Thesis Defences of Jesuit Students at the Collegio Romano. The Case of Ilario Frumenti

In the 17th century, the academic defence of a university or Jesuit dissertation was announced by engraved broadsheets summarizing its conclusions. These so-called 'thesis prints', displayed or distributed during the public disputation, were usually dedicated by the student to a patron and praised the latter through a rich and complex iconography. The baroque defence was a kind of public spectacle, attended by aristocrats and prelates who witnessed the student’s ability, but also enjoyed the entertainment provided at this occasion by means of music, poems, emblems, etc. This paper inspects the functions and stakes of the thesis print tradition, and studies the particular case of a thesis defended at the Collegio Romano in 1617, for which the broadsheet as well as the music scores have been preserved.