Suchergebnisse

This book explores for the first time the several descriptions of, and reflections on doubt in vernacular literary sources dating from the late fifteenth century until approximately the 1550s. It investigates the surge of discourses on, and descriptions of doubt in works in the vernacular targeting large readerships, mostly through the medium of print. Standing at the Crossroads argues that early modern doubt was a privileged tool to explore, act on, and make sense of a tumultuous cultural and social reality in which extraordinary events – the loss of political freedom, the wars of Italy, the encounter with previously unknown civilizations, the religious divide – shook all traditionally held beliefs. Under these circumstances, I suggest, doubt became a cultural object in itself and the fulcrum of a series of cultural strategies which varied in accordance with different contexts.

Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy illuminates the vibrancy of spiritual beliefs and practices which profoundly shaped family life in this era. Scholarship on Catholicism has tended to focus on institutions, but the home was the site of religious instruction and reading, prayer and meditation, communal worship, multi-sensory devotions, contemplation of religious images and the performance of rituals, as well as extraordinary events such as miracles. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this volume affirms the central place of the household to spiritual life and reveals the myriad ways in which devotion met domestic needs. The seventeen essays encompass religious history, the histories of art and architecture, material culture, musicology, literary history, and social and cultural history.