Perfezione e misticismo a Padova nel primo Seicento: gli oratori di Antonio Maria Cortivo de’ Santi (1586-1650)

The Paduan nobleman Antonio Maria Cortivo de Santi (1586-1650), following a sudden con- version, entered the Oratory of St. Jerome, originally established by the “unorthodox” Domin- ican friar Battista da Crema in 1519 and relaunched by Antonio Pagani in 1579. Ordained in 1614 and aggregated to the Oratorian congregation around 1620, Cortivo directed the oratory and established it in several cities in Veneto and Trentino, composing manuals of perfection (the Pugne spirituali) for his disciples. Little known to historians, Cortivo’s case bears wit- ness to the variety of piety in Counter-Reformation Italy. Aimed at laymen and clergy, without distinction of gender or social status, the oratory promoted a path of inner perfection and mystical union with God. The oratory reveals the survival of an “unconventional” model of Christian life and has affinities with the mystical “heresies” of the late 17th century.