Giovanni Battista Trento, Walsingham, Ragona, and the Mappe-Monde Nouvelle Papistique
Giovanni Battista Trento, Walsingham, Ragona, and the Mappe-Monde
Essential Evidence
Cobham wrote to Walsingham on 17 September 1582:
Signor Aragon is nigh of kindred to Signor Giovanni Battista di Trento, with whom he is to confer about the inheritance fallen to him in Vicenza, through the late death of Di Trento's brother.
British History Online, item 339.
This is not an isolated genealogical curiosity. Frank Lestringant's study reports that Trento lived with and advised Walsingham, that Anton Maria Ragona met him in London in 1583, and that Trento had already presented his Mappe-Monde Nouvelle Papistique and explanatory Histoire to Elizabeth. The relationship was directly relevant to the recipient of Cobham's letter.
Sourced Facts
Controlled identity
- Giovanni Battista Trento (Jean-Baptiste Trento), born about 1523, was a member of a noble Vicentine family and studied law at Padua.
- He converted to Protestantism, entered Geneva as an inhabitant on 9 August 1557, and became a citizen on 8 August 1559.
- In November 1565 he and printer François Perrin obtained Genevan permission for a papal world map with an explanatory book.
- The resulting 1566 Mappe-Monde Nouvelle Papistique comprised a large multi-block woodcut and the Histoire de la Mappe-Monde Papistique.
- He later moved to England, distributed London church funds to the poor and, in Lestringant's account, served as an adviser to Walsingham.
Ragona and Walsingham
Lestringant states that Anton Maria Ragona reported meeting Trento in London in 1583, where Trento was permanently resident with Walsingham. Lestringant calls Trento a nephew of Ludovico Ragona. This supports Cobham's nigh of kindred; it does not yet establish Anton Maria's precise degree of relationship without the family tree and diary text.
The study's compact German formulations are that Trento performed bei ... Sir Francis Walsingham eine beratende Tätigkeit (“an advisory activity with Sir Francis Walsingham”) and was dauerhaft bei Walsingham wohnhaft (“permanently resident with Walsingham”). These are Lestringant's source-based statements, not quotations from Ragona's manuscript.
Presentation to Elizabeth
Lestringant says the Histoire was presented to Elizabeth, certainly together with the map. Four copies preserve the special dedication leaf addressed:
A la tres-vertueuse et puissante Elizabeth, Royne d'Angleterre, Hibernie et autres pays
The dedication is signed under the work's pseudonym:
Vostre treshumble et tresobeissant serviteur, Frangidelphe Escorche-Messes.
This is an important contextual parallel: the relative invoked in Cobham's letter had himself used a book and map as presentation objects to Elizabeth. It does not prove that he arranged Pigafetta's proposed presentation.
Correct will date
Lestringant records that Trento signed his will in London on 2 March 1588, named Walsingham executor, requested burial at St Nicholas Cole Abbey, and left the Italian churches of London money, the Carta, the Historia, and his printed books, some then in Geneva.
The note cites Biblioteca Bertoliana, MSS 3387–3404, Giovanni Da Schio, Memorabili in Vicenza, Trento, fol. 88r. The date sometimes repeated as 1558 is corrupt: it conflicts with the 1582 Cobham letter and the correctly reported 1588 testament.
What This Adds to the Cobham Letter
Cobham's first August credential was Pigafetta's acquaintance with young Mr Nevill. His September credential for Ragona was kinship with Trento. Since Walsingham knew Trento closely, the clause told the recipient why Ragona was not a random traveller. That function is evidenced by the relationship; no claim is made that Trento vouched in writing or supplied intelligence.
Quoted Source Passages
Lestringant's source note preserves Trento's book bequest in Italian as:
pure i suoi libri stampati dei quali parte era in Ginevra
Working translation: “also his printed books, some of which were in Geneva.” The wording is mediated by Da Schio's Memorabili until the underlying testament is found.
Citations and Access Notes
- Frank Lestringant, *Die Mappe-Monde Nouvelle Papistique*, trans. Cordula Wöbbeking (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2019), pp. 17–19.
- Cobham to Walsingham, Paris, 17 September 1582, CSPF Elizabeth, XVI, item 339, France VIII.43.
- Lestringant with Alessandra Preda, eds., Mappe-Monde Nouvelle Papistique (Geneva: Droz, 2009), cited by the 2019 study; not independently inspected here.
The preview is a scholarly secondary control with precise primary references. The Ragona diary and Da Schio folio must be inspected before presenting their words as direct manuscript transcription.