A former Vatican employee has been arrested for allegedly trying to sell a 17th century Bernini manuscript.
The document was reported missing by the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office responsible for the upkeep of St. Peter's Basilica, only to reappear in a 2021 book edited by Alfio Maria Daniele Pergolizzi. Pergolizzi worked at the Fabbrica from 1995 to 2011, serving as photo archivist and de facto communications offer. On May 27, he attempted to sell the manuscript to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the basilica. After receiving a 120, 000 euro check from Gambetti, Pergolizzi was arrested by the gendarmeria, and has since been detained at their barracks.
The manuscript in question is the Oro messo nelli bronzi, prepared in 1633 by collaborators of Gian Lorenzo Bernini to help pay for the baldachin over the main altar at St. Peter's. It contains the measurements and weights of the gold that Bernini needed for the baldachin, and illustrations of where and how it was to be attached.
The warrant claims that the manuscript could "presumably be traced back" to a booklet purchased in 1879 for the Fabbrica's archives. Its provenance is contested, however: while the Vatican describes the document as containing 16 numbered pages, Pergolizzi's manuscript has 36 pages, all unnumbered. According to him, it was actually given to him as a gift by Vittorino Canciani, one of St. Peter's canons, after asking Pergolizzi to evaluate its authenticity and value. Canciani died in 2014. Since it was a gift, Pergolezzi claims, there was no certificate of ownership.
Furthermore, Maria Grazia D'Amelio, the professor of architectural history whose book Pergolizzi edited, claims that all she saw of the manuscript was a facsimile, and that there were no references to the document during her research in the Fabbrica's archives from 1979 to 2017.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi is expected to decide this week whether or not to indict Pergolizzi.
