Davide Dainese: Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea in the Manuscripts of Federico Borromeo (1564-1631)

In my paper I will deal with a number of manuscripts written by Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631) which have recently been discovered. They attest to his reading and interpretation of the Church Fathers during his years in Rome when he was involved in the Sacred Congregation of Rites and in the commission responsible for reviewing the Sistine edition of the Vulgata and the preparation of the Editio Romana of the acts of the ecumenical councils. These texts are a unique testimony to his distinctive interpretation of the Fathers in the period following the Council of Trent. They also show in detail how the Church Fathers were read and re-used in that singular historical framework which was the so-called North-Italian Counter-Reformation. More specifically, I will examine the manner in which two great authors of the patristic era, Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, were employed to construct the concept of “ideal bishop” in the hagiographic context of the mythopoetic process regarding the figure of Charles Borromeo.