License to beg at a Roman execution.
[Capital punishment] / [Rome]. Ven. Archiconfr. di Gesù, Maria, e Giuseppe dell’ Anime più Bisognose del Purgatorio. Carissimo Fratello sara content domani che saremo alli [15] del presente Mese di [Luglio 1824] quaestura per l’Anim[a] di [Niccola figlio di Giuseppe Sebastianelli dalla Barbera diocese di Sinigaglia di Anni 38 – Campagnolo Reo di Crassazioni con offesa]… [Rome]: s.n., signed 15 July 1824. [19.0 x 13.3 cm the sheet, 14.2 x 10.8 cm the platemark], [1] f. etching completed in manuscript. Folded, annotations on verso, pin pricks (from filing system) at left edge.
Rare etched invitation/license issued by the Roman Archconfraternity of Gesù, Maria, e Giuseppe dell’ Anime più Bisognose del Purgatorio to members who were enlisted to beg for alms on days of public executions. This example relates to the 15 July 1824 execution of a certain Niccola Sebastianelli, who was convicted of armed robbery (“Crassazioni con offesa”) and sentenced to die by guillotine (“Ghigliottina”) at the Bocca della Verità. On the verso of the sheet is written the name of the alms collector, a brother Paolo Bianchi, and the sum he collected to help Sebastianelli’s “most needy soul in purgatory.”
The text of this etched form only alludes to the process of soliciting alms, but the procedure is discussed in detail in the archconfraternity’s 1734 regulations (Privileggi e statute, cap. XV, pp. 25-26). Among the several masses said for condemned persons was a mass sung by archconfraternity members accompanied by 33 poor widows hired for the occasion at the rate of one giulio each. This money was raised from the public by members soliciting alms on the day of the execution, and surplus money was carried over to the archconfraternity’s general coffers. Detailed recordkeeping was required, and the printed license described here served as both a pass which alms seekers could show to inquiring authorities and a receipt that would be turned in to the archconfraternity treasurer.
The fine print of the form reminds brothers to conduct themselves with modesty, not to bang on the alms box they carry, to return and register the money and this form as quickly as possible with the archconfraternity, to show this license to those who ask to see it, and not to tarry at the site of the execution. (“Per carità si prega questuare con modestia, e senza battere la Bussola, e riportare subito la Cassetta, ed il presente Bollettino alla nostra Archiconfraternita. Farà la Carità de presentare il presente a chi lo ricercherà. E di non fermarsi in tempo della Giustizia nella Piazza del Patibolo.”)
Public executions in the Papal States occurred less frequently than we might imagine. Much is known about the executions in Rome through the notebook kept by Giovanni Battista Bugatti (1779-1869), known as ‘Mastro Titta,” who was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864 (yes, he began at age 17). He carried out 516 executions (an average of 7 per year).
Details of Niccola Sebastianelli’s life, crime, trial and execution are known from a contemporary news pamphlet (Relazione della sentenza di morte eseguita in Roma sulla piazza della Bocca della Verità il dì 15 luglio 1824 [IT\ICCU\BVEE\112720]).
Mastro Titta executed Sebastianelli using a guillotine (in his notebook he calls it the “macchina francese”), which in 1816 had come into use under French influence, replacing hanging, drawing and quartering, the axe, sword, and mallet.
This form is not located by OCLC, KVK or OPAC, but examples are to be seen in the literature on the subject.
*A. Ademollo, Le annotazioni di Mastro Titta, carnefice romano supplizi e suppliziati: Giustizie eseguite da Gio. Batt. Bugatti e dal suo successore (1796-1870), appendici di documenti, p. 60, no. 238; Privileggi e statuti della venerabile Archiconfraternità dell’Anime più Bisognose del Purgatorio eretta in Roma, sotto il patrocinio di Gesú, Maria, e S. Giuseppe dal Venerabile Servo di Dio Papa Innocenzo XI (1734); Mastro Titta: Il Boia di Roma (1890).