Duke Monographs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies 16
Durham: Duke University Press, 1997.
ISBN 0-8223-1976-4

• Blurb (dust jacket)
  The Italian Dominican Friar Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio (1456–1527), known as Prierias, is chiefly remembered as the church official designated to respond to Luther's 95 theses of December 1517 – a response blamed for fanning the flames of the Reformation throughout Europe. In Prierias, Michael Tavuzzi presents the first full bibliography of this little-knwn, yet eminent, sixteenth-century ecclesiastic, as well as an account of his wide-ranging literary works.
  Tavuzzi shows that, aside from being Luther's first opponent, Prierias played a key role in significant early-sixteenth-century controversies such as the cases of Reuchlin, Erasmus, and Pomponazzi. Drawing on previously untapped primary sources, Tavuzzi traces Prierias's early career as preacher, professor, inquisitor, and administrator, and places him in the context of the struggles fought between unreformed and observant friars during the Renaissance. Prierias's activities as Master of the Sacreed Palace, his longstanding and bitter conflict with Cardinal Cajetan, and especially his forceful writings warning against the threat of witches and witchcraft are also described. Focussing closesly on Prierias's clash with Luther, Tavuzzi accounts for its development and illuminates the ecclesiological issues at stake. Prierias reveals the little-known world of the friars on the eve of the Reformation.
  «Tavuzzi illuminates with technical exactitude the inner workings of a major religious order and the quality and quantity of the education of its members in Italy on the eve of the Reformation. No other book does this in this way – and it is difficult for me to imagine any other scholar doing it as well." John O'Malley, Professor of Church History, Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
• Picture: Institutum Historicum OP (external site)
• Reviews:
  • American Historical Review 1999, 672–673.
  • Archive for Reformation History 1999, 86 (number 244).
  • Bibliographie annuelle du Moyen-Âge tardif 1997, 594–595.
  • Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 1998, 513–514; 1999, 595-596.
  • Catholic Historical Review 1998, 548–549.
  • English Historical Review 1999, 431–433.
  • Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 2000, 281–284.
  • Journal of Ecclesiastical History 1999, 370–371.
  • Religious Studies Review 1999, 110.
  • Renaissance Quarterly 2002, 1078–1080.
  • Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 1999, 374–375.
  • Revue Thomiste 2000, 675–676.
  • Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia, 2000, 556–558.
  • Sixteenth Century Journal 1998, 544–546.
  • Speculum 1999, 1126–1127.
  • Theology Digest 1998, 190–191.
  • Thomist 1999, 498–500.

© 10.12.2000, P. Michael Tavuzzi OP.
Last revised: 22.5.2003.