Decoration for a Thesis in Honor of Saint Francis Solano in two parts: the top part with Saint Francis Solano with his arms raised and a sun in his hands with Mount Potosí at right, the lower part with the doctor of the church holding a banner and two putti below

This exceedingly rare print was made for a theological thesis defense that took place in Rome’s Franciscan convent of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in 1639. The event was dedicated to the Spanish jurist and diplomat Buenaventura de Salinas y Córdoba (1592–1653) and celebrated the Spanish friar Francis Solano (1549–1610), a Franciscan missionary who spent his life among indigenous populations in the Viceroyalty of Peru. In the top sheet, Solano is shown with his arms raised, as if supporting the sun that rises between Peru’s two most important cities: Lima, its capital, and Potosí, whose abundant silver mines were the principal source of Spain’s wealth in the period. In the bottom sheet, the sixteen theses to be disputed flank an image of the seminal Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus (1266–1308).

Credit: Bequest of Jane Costello Goldberg, 1986