Sulle tracce delle prime indipetae. Le richieste di missione al tempo di Laínez, Borgia, Mercuriano

[Machine translation] The study focuses on the oldest examples of litterae indipetae, letters of application for the non-European missions of the Society of Jesus, retracing the contexts, careers and expectations of those who took up the pen to express their “desire for the Indies”. Over a chronological period of more than twenty years (from the first text of 1557 to those of 1580), the analysis of the first indipetae allows us to trace the initial rhetorical and literary forms, the ways in which the candidates described themselves, the relationships with their superiors, identifying recurring or new themes. All this against the backdrop of the exceptional expansion of Societas Iesu and the most pressing issues that emerged after the death of the founder under the generalates of Laínez, Borgia, Mercuriano. In addition to opening glimpses into the complex inner world of aspirations and arrangements of the individual authors, declined within the specific Jesuit identity horizon, the indipetae show themselves to be a seismograph very sensitive to the trends, debates and tensions of the Society, reverberating upheavals and oscillations of the Jesuit order itself.