There is no information about Giovan Giacomo Piccinini outside this letter. He is the only addressee of Anthony Mary with no distinctive designation or title. However, this letter shows that Anthony Mary regarded him as a totally trustworthy man. Quite likely he held a position of responsibility in Countess Torelli’s house by the basilica of St. Ambrose that she owned since the early 1530’s.

In tone this letter is noticeably restrained and its content is evidently circumspect. Some specific circumstances should account for both.

First of all, just two weeks earlier, Anthony Mary witnessed the death of Fra Battista da Crema in Torelli’s house in Guastalla. Without a doubt this was a singular personal loss for him. Fra Battista was his mentor, his spiritual guide, his "patron saint."

In addition, Anthony Mary was painfully aware of the stressful experiences of Fra Battista in the last two years of his life, for instance, at the hand of no lesser a man than Bishop Gian Pietro Carafa, cofounder of the Theatines and future Pope Paul IV, and also of his provincial Superior. In a bristling letter to Fra Battista, March 9, 1532, Bishop Carafa denounced in no uncertain terms what he considered a thoroughly unseemly situation involving Fra Battista and Countess Torelli: "...it was a great scandal... to see a religious of your age and renown, after so many years of religious profession, jump from your monastery to live alone in the house of a widow of noble rank, young, beautiful, twice married, independent, wealthy, exceedingly sharp-witted, dreadfully capable of good and evil, mostly on account of her fragile sex and unreliable age. Not only that, but you took her triumphantly all over a city like Milan for everybody to see." And the fiery Carafa went on by stigmatizing Fra Battista’s behavior as contradicting not only the Scriptures and the teachings of the church Fathers, but natural honesty itself.

On November 8, 1533, Fra Battista’s provincial Superior, Angelo da Faenza, formally ordered him to leave Torelli’s residence at once and return to his friary in Milan. As it happened, Fra Battista lay gravely ill and the strong-willed Countess did not show him his Superior’s order. Moreover, she initiated legal proceedings against the provincial Superior. She contended that he had no jurisdiction over her, or over Fra Battista, because Pope Clement VII on July 10, 1531 had authorized Fra Battista to reside in her house as her spiritual director. On the very same day, November 8, 1533, Countess Torelli drew up a formal appeal and directed Anthony Mary, as her legal representative, to deliver it to the Dominican Superior. Five days later, Anthony Mary was in Mantua but both the Provincial and his Vicar, Stefano Foscarari, were out of town. When he was able to confront the latter, the Vicar refused to take Torelli’s appeal. It was, therefore, thrown down at his feet.

A further circumstance quite probably helps to understand Anthony Mary’s letter. A contemporary chronicler, Gian Marco Burigozzo, in the same year of the letter, recorded that a group of young men and women performed acts of humility and penance in the cathedral and in the streets of Milan. They dressed as meanly as possible, surely a startling thing for people of noble provenance, which easily invited ridicule.

Allusions to the troubles of Fra Battista can be found in the first paragraph of the letter. However, there is incontrovertible proof that Anthony Mary’s affection and reverence for him never wavered. The same paragraph and the following seem to point to the public display of penances chronicled by Burigozzo. Needless to say, the third paragraph is unusually guarded.

The extant autograph of this letter was originally kept in the General Archives in Rome (N,b,II,10), but then, on July 2, 1911 it was donated by Father General, Pietro Vigorelli, to the Archives of St. Barnabas in Milan, the historical motherhouse of the Barnabites.

Guastalla, January 16, 1534

To Giovan Giacomo Piccinini, beloved brother in Christ.
In the house of the Illustrious Lady Countess of Guastalla.
At St. Ambrose’s.

In Milan

Very dear brother in Christ, greetings,

I am only writing this letter to greet you and to tell you, on behalf of our Father, that neither you nor we need to worry about the present troublesome situations and any future ones, since none of us bears the burden; he does.

It is well known how he was always displeased with those who are negligent and unwilling to help themselves. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, let us strive not to fall into these very shortcomings, for Jesus Crucified will take care of the matter either by Himself or through our Father’s intercession. And so, we should not make too much fuss about what is going on because everything is possible with God—an undeniable truth that we almost touch with our own hands.

I will say no more. Soon you will come to know everything by word of mouth, though neither you nor we should be anxious to know the results. It is enough and, I would say, more than enough, that we follow the way of the cross, according to which it is sufficient to know whether it is a virtue or a fault to do something or to omit it. All we have to do, then, is to eliminate all fruitless curiosity and get to work. I am sure you have no idle curiosity, and that’s good. What I have just said is meant to make you somewhat aware of how we all feel about it.

And here I stop, except to remind you that the letters I write to you are strictly personal; keep them a secret and never show them to anyone at all. Should Mr. Gerolamo, the doctor, happen to give you a letter, insert it in yours and send them to me; but be careful to give them to trusty carriers, making sure that they deliver them; otherwise keep them until you find a trusty one.

Remember me as well as everybody here to Madonna [Torelli], to Angela [Negri], to Porzia [Negri] and their sister, to Caterina [Candiani] and to the other women of our group; and to Mr. Giacomo Antonio [Morigia] and Francesco Crippa.

From Guastalla, January 16, 1534.

Your brother in Christ,

Anthony M. Zaccaria, Priest.