1,721,003 research outputs found
Review to: Erik Bergman, Constructing Saint Birgitta: Birgittine Preaching and the Cult of Saint Birgitta in Vadstena Abbey, 1397–c. 1510
No full textRecensione alla tesi di dottorato di Erik Bergman (Lund, 2024) dedicata al tema della costruzione della figura di santa Birgitta/Brigida nella agiografia e, in particolare, nella predicazione presso l'abbazia di Vadstena nel periodo 1397-151
Enea, la Sibilla e Dante: primi appunti su un quaresimale virgiliano
Full text linkL’articolo costituisce la prima esplorazione di quello che proponiamo di chiamare Quaresimale di Enea, un testo conservato in forma incompleta in Assisi, Biblioteca del Sacro Convento, Fondo Antico, ms. 557. Il quaresimale costituisce una precoce attestazione di una nuova tipologia di sermonari costruiti come un unico macro-racconto. I suoi sermoni seguono infatti passo a passo la discesa agli inferi di Enea, rileggendo il racconto di Virgilio in chiave allegorico-morale, così da ricondurlo (reducere) al Vangelo. Rendendo strutturale il riferimento a Virgilio nella predicazione dell’aldilà cristiano, agli ascoltatori era presentata un’Eneide infernale, didattica, ad usum pulpiti, ulteriormente arricchita dall’intreccio con i rimandi alla Commedia di Dante. Lo studio di questo sorprendente quaresimale virgiliano contribuisce così a illuminare sia le sperimentazioni in atto nella comunicazione religiosa tra fine Trecento e inizio Quattrocento sia i concomitanti dibattiti sull’utilizzo della poesia ‘pagana’ nella paideia cristiana.Cet article ouvre l’étude de ce que nous nous proposons de désigner comme le Sermonnaire pour le Carême d’Énée, un texte conservé sous une forme incomplète à Assise (Biblioteca del Sacro Convento, Fondo Antico, ms. 557). Il s’agit là du témoignage précoce d’une nouvelle typologie de sermonnaires, construits comme un unique macro-récit. Les sermons y suivent en effet pas à pas la descente aux Enfers d’Énée, tout en envisageant le récit virgilien selon une clé de lecture allégorico-morale, dans le but de le raccorder (reducere) à l’Évangile. La référence à Virgile étant donnée pour structurelle dans la prédication de l’au-delà chrétien, une Énéide infernale et didactique, ad usum pulpiti, était présentée aux auditeurs, que venaient ensuite enrichir des renvois à la Divine Comédie de Dante. L’étude de cet étonnant recueil virgilien contribue à éclairer les expérimentations observées dans la communication religieuse au tournant des xive et xve siècles, mais aussi les débats sur l’opportunité d’utiliser la poésie « païenne » dans la paideia chrétienne.The article represents a first exploration of what can be defined the Lenten sermon collection of Aeneas, a text held in an incomplete form in Assisi, Biblioteca del Sacro Convento, Fondo Antico, ms. 557. The Lenten cycle is an early testimony of a new typology of sermon collection, which was framed as a macro-narrative. The Virgilian sermon collection follows closely the description of Aeneas’ descent to the Underworld by reinterpreting Virgil’s account according to a moral-allegorical exegesis, which allows to align it (reducere) to the Gospel. By using extensively the reference to Virgil in preaching the Christian afterlife, the preacher presented his audience with a hellish, didactic Aeneid, apt to the pulpit and further enriched by references to Dante’s Commedia. The study of this exceptional text, therefore, sheds light on the innovations in religious communication developed between late fourteenth and early fifteenth century as well as on the parallel debates about the use of ‘pagan’ poets in Christian paideia
Emotions, Theology, and Society in a Blockbuster: The Good Friday Sermon by Gritsch/Grütsch
Full text linkThe contribution deals with one of the most representative fifteenth-century Good Friday sermons, published in the Quadragesimale printed under the name of Johannes Gritsch, a real bestseller of the time. This Passion sermon, therefore, provides us with an idea of the type of text that hundreds of preachers had at hand when preparing for their own preaching. The chapter investigates how an emotional retelling of the Passion served both to foster compassion (and the ‘obligation’ to feel it) in listeners and to provide them with a framework to interpret society. As many devotional texts of the time, this Franciscan preacher stirred up the audience’s emotional involvement by dramatizing the role of the Virgin Mary. Adopting a polarizing strategy, he emphasized her sorrows in combination with harsh accusations against the Jews. Yet, beside the invitation to personal conversion, Gritsch/Grütsch also outlined the links between the Passion narrative and social issues (from unfair judgements to usury, from fasting to gambling and swearing). The Passion was presented as a hermeneutical key to interpret the whole society and ideally to transform it
Communicating the Passion: An Introduction
No full textThe chapter frames the Passion of Christ as a pivotal element in late medieval religious culture and social life, paying particular attention to the role of preaching and its interplay with other forms of communication
Tra prassi umanistica e autocoscienza osservante: Frate Apollonio Bianchi († 1450)
Full text linkApollonio Bianchi fu un frate minore capace di arringare le folle con pirotecnici falò delle vanità e – al contempo – comporre orazioni, trattati e lettere secondo i canoni della retorica umanistica, rivolgendosi così a principi e cardinali secondo le forme più qualificanti dell’epoca. Questa ibrida e consapevole identificazione culturale (espressa attraverso l’adesione a modelli e pratiche discorsive) risulta preziosa per delineare, concretamente, lo sfaccettato e complesso rapporto tra Osservanze e umanesimo. Nel Libellus de vite pauperis prestantia (1441-1444), Apollonio propone una conciliazione tra i due movimenti, indicando nell’oratore osservante il frutto maturo di un Ordine magnificato come dimora dei litterarum studia. Espresso in forme umanistiche, questo manifesto di autocoscienza minoritica si inseriva nel contemporaneo dibattito sul ruolo degli studi nell’Osservanza. Infine, le miscellanee umanistiche, copiate e diffuse anche fuori dall’Italia, affiancano Apollonio ai maggiori autori dell’epoca, mostrando come egli fu effettivamente percepito come parte di una più vasta respublica litterarum. Apollonio Bianchi was a Franciscan friar able to address the crowds with spectacular bonfires of vanities while, at the same time, he wrote orations, treatises, and letters following the rules of the humanistic rhetoric, addressing princes and cardinals in the most qualifying forms of the time. His hybrid and conscious cultural identification (expressed by adopting models and discursive practices) is ideal to investigate the multifaceted and complex relationship between Observance and humanism. In his Libellus de vite pauperis prestantia (1441-1444), Apollonio suggests a conciliation between the two movements by presenting the Observant preacher as the mature outcome of a religious order exalted as home of the litterarum studia. Expressed in humanist forms, this manifesto of a Franciscan self-awareness was part of the larger debate on the role of learning within the Observance. By situating Apollonio alongside the main authors of his time, the humanist miscellanies, copied and disseminated also outside Italy, show that he was actually perceived as part of the broader respublica litterarum
Preaching about manual/artisanal labour: A new concern with ambivalent messages (1200–1500)
No full textInternational audienceThis essay investigates how late medieval preachers discussed manual/artisan labour and its ethics. Many sermons show that the preachers were very attentive to the current dynamics of their society. Not only were they keen observers, they also considered it their duty to reform their audience’s behaviour. After discussing the emergence of a new understanding of work as a status in the thirteenth century, the essay analyses the sermons addressed to or written about “craftsmen” (artifices mechanici) by some of the most relevant late medieval preachers. In their sermons, they considered manual/artisan work as having first and foremost a positive penitential value and also possibly serving as a path to salvation. In these sermons, manual work is linked to charity (e.g. making alms or paying tithes) and protects from idleness. Some preachers even compared it to a form of martyrdom. Yet, manual work was not without ambivalence according to preachers, who often pointed out its perils. According to their sermons, some trades would inherently lead to sins such as fraud, trickery, and unfaithfulness, and workers were seen as susceptible to sinful temptations of gambling games and the debauchery rampant in taverns. The most pessimistic preachers saw work merely as a distraction from spiritual matters. While differences in tone may derive from the ways in which different preachers understood both work and their own pastoral mission, overall, in their words, the value of work depended on the integrity and intention of the workers while performing their duties
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
‘Mary Unchained’ Drammatizzare la compassione nella predicazione (XIV-XV secolo)
No full textThis article highlights the role of late medieval preaching in dra-matizing the Virgin’s compassion, demonstrating how sermons contributed to establishing an affective approach to the Passion of Christ as hegemonic, facilitated by a continuous osmosis between texts for personal meditation and materials used in the pulpit. Within this framework, the emotionally intense staging of the mother’s sorrow was deemed essential for guiding the faithful in meditating on the Passion. The article underscores the multifaceted depiction of Mary in the Passion narrative, characterized by variations in gestures and attitudes: the Virgin may cry out, protest, and faint, have her face stained with blood, or remain composed, full of faith, and still beneath the cross. Mary’s centrality in reliving the Passion is undeniable, yet the faithful encountered different portrayals of her affliction. While the Passion narrative was ritualized, with expected and predictable elements fitting for collective action, the sor-rowful Madonna depicted by preachers was not always the same. Among the broad spectrum of solutions adopted by preachers of the time, some warned of the risks to sermon orthodoxy in excessively exalting the Mother’s pain, where a portrayal of Mary Unchained could risk exceeding all reasonable bounds.L’articolo mette in luce il ruolo della predicazione tardo medievale nel drammatizzare la compassione della Vergine, segnalando come i sermoni contribuirono a rendere egemonico un approccio affettivo alla Passione di Cristo, grazie a un’osmosi continua tra testi per la meditazione personale e materiali utilizzati sul pulpito. In questo quadro, la messa in scena emotivamente intensa del dolore della madre era ritenuta un elemento essenziale per guidare i fedeli nella meditazione della Passione. L’articolo rileva la poliedricità di Maria nel racconto della Passione, fatta di varianti, di gesti o atteggiamenti diversi: la Vergine può gridare, protestare e svenire, avere il volto sporco di sangue, oppure restare composta, piena di fede, immobile sotto la croce. La centralità di Maria nel rivivere la Passione è indubitabile, ma i fedeli potevano incontrare maschere diverse della sua afflizione. Se il racconto della Passione era ritualizzato, con passaggi previsti e prevedibili, come si addice in un’azione collettiva, la Madonna addolorata descritta dai predicatori non era però sempre uguale a sé stessa. In questo ampio spettro di soluzioni adottate dai predicatori del tempo, non mancò infatti chi vide nell’esaltazione del dolore della Madre rischi per l’ortodossia dei sermoni, là dove una Mary Unchained poteva finire per travalicare ogni giusta misura
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