
No
Presence of doctors / surgeons
Unknown
Name of the doctors / surgeons
Presence of comforters
Yes
Name of the comforters
Arciconfraternita di San Giovanni Decollato
Presence of rebels / riots
No
Sacraments imparted
Unknown
Notes for execution

Sources

Letters
Local inquisitorial trials and documents
Decrees and acdf sources
Legal opinions consultations
Registers of the condemned
Other magistracies
Petitions
Confraternities
Medical treatises
Polemical histories and martyrologies
Theological and legal texts
Collections of sermons
Printed or manuscript notices and reports

Roma, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Sessoriano, ms. Sess. 270 (in M. Rosi, La congiura di Giacinto Centini contro Urbano VIII, pp. 366-369)

Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, mss. Vaticano Latino 7850; 8193; 8891

Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, mss. Urbinate Latino 1103; 1647; 1704; 1737

Venezia, Archizio di Stato, SenatoDispacci Roma, filza 111, lettera del 28 aprile 1635

Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, It. XI, cod. 79 (=7231)

Chronicles

Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense, n. 1336, Theodoro Ameyden, Vitae et Elogia Summorum Pontif. et Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalium, suo aevo defunctorum ad Urbanum filium

Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Barberiniano Latino, 4735, Andrea Nicoletti, Della vita di papa Urbano ottavo e istoria del suo pontificato, vol. 6.

Travel diaries
Notarial acts and wills
Expense registers and economic documents
Memorial documents epitaphs etc
Iconography
Other