The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy explores the rich devotional life of the Italian household between 1450 and 1600. Rejecting the enduring stereotype of the Renaissance as a secular age, this interdisciplinary study reveals the home to have been an important site of spiritual revitalization. Books, buildings, objects, spaces, images, and archival sources are scrutinized to cast new light on the many ways in which religion infused daily life within the household. Acts of devotion, from routine prayers to extraordinary religious experiences such as miracles and visions, frequently took place at home amid the joys and trials of domestic life -- from childbirth and marriage to sickness and death.
Breaking free from the usual focus on Venice, Florence, and Rome, The Sacred Home investigates practices of piety across the Italian peninsula, with particular attention paid to the city of Naples, the Marche, and the Venetian mainland. It also looks beyond the elite to consider artisanal and lower-status households, and reveals gender and age as factors that powerfully conditioned religious experience. Recovering a host of lost voices and compelling narratives at the intersection between the divine and the everyday, The Sacred Home offers unprecedented glimpses through the keyhole into the spiritual lives of Renaissance Italians.
Author(s): Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, Mary Laven
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 430
City: Oxford
Cover
The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Plates
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations
Notes on Transcriptions
Introduction
THE HOME IN RENAISSANCE ITALY
RENAISSANCE RELIGION
THE HOLY HOUSEHOLD
APPROACHING THE SACRED HOME
1: Regional Perspectives
THE VENETO
THE MARCHE
NAPLES
CONCLUSION
2: House and Home
THE HOLY HOME
THE FAMIGLIA
DOMESTIC SPACE
THE HOUSE INSIDE AND OUT
THE RUSTIC HOME
HOUSE INTERIORS
ARTEFACTS AND THEIR ARRANGEMENT
THE MIRROR OF THE SOUL
CONCLUSION
3: Prayer and Meditation
PREPARING TO PRAY
SPACES OF PRAYER
TIMES FOR PRAYER
VOCAL PRAYER
PRAYING THE ROSARY
ILLICIT PRAYER
MENTAL PRAYER
MEDITATION
CONCLUSION
4: Sacred Stuff
CATERINA’S ALTAR
DEVOTION FOR SALE
INSIDE THE CASSONE
PAWNED GOODS
THE STUFF OF THE HOME
CONCLUSION
5: Reading at Home
READERS AT WORK
WHO COULD ‘READ’? EXPANDING OUR CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS
THE UNREAD TEXT
WHAT TO READ? PATTERNS OF DEVOTIONAL BOOK CONSUMPTION
READING MANUSCRIPTS
CONCLUSION
6: The Devotional Eye
READING THE PICTURE
SEEING THE DIVINE
Corporeal Seeing
Spiritual Seeing
Intellectual Seeing
MATERIALIZING THE IMAGE
AGENCY AND VALUE
THE ROLE OF MATERIALS
LEVELS OF REALITY
THE THIRD DIMENSION
TEXT AND IMAGE
DEPICTING THE UNKNOWABLE
CONCLUSION
7: Printing and Piety
LOCAL PRINTING
VICENZA
MACERATA
NAPLES
CONCLUSION
8: Miracles
THE MADONNA OF THE HOME
THE RISE OF THE MIRACULOUS
CHILDREN IN DANGER
FERTILITY TALES
THE HOME AT RISK
THE POLITICS OF THE MIRACULOUS
CONCLUSION
9: Thresholds
THE DOORWAY
IN AND OUT OF THE HOME
THE FLYING HOUSE
SACRED AND PROFANE
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
Bibliography
PRIMARY TEXTS
SECONDARY TEXTS
Index
