GERMANO, Giovanni, [1] Additione apologetico-istorica alle Predittioni circa i Sommi Pontefici Romani del glorioso padre S. Malachia metropolitano primario dell’Ibernia. [2] Seconda additione istorico-simbolica sopra Le Predittioni circa i Sommi Pontefici Romani del glorioso padre S. Malachia. Nella qual si contiene la morte della Felice memoria di Clemente X. e la creatione del presente Santissimo Padre Innocentio XI. Colla spiegatione dell’ottantesima sesta Predittione Bellua Insatiabilis., Apresso Carlo Porsile, 1675

Large 8vo., 2 works in one volume (1675, 1676), twentieth-century vellum binding, pp. [8], 179, [5]; [16], 96, with 2 plates (1 folding) and 1 frontispiece (to the second book) both of which are copper-engraved. V. scarce. Some browning to pages but otherwise a fine copy. Both books concern the apocryphal ‘Prophecy of the Popes’ attributed to the Irish Saint Malachy (1094-1148; here Latinised to S. Malachia); which purported to predict every elected pope, beginning with Pope Celestine II, a prophesy which was first published in 1595. Given the accuracy of the predictions until around this date, historians have concluded that the prophesy is likely to have been a forgery conceived of around the time of its publication. Writing in the seventeenth century, Giovanni Germano, a Neapolitan priest, in these volumes suggests ‘additions’ to the prophesy. Text in Italian.