Illustrissimi

Illustrissimi (To the Illustrious Ones) is a book written by Pope John Paul I when he was Patriarch of Venice. 

The book is a collection of letters which were first published in the Italian Christian paper Messaggero di S. Antonio between 1972 and 1975.  They were reprinted in book form in Italy in 1976. 

The work was first published in English in 1978 when Cardinal Luciani was elected Pope, but it only reached the public after the death of John Paul I.Mitgang, Herbert.  "Publishing: Writers Who Became Popes," New York Times. November 10, 1978; retrieved 2011-1030.

The letters
The 40 letters in all are addressed to people in Italian history and fiction, including

Charles Dickens
Mark Twain
G. K. Chesterton
Maria Theresa of Austria
Charles Peguy
Trilussa
St Bernard of Clairvaux
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
King David
Penelope
Figaro
The Pickwick Club
Pinocchio
Paolo Diacono
Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova
St Bernardino of Siena
St Francis de Sales
St Romedio's Bear
P.I. Chichikov
King Lemuel
Sir Walter Scott
The Unknown Painter at the Castle
Hippocrates
St Thérèse de Lisieux
Alessandro Manzoni
Casella
Luigi Cornaro
St Bonaventure
Christopher Marlowe
St Luke
Quintilian
Guglielmo Marconi
Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli
Félix Dupanloup
Petrarch
St Theresa of Avila
Carlo Goldoni
Andreas Hofer
Jesus

References

Category:1978 books