Books by Stefano Villani
George Frederick Nott (1768-1841). Un ecclesiastico anglicano tra teologia, letteratura, arte, archeologia, bibliofilia e collezionismo, Memorie della Classe di Scienze Morali dell’Accademia dei Lincei (Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 2012) (Memorie della Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, serie IX, vol. XXVII, fascicolo 3) [George Frederick Nott (1768-1841). An Anglican Churchman amidst Theology, Literature, Art, Arche... more [George Frederick Nott (1768-1841). An Anglican Churchman amidst Theology, Literature, Art, Archeology, Bibliophilia and Collecting]. This book reconstructs the biography of George Frederick Nott, who reflected the intellectual climate of his time and bridged English and Italian cultures at the turn of the nineteenth century. An erudite and passionate admirer of Italian culture, Nott lived many years in Italy. As a writer, philologist and translator, he was a mediator between English and Italian culture. He met Vincenzo Monti and was befriended by Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen, Giovan Battista Niccolini, Giacomo Leopardi; translated into Italian the Book of Common Prayer, edited Dante and Bosone da Gubbio’s Avventuroso Ciciliano. At the time Italian culture was becoming increasingly important for British high society; the Grand Tour to Italy was an essential part of the British elite’s education. While Italy was considered the cradle of European civilization progressive Italian intellectuals looked to England as a model. George Frederick Nott (1768-1841), an Anglican minister, garnered an initial reputation as a theologian but was later better known for his studies in English literature, culminating in the publishing of the Earl of Surrey’s and Thomas Wyatt’s poems in 1815-1816. Nott delighted in archaeology and art. He was Joseph Anton Koch’s, the spiritual father of the “Nazarenes,” patron and as canon of Winchester he supervised the restoration of the Cathedral. He was among the first members of the Institute of Archaeology in Rome and was also a passionate collector of antiquities, coins, medals and a bibliophile who over time built a refined library of thousands of books and manuscripts. His collections were sold after his death; his important collection of coins was acquired by the British Museum and the manuscripts and books, including some very rare, are scattered throughout all major libraries and museums around the world. Reconstructing Nott’s biography effectively also reconstructs the intellectual climate of the time, which we find described in the works of Jane Austen and George Eliot. In many respects Nott was an exemplary figure of pre-Victorian England. He undertook The Grand Tour as a tutor in the years immediately following the French Revolution. His complex relations with the English court, which had remained chaotic since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, his incredible network of relationships and his diversified interests reveal much about the transition from eighteenth century erudition to a new romantic sensibility. It is difficult to assess what Nott’s impact really was on the development of Anglo-Italian relations. He felt he was unjustly undervalued by Italian scholars, yet he was esteemed by Giacomo Leopardi, whose friendship in itself demonstrated Nott was far from banal. What is certain is that his fascination with Italian culture was shared by many contemporary British writers. Nott was also certainly a very peculiar person. His dismissal as Princess Charlotte’s tutor was talked of at length throughout England. Despite having serious health problems, he was clearly a hypochondriac. He had a difficult temper; many who came into contact with him considered him a “novel character” as a result of his fits and posturing. While Anthony Trollope transformed him into a generally benevolent caricature Shelley and Byron, with whom he had dealings in Pisa in 1821, were much less generous. Nott was a bizarre erudite. As a reflection, we decided to follow his tracks in an erudite fashion. Despite his oft cited work on English Renaissance and thirteenth-century Italian literature, his notable relations with some of the most famous people of the era no biography of Nott was ever written beyond brief entries in the Dictionary of National Biography (1894 by Sidney Lee and 2004 by Rosemary Mitchell) and a recent short article by Carlo De Frede about his relationship with Leopardi. The painstaking reconstruction of Nott’s life, characterised by his intellectual ties and international scope, was the only way to adequately describe his erudite anxiety which is precisely what renders him an emblematic figure of his era.
Il calzolaio quacchero e il finto cadì (Palermo: Sellerio, 2001)
[The Quaker Shoemaker and the False Cadì]. The book reconstructs the story of George Robinson, an... more [The Quaker Shoemaker and the False Cadì]. The book reconstructs the story of George Robinson, an English Quaker, who went to Jerusalem in 1657 “to preach to the Turks and Papists.” The friars of Jerusalem, not knowing how to get rid of him, staged a hoax: disguised a servant of the convent as an Islamic religious authority, a cadi, who ordered George Robinson’s repatriation. Villani publishes an Italian translation of the report that Robinson himself, unaware of the deception, wrote on his return to England (published in 1663) and the transcription of an extraordinary handwritten document in which his story is narrated by one the friars of Jerusalem who staged the faked trial of the Quaker in front of the cadi. Villani found this report in the Archives of Propaganda Fide. The crisp prose of this document, which had never been studied before, presents the reader with a story more akin to fiction than to reality
Tremolanti e Papisti. Missioni quacchere nell’Italia del Seicento (Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1996)
[Quakers and Papists: Quaker Missions to Seventeenth-century Italy]. The book discusses efforts m... more [Quakers and Papists: Quaker Missions to Seventeenth-century Italy]. The book discusses efforts made by the Quakers in mid-seventeenth century Italy as part of their initial missionary thrust. In 1657, Beatrice Beckley, Mary Prince, Mary Fisher, John Perrot, John Luffe and John Buckley moved towards Jerusalem. Perrot and Luffe, went to Livorno and Venice and then to Rome with the intention to convert the Pope. Perrot was incarcerated for almost three years while Luffe died in prison. Thomas Hart, Charles Bayly and Jane Stokes traveled to Rome in those years trying to get Perrot released (and both Charles Bayly and Jane Stokes were imprisoned in 1661). In 1657, Elizabeth Harris and Elizabeth Cowart went to Venice. In 1658 Samuel Fisher and John Stubbs went to Venice and Rome. Almost everyone stopped in Livorno that was, at the time, one of the most important international ports and the British hub for the trade with the Levant. George Robinson also stopped in Livorno in the winter of 1657. In Livorno again, at the end of 1658 Sarah Cheevers and Katherine Evans stopped going on to Alexandria probably with the intention to reach Jerusalem. When their ship stopped in Malta they were arrested, tried and imprisoned by the Inquisition. Finally, in 1661, John Stubbs, Henry Fell, Daniel Baker and Richard Scosthrop, stopped there before going on to China.
Edited Books by Stefano Villani
Storie inglesi. L’Inghilterra vista dall’Italia tra storia e romanzo (XVII secolo). Atti del convegno (Pisa, 10-12 aprile 2003) con l'edizione del Cappuccino Scozzese di Giovan Battista Rinuccini (1644) e del Cromuele di Girolamo Graziani (1671) (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2011)
The essays in this volume investigate the cultural relations between Italy and Great Britain in t... more The essays in this volume investigate the cultural relations between Italy and Great Britain in the seventeenth century, examining Italian Baroque "Novels" that are set in Britain or have a British topic, the seventeenth-century Italian historical works on British history, and the figures of that century who have contributed to the knowledge of British culture and society in Italy. What emerges from the contributors' varied methodological approaches is a lively picture in which religious issues are often intertwined with politics and history with myth. It was this seventeenth century preoccupation with Britain that laid the foundation of "anglomania" which characterizes 18th century Italian culture. The volume also includes the editions of Giovanni Battista Rinuccini's Cappuccino Scozzese (1644) and Girolamo Graziani's Cromuele (1671).
Clizia Carminati, Stefano Villani, Premessa, pp. 7-10
Stefano Villani, La Scozia come simbolo della persecuzione cattolica nel mondo protestante: Maria Stuarda nella letteratura italiana del Seicento, pp. 11-34
Chiara Petrolini , Per un regesto delle carte diplomatiche di Giovan Francesco Biondi (1609-1619 ca.), pp. 35-42
Stefania Sanna, Londra 1632: discussioni linguistico-letterarie tra Giovan Francesco Biondi e Baldassare Bonifacio, pp. 43-82
Martino Capucci, Verità, eresia, conversione nel Cappuccino scozzese di Giovan Battista Rinuccini, pp. 83-95
Lucinda Spera, Una sfida secentesca: la legittimazione del romanzo attraverso la storia, pp. 97-113
Pietro Messina, Santi e libertini. Gli storici italiani del Seicento e la ‘rivoluzione puritana’, pp. 115-169
Franco Barcia, La ‘Storia’ come romanzo: il Teatro britannico di Gregorio Leti, pp. 171-186
Francesco Martelli, Sulle orme del principe. Viaggi di tecnici toscani in Europa negli ultimi decenni del Seicento, 187-213
Giovan Battista Rinuccini, Il Cappuccino scozzese. Edizione criticamente riveduta a cura di Clizia Carminati 215-296
Girolamo Graziani, Il Cromuele. Edizione a cura di Maurizio Fasce con la collaborazione di Carlo Alberto Girotto 297-470
Questioni di storia inglese tra Cinque e Seicento: cultura, politica e religione. Atti del seminario tenutosi presso la Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa l’11 e 12 aprile 2002, edited by Stefano Villani, Stefania Tutino, Chiara Franceschini (Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore, 2003)
Articles in refereed journals by Stefano Villani
Società e Storia, 186, pp. 822-829, 2024
Questo articolo esplora il dominio dell’inglese nel mondo accademico italiano, collegandolo a que... more Questo articolo esplora il dominio dell’inglese nel mondo accademico italiano, collegandolo a questioni più ampie come i meccanismi di valutazione burocratica e l’impatto della globalizzazione sulla cultura europea e sulle discipline storiche. L’autore riflette sulla sua esperienza personale all’interno del sistema accademico italiano e americano, sottolineando che l’uso diffuso dell’inglese è sia un sintomo dell’americanizzazione del mondo accademico italiano sia una conseguenza della globalizzazione. A suo avviso, la qualità della scrittura sta decadendo a causa della crescente enfasi sulla quantità rispetto alla qualità delle pubblicazioni – una conseguenza importante del sistema di valutazione burocratico e perché tutti leggono meno. In definitiva, l’articolo sostiene che la vera sfida consiste nel rivalutare il ruolo della ricerca storica in un contesto globale e tecnologico in rapida evoluzione.
Church History and Religious Culture, 104(3-4), 293-311., 2024
This introduction to the monographic issue highlights the methodological shift inspired by the “g... more This introduction to the monographic issue highlights the methodological shift inspired by the “global turn,” which has reshaped traditional research fields by emphasizing interconnectedness across cultural and religious contexts. It examines how Italian religious historiography has engaged with global frameworks while maintaining a dialogue with its national traditions. The discussion addresses pivotal historiographical debates. The first section of the essay provides a general overview of religious history in Italian historiography since the late 1990s, followed by a more detailed exploration of the most recent historiographical developments and debates.
Villani's article examines Ombre Parlanti ("Talking Shadows"), a 1669 political treatise publishe... more Villani's article examines Ombre Parlanti ("Talking Shadows"), a 1669 political treatise published anonymously and republished by Gregorio Leti in 1671 as part of his Visioni Politiche collection. Ombre Parlanti critiques the politics of European rulers—such as Louis XIV of France, Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, and Charles II of England—through imagined dialogues, primarily with their deceased predecessors. These spectral encounters serve to admonish the living rulers for their political failures, ranging from neglecting alliances to allowing religious corruption and Ottoman expansion. The article highlights the treatise's Baroque theatricality and its role as a political satire, which circulated widely in both print and manuscript form, even after its inclusion in the Index of Forbidden Books in 1672. Villani emphasizes the text's lack of originality, noting its reliance on erudite but disorganized references to ancient history and moralistic critiques of Machiavellianism. Despite this, Ombre Parlanti found a considerable audience, reflecting the demand for politically charged literature in 17th-century Italy.
Liberarsi dal passato. Alcune note a proposito delle polemiche sul “presentismo” in America
Prometeo. Rivista trimestrale di scienze e storia, 40/160 (dicembre 2022), pp. 78-83
Bruniana & Campanelliana, 2023
Watton and Italy : Some Notes on the Dedications to Henry Wotton in Orazio Lombardelli’s Fonti to... more Watton and Italy : Some Notes on the Dedications to Henry Wotton in Orazio Lombardelli’s Fonti toscani and Fabio Glissenti’s Morte innamorata · This article exam-ines the dedicatory letters to Henry Wotton of two books published in Italy : Fonti toscani by Orazio Lombardelli (Siena 1598) and Morte innamorata by Fabio Glissenti (Venice 1608). Wotton came into contact with Lombardelli during his first Italian journey of 1591-1593. The volume dedicated to him describes the readings he probably did under Lombardelli’s guidance to learn Italian during his stay in Siena. The dedica-tion of Glissenti’s Morte innamorata to Wotton, the Protestant ambassador of a heretic king, sparked controversy and protest from the Inquisitor, the Nuncio, and the Curia of Rome. The reconstruction of these controversies adds to our understanding of what has been defined as the philo-Protestant period in Venice (1606-1609)
Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa, 2023
A profile of the late Mario Rosa, who passed away in 2022, with the list and abstracts of the sem... more A profile of the late Mario Rosa, who passed away in 2022, with the list and abstracts of the seminars held at the Scuola Normale Superiore between 1989 and 2007
Church History and Religious Culture, 2021
This chapter reconstructs the life of Jean-Baptiste Stouppe (1623–1692), a Huguenot of Italian or... more This chapter reconstructs the life of Jean-Baptiste Stouppe (1623–1692), a Huguenot of Italian origin who in the 1650s moved to England and was employed by Oliver Cromwell in important diplomatic / espionage missions. Passing into the service of Louis XIV as a soldier, he published some pro-French propaganda works aimed at Protestants, including a famous description of Dutch religious life, published in 1673, notorious for its negative portrayal of Spinoza’s philosophy. While presenting himself as a defender of Protestant orthodoxy, Stouppe was in fact a libertine with magical-alchemical interests. An unscrupulous and ambiguous figure, his intellectual trajectory is clearly inserted in what has been defined as the crisis of the European conscience.
In the library of the University of Missouri – MU Ellis Special Col-lections Rare Vault, PC1121.I... more In the library of the University of Missouri – MU Ellis Special Col-lections Rare Vault, PC1121.I82 1600 – there is a seventeenth-century manuscript of 68 pages almost certainly composed as a didactic tool for an English reader to improve the knowledge of the Italian language.
Two sections are clearly recognizable in the manuscript: the first, which contains a series of idiomatic expressions in Italian, together with their translation into English, from the 1611 edition of John Florio's Queen Anna's New World of Words, and the second, which presents some poems and 'literary' extracts. On the basis of the ownership notes, it is possible to hypothesize that the manuscript was prepared by Giovanni Aureli, son of Giovanni Battista, the pastor of the Italian Protestant church in London, for Charles Longland, an English merchant who spent most of his life in Livorno where he resided in from the 1630s to his death in 1688 and who was Oliver Cromwell's informal diplomatic representative in Italy in the 1650s. The article describes the manuscript, identifying the sources used by its author and highlighting its importance as a document of the entanglements between literary and mercantile interests in the seventeenth-century Anglo-Italian world.
This article reconstructs the major role played by William Chauncey Langdon (1831-1895) in the ac... more This article reconstructs the major role played by William Chauncey Langdon (1831-1895) in the activities towards Italy developed by the Episcopal Protestant Church in the second half of the nineteenth century. In Italy, between the autumn of 1859 and the spring of 1861, Langdon gave life to the Episcopal congregations of Rome and Florence. Back in America, on his impulse, in 1865 the Episcopal Church gave life to a Joint Committee on the Italian Reform Movement that sent him to Italy in early 1867. He remained there until the summer of 1873, providing information on the Italian religious world in America and supporting Italian reform groups. Langdon presented Episcopalism to his Italian interlocutors as a model for a possible reformation of the Catholic church. In contact with Ricasoli, Langdon was the de facto director of the Esaminatore, after the death of Stanislao Bianciardi in 1868.
In 1853, on the initiative of the Anglican minister Frederick Meyrick, the Anglo-Continental Soci... more In 1853, on the initiative of the Anglican minister Frederick Meyrick, the Anglo-Continental Society was created in England with the aim of making the principles of the Church of England known to Catholic Europe through the publication and dissemination of Anglican theological books and treatises. By showing the existence of what was presented as a non-papist Catholicism, according to the Society the internal reform of the European national Churches would be favored. From the beginning Italy was the main and most important field of activity of the Anglo-Continental Society. The organization came into contact with many exponents of the Italian liberal clergy and, at least until 1866, cultivated the illusion that Bettino Ricasoli could favor a religious reform of Italy, having as a model the Church of England. After 1870, the Anglo-Continental Society closely followed the developments of the Old Catholic movement in Italy and between 1881 and 1903 promoted the birth and development of Enrico Campello's National Catholic Church of Italy.
Editions in Italian of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the United States of ... more Editions in Italian of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America.
This article reconstructs the history of the Italian translations of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. A first partial edition in Italian was published in Florence in 1868 by William Chauncey Langdon and Stanislao Bianciardi, probably for propaganda reasons. Another partial version was published in 1874 and in 1876 by the Italian Costantino Stauder, minister of the first Italian-speaking Episcopal congregation in New York. Around the same time, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church gave life to a commission charged with promoting a full translation. In 1879, this commission gave the green light to the partial publication of a new translation by Francis Philip Nash. While both the Florentine and New York editions utilized the translation of the long-published Anglican Book of Common Prayer, this was a new version. In 1880, Stauder presented his own translation ― no copies of this remain ― which was rejected by the commission in favour of the one Nash was working on. Nash concluded his work in 1886 but, for reasons unknown to us, this version never saw the light of day. The first full Italian edition was published in Philadelphia only in 1904 by Michele Zara, minister of the Italian Episcopal of Philadelphia. His successor, Tommaso Edmondo della Cioppa published in 1922 a bilingual selection of the Book of Common Prayer. The birth of Italian-speaking congregations of the Episcopal Church was helped by the idea of Americanizing Italian immigrants. The history of the translations of the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer is, therefore, also a chapter in the cross-cultural history of Italian immigration to the United States.
Keywords: The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), The Episcopal Church, Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Communion, Anglicanism, Liturgy, Translations.
This special issue of «Genesis» analyses, from a gender-sensitive perspective, the impact of cros... more This special issue of «Genesis» analyses, from a gender-sensitive perspective, the impact of crossing confessional and religious borders, of mobility, and of voluntary migration on definitions (and/or self-definitions) of religious identity. Against the backdrop of recent historiography on the mechanisms of the discursive structuring of space on one side and on global entanglement on the other, the authors tend to overcome a fixed delimitation of religious borders. The essays contained in this special issue present a series of case studies that range from the medieval era to the present. They investigate the strategies used to adapt to a new context, the conflicts generated by the encounters between different cultures, and the estrangement provoked by confrontation with a different culture. Analyzing the effects of mobility permits the authors to examine religious practices that assimilate into or differentiate from new surroundings. The specific focus taken here helps us to reflect on the “performative” aspects and fluidity of the construction of religious identities.
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Books by Stefano Villani
Edited Books by Stefano Villani
Clizia Carminati, Stefano Villani, Premessa, pp. 7-10
Stefano Villani, La Scozia come simbolo della persecuzione cattolica nel mondo protestante: Maria Stuarda nella letteratura italiana del Seicento, pp. 11-34
Chiara Petrolini , Per un regesto delle carte diplomatiche di Giovan Francesco Biondi (1609-1619 ca.), pp. 35-42
Stefania Sanna, Londra 1632: discussioni linguistico-letterarie tra Giovan Francesco Biondi e Baldassare Bonifacio, pp. 43-82
Martino Capucci, Verità, eresia, conversione nel Cappuccino scozzese di Giovan Battista Rinuccini, pp. 83-95
Lucinda Spera, Una sfida secentesca: la legittimazione del romanzo attraverso la storia, pp. 97-113
Pietro Messina, Santi e libertini. Gli storici italiani del Seicento e la ‘rivoluzione puritana’, pp. 115-169
Franco Barcia, La ‘Storia’ come romanzo: il Teatro britannico di Gregorio Leti, pp. 171-186
Francesco Martelli, Sulle orme del principe. Viaggi di tecnici toscani in Europa negli ultimi decenni del Seicento, 187-213
Giovan Battista Rinuccini, Il Cappuccino scozzese. Edizione criticamente riveduta a cura di Clizia Carminati 215-296
Girolamo Graziani, Il Cromuele. Edizione a cura di Maurizio Fasce con la collaborazione di Carlo Alberto Girotto 297-470
Articles in refereed journals by Stefano Villani
Two sections are clearly recognizable in the manuscript: the first, which contains a series of idiomatic expressions in Italian, together with their translation into English, from the 1611 edition of John Florio's Queen Anna's New World of Words, and the second, which presents some poems and 'literary' extracts. On the basis of the ownership notes, it is possible to hypothesize that the manuscript was prepared by Giovanni Aureli, son of Giovanni Battista, the pastor of the Italian Protestant church in London, for Charles Longland, an English merchant who spent most of his life in Livorno where he resided in from the 1630s to his death in 1688 and who was Oliver Cromwell's informal diplomatic representative in Italy in the 1650s. The article describes the manuscript, identifying the sources used by its author and highlighting its importance as a document of the entanglements between literary and mercantile interests in the seventeenth-century Anglo-Italian world.
This article reconstructs the history of the Italian translations of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. A first partial edition in Italian was published in Florence in 1868 by William Chauncey Langdon and Stanislao Bianciardi, probably for propaganda reasons. Another partial version was published in 1874 and in 1876 by the Italian Costantino Stauder, minister of the first Italian-speaking Episcopal congregation in New York. Around the same time, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church gave life to a commission charged with promoting a full translation. In 1879, this commission gave the green light to the partial publication of a new translation by Francis Philip Nash. While both the Florentine and New York editions utilized the translation of the long-published Anglican Book of Common Prayer, this was a new version. In 1880, Stauder presented his own translation ― no copies of this remain ― which was rejected by the commission in favour of the one Nash was working on. Nash concluded his work in 1886 but, for reasons unknown to us, this version never saw the light of day. The first full Italian edition was published in Philadelphia only in 1904 by Michele Zara, minister of the Italian Episcopal of Philadelphia. His successor, Tommaso Edmondo della Cioppa published in 1922 a bilingual selection of the Book of Common Prayer. The birth of Italian-speaking congregations of the Episcopal Church was helped by the idea of Americanizing Italian immigrants. The history of the translations of the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer is, therefore, also a chapter in the cross-cultural history of Italian immigration to the United States.
Keywords: The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), The Episcopal Church, Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Communion, Anglicanism, Liturgy, Translations.
Clizia Carminati, Stefano Villani, Premessa, pp. 7-10
Stefano Villani, La Scozia come simbolo della persecuzione cattolica nel mondo protestante: Maria Stuarda nella letteratura italiana del Seicento, pp. 11-34
Chiara Petrolini , Per un regesto delle carte diplomatiche di Giovan Francesco Biondi (1609-1619 ca.), pp. 35-42
Stefania Sanna, Londra 1632: discussioni linguistico-letterarie tra Giovan Francesco Biondi e Baldassare Bonifacio, pp. 43-82
Martino Capucci, Verità, eresia, conversione nel Cappuccino scozzese di Giovan Battista Rinuccini, pp. 83-95
Lucinda Spera, Una sfida secentesca: la legittimazione del romanzo attraverso la storia, pp. 97-113
Pietro Messina, Santi e libertini. Gli storici italiani del Seicento e la ‘rivoluzione puritana’, pp. 115-169
Franco Barcia, La ‘Storia’ come romanzo: il Teatro britannico di Gregorio Leti, pp. 171-186
Francesco Martelli, Sulle orme del principe. Viaggi di tecnici toscani in Europa negli ultimi decenni del Seicento, 187-213
Giovan Battista Rinuccini, Il Cappuccino scozzese. Edizione criticamente riveduta a cura di Clizia Carminati 215-296
Girolamo Graziani, Il Cromuele. Edizione a cura di Maurizio Fasce con la collaborazione di Carlo Alberto Girotto 297-470
Two sections are clearly recognizable in the manuscript: the first, which contains a series of idiomatic expressions in Italian, together with their translation into English, from the 1611 edition of John Florio's Queen Anna's New World of Words, and the second, which presents some poems and 'literary' extracts. On the basis of the ownership notes, it is possible to hypothesize that the manuscript was prepared by Giovanni Aureli, son of Giovanni Battista, the pastor of the Italian Protestant church in London, for Charles Longland, an English merchant who spent most of his life in Livorno where he resided in from the 1630s to his death in 1688 and who was Oliver Cromwell's informal diplomatic representative in Italy in the 1650s. The article describes the manuscript, identifying the sources used by its author and highlighting its importance as a document of the entanglements between literary and mercantile interests in the seventeenth-century Anglo-Italian world.
This article reconstructs the history of the Italian translations of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. A first partial edition in Italian was published in Florence in 1868 by William Chauncey Langdon and Stanislao Bianciardi, probably for propaganda reasons. Another partial version was published in 1874 and in 1876 by the Italian Costantino Stauder, minister of the first Italian-speaking Episcopal congregation in New York. Around the same time, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church gave life to a commission charged with promoting a full translation. In 1879, this commission gave the green light to the partial publication of a new translation by Francis Philip Nash. While both the Florentine and New York editions utilized the translation of the long-published Anglican Book of Common Prayer, this was a new version. In 1880, Stauder presented his own translation ― no copies of this remain ― which was rejected by the commission in favour of the one Nash was working on. Nash concluded his work in 1886 but, for reasons unknown to us, this version never saw the light of day. The first full Italian edition was published in Philadelphia only in 1904 by Michele Zara, minister of the Italian Episcopal of Philadelphia. His successor, Tommaso Edmondo della Cioppa published in 1922 a bilingual selection of the Book of Common Prayer. The birth of Italian-speaking congregations of the Episcopal Church was helped by the idea of Americanizing Italian immigrants. The history of the translations of the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer is, therefore, also a chapter in the cross-cultural history of Italian immigration to the United States.
Keywords: The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), The Episcopal Church, Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Communion, Anglicanism, Liturgy, Translations.
Since the end of the sixteenth century, and for almost two centuries, the Society of Friends has imposed on its members a more and more precise dress code. However, initially, Quakers had refused only the show of wealth and luxury in their clothes, and it was only at a later time that a system of rules to follow was introduced, enforced by the rigorous control of the elders of the congregation. These dressing rules imposed on Quakers a sort of ‘uniform’, which, though changing over the decades, was characterized by simplicity and an old-fashioned outlook. This essay investigates this change and this transformation by focusing attention on the layers of meaning that can be discovered by investigating the symbolic materiality of Quaker dress codes.
Florio, then in disgrace, made this translation not to educate the young members of the small Italian Protestant congregation in London (as hinted in the title page), but to gain the favor of the Duke of Northumberland, to whom the book was dedicated, hoping that his daughter-in-law, Jane Grey, would become queen of England. The Catholic restoration of Mary Tudor doomed this project and forced him into exile.
The essay reconstructs both the biography of Christianus Lazarus Lauria (circa 1821-1885) and the activities of the London Society for Propagating Christianity among the Jews in Italy. This British missionary organization, founded on interdenominational lines in 1809, became an expression of the Church of England in 1815. Its purpose was the conversion of the Jews, emphasizing at the same time the Jewish roots of Christianity (the organization, which still exists, since 1995 took the name of Church's Ministry Among Jewish People). Approached by missionaries of this Society in Jerusalem, rabbi Eliezer Lauria converted to Christianity in 1843, changing his first name to Christianus Lazarus. He subsequently became a minister of the Church of England. A missionary in Italy, he was first in Turin (1855-1862) and then in Livorno (1862-1866). Moved by the illusory hope that the political Italian Risorgimento could trigger a religious reformation, the organization published books and pamphlets and employed several agents in Italy (the last outpost of the Society in Rome was closed in 1914).
On January 3, 1661 a certain Amidei Alessandro offered to the king of England Charles II a manuscript collection of political aphorisms, that is currently preserved at the Library of Clarke, University of California at Los Angeles. He presented himself as the author of the maxims, which in reality were copied from a printed collection of aphorisms by Guicciardini, Lottini and Sansovino edited by the latter under the title Propositioni, overo Considerationi in materia di cose di Stato in 1583 and republished multiple times in the following decades. A singular figure with a shifting and elusive identity, Amidei was an Italian Jew who moved to England in 1656. As an audacious plagiarist, Amidei took full advantage of the flexibility of the manuscript form, recomposing the maxims to serve his own aims. This case study helps us to understand this creative reuse of aphoristic matter as a common practice of the Baroque age.
The chapter also explores the history surrounding two complete copies of the 1593 privileges preserved in the British National Archives. The first, previously known to scholars, was likely not officially sent to Queen Elizabeth I, contradicting an established historiographical myth. The second, an 18th-century copy newly discovered by the author, is tied to one of the many jurisdictional disputes concerning the application of the Livornina to the English community.
Another focal point of the chapter is the broader influence of Livorno's Jewish privileges, which served as a model during mid-17th-century discussions on the readmission of Jews to England and the expansion of their rights in the 18th century. This analysis underscores the international relevance of the Livornina in shaping concepts of religious and economic liberty across early modern Europe.
The Gadfly is a novel by Irish writer Ethel Voynich, published in 1897.
The first part of The Gadfly is set between Pisa and Leghom. Voynich describes the British community of Leghom highlighting its confessional divisions. Religious issues play a fundamental role in the construction of this novel and the vicissitudes of Arthur Burton can be read as a metaphorical representation of the story of Jesus Christ. The interplay between historical reality and literary imagination in Voynich's novel allows us to reflect on the religious dimension of this text.
Behavioral Practice, Social Boundaries, & the Marking of Identity in the Early Modern Era
September 30th and October 1st, 2015
Francis Scott Key Hall 2120
University of Maryland, College Park
Wednesday, September 30
10:00-12:00 Language and Religion: Boundary or Frontier
Chair: Philip Soergel
Christopher Celenza
Johns Hopkins University
The Problem of the Latin Language in the Italian Renaissance.
Stefano Villani
University of Maryland
Becoming Italian: Early Modern British Converts and the Inquisition
Shai Zamir
Tel Aviv University
The Image of the Jewish Woman in the Trent Blood Libel (1475)
Lunch Break
1:45-5:00 Gender, Sexuality and Behavioral Practices
Chair: Marsha Rozenblit
Pawel Maciejko
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Sexuality and Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschütz
Hugo Brulhart
University of Maryland
Sodomy & Crime in 16th-Century Geneva
Tamar Herzig
Tel Aviv University
Being a 'Jewish Nun' in Early Modern Italy
Eyda Merediz
University of Maryland
Canary Islands’ Malinches: Happy Foundational Couples in the Atlantic?
Thursday, October 1
9:10-10:45 Change in the Marketplace; Change in the Environment
Chair: Bernard Cooperman
Robert Friedel
University of Maryland
Beer, Cheese, and Bread. Men, Women, and Work in Early Modern Britain.
Noel Johnson
George Mason University
Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks
11:00–12:30 Labeling People
Chair: Tamar Herzig
Ira Berlin
University of Maryland
What’s In a Name?
Bernard Cooperman
University of Maryland
Race, Slavery, and Synagogue Honors
Holly Brewer
University of Maryland
Identifying People as Property. Creating a Common Law of Slavery for England and its Empire
Lunch Break
1:45–4:30 Cultural Shifts
Chair: Stefano Villani
Andrea Frisch
University of Maryland
Moving History: Affect & National Memory after the French Wars of Religion
Ralph Bauer
University of Maryland
Lucretius' New World: Cannibalism, Materialism, and Humanism in the Early Modern Encounter with the Americas
Jonathan Allen
University of Maryland
Excluding and Defending Tomb-Visitation in Early Modern Ottoman Islam?
The conference aims to investigate the historical and theoretical context that favoured the birth of missionary institutions, looking in particular at their actions in continental Europe. We want to put together historians of the British Isles, of continental Europe, global historians, experts in Protestantism, Catholicism, and Jewish history, and ask them to go beyond the traditional boundaries of their historical disciplines. Furthermore, we will explore the origins of this missionary commitment in the religious and political turmoil of the seventeenth century, moving away from earlier approaches which emphasised the role of (solely) English religious life after the Glorious Revolution. Similarly, we adopt a long-term overview, overturning the distinction between early modern and modern: we are including the nineteenth century in our investigation, highlighting the continuity of Anglican and non-conformist missions in Europe. In doing so, we position the conference at the forefront of the debate on religious history, contributing to the radical reconsideration of the chronology of European religious history currently debated by historians. Finally, we believe necessary a constant comparative approach with Catholic missions.
This new approach is also an attempt to change the traditional perspective that saw the global Evangelical expansion as a one-way movement outwards from Europe, to the peripheries of the world.
It is our contention instead that global missions and the emergence of global Christianities profoundly changed European churches at home. The attempt to spread Protestantism in Europe was indeed the product of a missionary experiment that had been tested in America, Africa, and Asia. It is our ambition to show how, in a striking theoretical overturn, continental Europe was considered a missionary land, just another periphery of the world, whose centre was instead in Imperial Britain.
Catholic countries (particularly Spain and Italy) were often described using colonial language, with an emphasis on their backwardness, and their need to modernize. In this sense, the British missionary offensive in Europe has provided conceptual material to what can be called a true "imaginary colonialism". In the ideological construction of a global Evangelical Christianity, the history of this (failed) attempt to convert Europe had a role that has not been adequately investigated until now.
Programme for our panels (for full programme, see https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1760648447538726&id=1743820999221471):
1. Conversion: Religious Consents, Religious Dissents and the Composite Construction of Identities 8:30–10:00 a.m.
Chair: Stefano Villani
Comment: Philip M. Soergel
Serena Di Nepi, Sapienza University of Rome: Looking for Freedom: Muslim Slaves Conversion in Early Modern Rome
Stefano Villani, University of Maryland, College Park: Conversions of Foreigners in Italy and Early Modern Religious Mobility
Daniel Butler, University of Maryland: A Thorow Gospellizing: Themes of Evangelization in Old and New England
2. Conversion: Religious Consents, Religious Dissents and the Composite Construction of Identities 10:30–noon
Chair: Bernard Cooperman
Comment: Philip M. Soergel
Tamar Herzig, Tel Aviv University: Nuns, Demons, and Jewish Conversion in Post-Tridentine Italy
Bernard Cooperman, University of Maryland, College Park: Conversos and the Construction of Public Identity
3. Conversion: Religious Consents, Religious Dissents and the Composite Construction of Identities 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Chair: Federico Barbierato
Comment: Philip M. Soergel
Helena Wangefelt Ström, Umeå University, Fragile Minds, Strange Hairdos and Cross-Dressing: Strangeifying Swedish Early Modern Converts to Catholicism Sweden
Teresa Bernardi, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa: Religious Conversion and Women’s Mobility in the Republic of Venice (XVI-XVII centuries)
Federico Barbierato, Università di Verona, “Con proprii riti, diversi da nostri”: Conversions and Politics in the Venetian Governmental Practice Between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
EMoDiR is now planning a series of panels discussing practices of comparisons in the context of religious dissent for the upcoming RSA conference in San Juan (March-9-11, 2023).
What was “religious dissent”? How was the “dissenter” or the member of a “religious minority group” different from other believers? And how did difference become dissent? How was it turned into deviance? Since the early years of EMoDiR, we have discussed the role of categories and reflected on the intersection of contemporary and scholarly categorization processes in establishing “early modern dissent” as a subject of study. Through our research and collaboration, we have emphasized the need to distinguish between internal and external perspectives (emic /etic) and to account for the mutability of categories over time. This relational perspective has helped us to uncover a certain fluidity of categorical identifications and to explore ambiguity in terms of deliberate strategy and non-intended effect. In doing so, we have implicitly or explicitly compared different religious groups with each other, both synchronically and diachronically. In observing “religious dissent”, we relied partly on how contemporaries distinguished between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, between orthopraxis and heteropraxis.
On this basis, we would now like to invite contributions that explicitly focus on practices of comparison from a historical perspective: how exactly did people compare religious groups in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period? How did they establish similarities and differences, unity and diversity? What elements were chosen as meaningful categories for assessing religious differences? What doctrinal, communicative, and practical means did they have at their disposal to conceptualize and handle religious diversity? What topoi and rhetorical strategies were deployed? What role did space and time play in the positioning of other groups? By exploring practices of comparison in a broad temporal framework (1350-1700), we also want to re-visit the usual periodization schemes prevalent in histories of comparatism to explore how Reformation-era comparisons and categories relate to comparative practices that had emerged in the context of humanism and earlier medieval religious debates. What changes can we observe around the alleged watershed moment of 1500? How did growing global connections and colonial ventures feed into practices of comparison in the religious field?
Focusing on historical comparisons renders visible the multiplicity of past categories and the relationality of categorization work. From this vantage point, a critical view of our own comparative undertakings becomes possible. We thus hope to enrich recent historiographical considerations on comparative approaches in a global context by investigating historical forms and alternative modes of comparison.
We invite contributions and papers which investigate and analyse:
archives of comparison: heresiologies, lists, catalogues as comparative practices
mediating comparison: iconographies, formatting, and materiality
practices of comparison and/in translation
polemical comparisons: comparisons in religious controversies and their audiences
gender as an element of religious comparative practices
temporalization and concepts of time and history
theories of genealogies: polygenetic and monogenetic approaches
beyond the binary: comparative operations and concepts of diversity in the religious field
Proposals should be submitted by July 15, 2022 by email to Stefano Villani (villani@umd.edu) and emodir@emodir.net with full name, current affiliation, and email address; a paper title (15-word maximum), an abstract (150-word maximum), keywords, Ph.D. completion date (past or expected), and a brief CV (150 words maximum). Inquiries about the content of the CFP can be directed to Christina Brauner (christina.brauner@uni-tuebingen.de) and/or Xenia von Tippelskirch (xenia.von-tippelskirch@uni-tuebingen.de).
Selected Bibliography:
Christina Brauner, Polemical Comparisons in Discourses of Religious Diversity. Conceptual Remarks and Reflexive Perspectives, in: Entangled Religions 11.4 (2020), DOI: https://doi.org/10.46586/er.11.2020.8692
Renaud Gagné, Simon Goldhill, Geoffrey Lloyd (eds.), Regimes of comparatism : frameworks of comparison in history, religion and anthropology, Leiden/Boston 2018.Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most (eds.), Canonical Texts and Scholarly Practices: A Global Comparative Approach, Cambridge UP 2016.
Sophie Houdard, Adelisa Malena and Xenia von Tippelskirch, “Langages dissidents: performances et contestations religieuses à l’époque moderne”, Études Épistémè [Online], 31 | 2017; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/episteme.1750
van der Veer, Peter, The value of comparison, Durham, NC 2016
Vincent Goossaert and Peter Van der Veer, « Introduction », Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 193 | 2021, 11-24.
Caroline Walker Bynum, Interrogating “Likeness”. Fake Friends, Similia Similibus, and Heavenly Crowns, in: Historische Anthropologie 28 (2020), https://doi.org/10.7788/hian.2020.28.1.31
- religious minorities, with reference to spatial segregation
- food regulations
- exile communities
- religious heterodoxy and social non-conformity (e.g. sexual and gender transgressions) in Early Modern cities
- religious "tourism" (travels to shrines and religiously charged locations, both for religious and cultural purposes)
We would also encourage papers exploring the new opportunities of research opened up for historians of the Early Modern period by technologies and digital humanities, especially in relation to the recent developments in Spatial Humanities and network analysis. Proposals should be submitted by June 30, 2018 by email to Stefano Villani (villani@umd.edu) and emodir@emodir.net with full name, current affiliation and email address; a paper title (15-word maximum), an abstract (150-word maximum), keywords, PhD completion date (past or expected), and a brief CV (150 words maximum).
May 5-7, 2019
University of Maryland, College Park
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
The history of Italy’s Jews has traditionally been understood within the framework of the Peninsula’s city- and state-system, with the ultimate “emancipation” of the Jews tied directly to the process of national unification and the liberal narrative that sustained it. What preceded “emancipation” was therefore framed as the ongoing dialectic between the progressive forces of modernity and the backward forces of religious and political repression. That approach now seems if not wrong at least outdated in light of shifts in both Jewish and Italian historiography over the past several decades. Our conference hopes to bring scholars from a wide diversity of disciplinary and intellectual backgrounds together to revisit the established narrative and explore the relation of Jews and the state in the early modern period.
The history of Jews in Renaissance Italy has seen both gradual development and radical change over the past several decades. Archival documents have been collected and published, critical editions of major works have appeared in Hebrew and Italian, and new syntheses have been offered by scholars from many different perspectives. The field was once focused on local history and informed by an underlying Burckhardtian and positivist approach. It is now characterized by an ever more sophisticated appreciation of Hebrew cultural dynamics, by a globalizing approach to Jewish identity, by sensitivity to the spatial and material historical “turns”, by greater appreciation for the dynamic of Jewish mercantile and financial activities, and by an increasingly nuanced understanding of Jewish interaction with non-Jewish culture and society. The Jews of Italy are also now regularly treated as part of a broader Mediterranean Jewish network that stretched across political, imperial, and religious boundaries. Even the Italian ghetto, ostensibly the representation of Jews’ exile from society, has come under considerable discussion in ways that demonstrate the nuanced complexity of Jews’ relation to the surrounding society. Scholars in Italy and the rest of Europe, in Israel, and in North America have demonstrated from different angles that early modern Italian Jews did not live only on the margins; in complex and often contradictory ways, they were consciously and factually a vital component of the Italian mosaic.
At the same time, the traditional understanding of the “Italian Renaissance State” has also been challenged and revised. Decades of successful scholarship had traced the territorial, jurisdictional, administrative, and legal developments of the state system before, during, and despite Spanish dominance. The sovereign papacy, the imperial systems, and the interactions of solidified territorial states were all investigated. This historiographical focus was subsequently expanded by social historians who, often from a cliometric approach, began to use the rich Italian archives to explore urban patterns, first in major centres and increasingly then on the periphery. Social and economic historians added comparative treatments of wider units of political organization, using the archives to explore themes of urban history and city-state relations. Cultural historians, influenced by the developing fields of social anthropology, shifted direction yet again, now paying less attention to administrative and political units and more to the webs of symbolic significance through which state identities were constructed. Possibly influenced by a growing sense that the Italian nationalizing project had failed or was at least in crisis, scholars began to challenge the old straight-line narrative of liberal progress through administrative centralization that had informed earlier studies. These patterns, specific to Italian history, have been further strengthened by repeated calls for interdisciplinary, trans-national, and global approaches to the past.
And yet, recent scholarly publications seem to give evidence that the state is still a useful framing tool with which to examine Italian history generally, and the Jewish experience in particular. Globalization, usually understood as the outward expansion of western European economic and military power, was also the integration of Italian states into a larger Mediterranean reality, with corresponding influence on the local dynamic of Jewish settlement, trade and culture. New calls for “entangled” historiography invite us to re-examine the relation of Jews and official institutions of power and control. Increased bureaucratization, visible at so many levels of both secular and Church governance, deserves investigation for its inevitable impact on Jews and other minorities. The developing jurisprudence that redefined both the power of the absolutist state and the legal status of resistance to it also defined the place of Jews in society. And even something as ostensibly ecclesiastical as the Inquisition(s) is now discussed widely in the context of negotiated state power and state formation. On these and many other levels, it seems therefore time to revisit the paradigm of the Italian state system and the Jews.
We call on interested scholars to submit proposals for discussion of the place available to, and occupied by, Jews in the early modern Italian state. We expect to have sessions dealing with the administrative and judicial treatment of Jews by the state, the political autonomy and organization of Jews within the state, and the relation between local Jewish and state identities. We hope to have a session that explores the interactions of Inquisitional and state organizations in issuing and enforcing directives of social discipline. We invite also scholars who can offer comparative treatments of the legal and group identities of other religious and ethnic minorities (Protestants, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, etc.) in Italy. We welcome proposals that will open up the specifics of the Jewish case to comparison with broader intellectual and judicial patterns of state practice and political thought. And finally, we invite proposals that explore the broader demographic, economic, and social developments in Italy as these affected policy towards Jews and other urban minorities.
For best consideration, paper proposals of 300–500 words accompanied by a brief cv should be submitted to L. J. Brandli (millercenter@umd.edu) by November 20, 2018. The organizers expect to respond by December 1, 2018.
This conference is intended as the second meeting of a research project on Jews in Italy during the long Renaissance. The project is sponsored by the University of Maryland in College Park, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, the Italian Research Program of National Interest-PRIN 2015 The Long History of Anti-Semitism (University of Milan ‘La Statale’, University of Pisa, University of Genova, Sapienza University of Rome), and the International Research Group in Early Modern Religious Dissents & Radicalism EMoDiR.
Although the application for funding is still in progress, the organisers expect to cover accommodation and meals for the duration of the conference.
Scientific committee: Marina Caffiero, Bernard Cooperman, Serena di Nepi, Pawel Maciejko, Germano Maifreda, Yaakov Mascetti, Stefano Villani.
Organizing committee: L.J. Brandli, Federico Zuliani
Emigration and exile, in the dialectic between displacement and opportunity, enable reflections on the very concept of religious identity. The historiographical investigation on the estrangement provoked by confrontation with a different culture, on strategies of adapting to a new context, and on the conflicts generated by encounters between different cultures may contribute to reflection on the 'performative' aspects and fluidity of the construction of confessional identities. In recent historiography on cultural transfers and contact zones, the key role of the go-betweens and brokers has been emphasized. Along the lines of these works, contributions will be accepted which inquire into either 1) the strategies of self-presentation in the religious sphere of men and women who have left their homeland voluntarily or involuntarily, permanently or temporarily; or 2) the historical impact of the presence of foreigners on the re-definition of the host society's religious identity. At the centre of this inquiry are questions regarding the social relations that were built because of mobility and that were maintained or cut off across distance. These include experiences of loneliness, officialised relations, and the creation or reinforcement of emotional and family ties. We invite proposals for case studies or comparative investigations that explicitly pose the question of gender construction and/or analyse the specificities related to gender. Within this framework, it should be taken into account that journey, exile, and migration represent very diverse typologies of mobility. The contributions may present either case studies that reflect on the performativity of religious identity from a gender perspective or more general theoretical reflections, covering a chronological span from the early modern to the contemporary period.
Please consider submitting an abstract (up to 250 words in length) by February 13, 2016 to Federico Barbierato (federico.barbierato@univr.it) or Stefano Villani (svillani@gmail.com).
Conversion: Religious Consents, Religious Dissents and the Composite Construction of Identities (Emodir - Research group in
Early Modern Religious Dissents & Radicalism)
The theme of early modern conversions has recently been at the center of historical debate. The work of international research groups and a range of recent monographs have cast light on various aspects of the phenomenon. Our panel will discuss this research and debate, and examine individual case studies: all in the context of the conversion as an act of identity construction. We are especially interested in examining hybrid, multiform, composite identities that incorporate traits past elements, thus creating new spiritual dimensions and strategy of "multiple loyalties." We seek papers devoted to the investigation of various types of religious conversion: as a free decision; as a mechanism to avoid persecution or death; as an act to fit into a new family, city or "national” context;" and so on.
Whatever the modalities, strategies and the religious motivations may be, how do they contribute to original forms of religious identities through which individuals accommodate the spiritual dimension into the dynamics of multiple loyalties?
"Languages" of dissent in Early Modern Europe
EMoDiR (Early Modern religious Dissents and Radicalism)
We would welcome papers which investigate the communication strategies of early modern religious radicals and dissenters, the forms and media used for the transmission and circulation of their ideas, the discursive practices and the non verbal languages which define dissent. The papers can focus on the variety of experiences of religious dissent which characterize the early modern European context, and on the practices of identitarian resistance of Christian and non-Christian religious minorities.
What can be defined as a language of dissent? What are the media used by underground heretical groups? What are the strategies to unmask dissenting ideas? These are some of the questions that we want to address with this panel.
To submit a paper topic for consideration, please send a paper title, an abstract (150 words maximum) and your CV (300 words maximum) to Stefano Villani ( villani@umd.edu ) by June 2, 2015.
A presentation of Emodir published in Italian in the journal of the Società di Studi Valdesi (Society of Waldensian Studies).
EMoDiR (Early Modern Religious Dissents and Radicalism) is an international research group dedicated to the study of religious differences, conflicts and plurality during the early modern period, constituted at Pisa (Italy) by a group of European scholars based in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK in 2007.
After four years, during which the members of the group met regularly and organized a series of workshops in Italy, EMoDiR has formally instituted a scientific organization, based in Verona in 2011. Since then, several scholars of European, North American, Australian Universities and research centers have joined the group.
The aim of the research group is to examine the early modern discursive constructions of religious dissent and the socio-cultural practices of radical movements, transcending traditional historiographical boundaries (notably national and/or confessional). Since the ‘construction of the dissenter’ is the outcome of a complex process, it is necessary to analyze this process both in terms of internal and synchronic dynamics, and in external and diachronic ones. Therefore EMoDiR is committed to gathering together a variety of research projects on early modern religious culture which, given its multifaceted nature, is conceived as a dynamic system. One moreover, which was essential in forging complex identities and encouraging dialogue between them. Analysis, both at local and transnational level (from a predominantly European perspective) is intended to contribute to a cultural and social history of dissents.
From its very beginning EMoDiR has promoted research on the social networks of individuals and specific groups, as well as on the dynamics involved in constructing socio-cultural identities. By considering dissent as a socio-cultural construction rather than doctrinal position, the first objective of the group consists in deconstructing and historically contextualizing such commonly used categories as dissent, radicalism, dissidence, libertinism, heresy, heterodoxy as prerequisite to a critical and problematic use of them.
Between 2008 and 2017 EMoDiR has established formal institutional agreements with the EHESS of Paris, the LERMA – Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone dell’Università Aix-Marseille, the research center Formes et idées de la Renaissance aux Lumières (FIRL–EA174) of the University Paris III – Sorbonne in France; the Department of Humanities (Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici) of the University of Venice, the Time, Space, Image, Society Department of the University of Verona (Dipartimento Tempo, Spazio, Immagine e Società) in Italy; the Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften of the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, the Historisches Institut of the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany; the Department of History of the University of Maryland College Park (Usa), the Morris E. Curiel Institute for European Studies of the University of Tel Aviv (Israel), the Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation of the University of Geneva (Switzerland).
EMoDiR has already promoted national and international research projects and organized a series of seminars, conferences and workshops and is an affiliate organization to the Renaissance Society of America (presenting since 2011 multiple panels at the Annual conference of this organization).
The idea of a physical display of God’s possession became a marker of identity of the first generation of Quakers, of the persecuted Huguenots of the Cevennes, and of some Jansenist groups. However, the idea of the body as a prophetic theater was not alien to many people and groups in early modern times, as evidenced by the case of the Sabbatians. While these intense charismatic phenomena were perceived by those who experienced them as intense manifestations of the divine, their representation was used to vilify, denigrate, and ridicule these religious nonconformists. The theological and philosophical discussions about religious "Enthusiasm" were at the center of the confessional polemics of early modern times.
EMoDiR panels
RSA 2020 Philadelphia
EMoDiR co-sponsored events
Fri, April 1, 8:30 to 10:00am, Park Plaza, Fourth Floor, Newbury Room
Chair: Stefano Villani
- Marion Deschamp, Université Lumière Lyon 2: The Sound of Silence: Refusing to Speak as an Expression of Dissent in Sixteenth-Century German Anabaptism
- Carmen Font Paz, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: Prophecy and the Language of Isolation in Lady Eleanor Davies’s Tracts
- Alessandro Arcangeli, Università degli Studi di Verona: Early Puritanism and the Vocabulary of Affections
Languages of Dissent II: Translating, Labelling, Persecuting Dissent
Fri, April 1, 10:30am to 12:00pm, Park Plaza, Fourth Floor, Newbury Room
Chair: Alessandro Arcangeli
- Alessandra Celati, Università degli Studi di Pisa: Irenism, Nicodemism, and Philosophy in Girolamo Donzellini’s Remedium Ferendarum Iniuriarum sive de Compescenda Ira (1586)
- Eva Del Soldato, University of Pennsylvania: A Reluctant Heretic? Antonio Brucioli, the Bible, and His Trials
- Bernard Cooperman, University of Maryland, College Park: Available Labels for Jewish Deviance
- Stefano Villani, University of Maryland, College Park: Defining the Church of England in Early Modern Italy
Languages of Dissent III: Heterodox Britain
Fri, April 1, 1:30 to 3:00pm, Park Plaza, Fourth Floor, Newbury Room
Chair: Federico Barbierato
- Paul C. H. Lim, Vanderbilt University: Naked Gospel or Cloaked Christianity? The Quest for Primitive Faith in Early Enlightenment England
- Ariel Hessayon, Goldsmiths, University of London: The Most “Dangerous and Infectious of All Heresies”: Allegations of AntiTrinitarianism during the English Revolution
- Catie Gill, Loughborough University, Judith Roads, University of Birmingham: Early Quaker Prose (1650–95) and the Primacy of Inward Learning
Languages of Dissent IV: Power, Dissent, Radical Politics
Fri, April 1, 3:30 to 5:00pm, Park Plaza, Fourth Floor, Newbury Room
Chair: Bernard Cooperman
- Angela De Benedictis, Università degli Studi di Bologna: For the Glory of God: The Sacred Example of Libna’s Resistance in Bèze and Althusius
- Federico Barbierato, Università degli Studi di Verona: The Theory and Practice of the Repression of Blasphemy in Early Modern Venice
- Holly Brewer, University of Maryland: Sedition, Treason, Censorship, and Slavery in England and Its Empire
Languages of Dissent V: Art, Heritage, and Biography as Dissent
Fri, April 1, 5:30 to 7:00pm, Park Plaza, Fourth Floor, Newbury Room
Chair: Stefano Villani
- Jutta G. Sperling, Hampshire College: Religious Art, Religious Dissent? Examples from Gossaert, Tintoretto, and Caravaggio
- Helena Wangefelt Ström, Umeå University: Rusty, Overgrown, Extinct, and Forgotten: Domesticating Catholicism Through Heritage Language in Post-Reformation Sweden
- Xenia Von Tippelskirch, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: Ways of Communication and the Construction of Religious Dissent: The Case of Madeleine Vigneron
My paper focuses on the intertwining categories of conversion and coexistence in Early Modern Italy. I will discuss the issues that arise from the more or less visible presence of religious minorities in unwilling multireligious society. Moving from this, I will shed light on the complexity of this topic by consider conversion and coexistence as part of the same binomial. The two elements worked on parallel paths but moved in the opposite direction: and it was precisely this contradiction to make possible and even convenient coexistence among societies that were intolerant by definition.
STUDI
OTTAVIA NICCOLI, La conversione dell'inquisitore. Girolamo Bartolomeo Piazza dalla Marca pontificia a Cambridge 7 MARCO BETTASSA, «Sbandire la mendicità». L'assistenza ai poveri per cattolici e valdesi nel XVIII secolo 37 FABIO FERRARINI, Cattolici e protestanti contro Alfred Rosenberg. Spunti e riflessioni di ricerca sulla creazione di un "culto neopagano" (1933-1945) 79
NOTE E DOCUMENTI
JEAN-DAVID EYNARD, Jacques Cappel, Auguste Galland and the Academy of Sedan: Intellectual Contexts for the Amphitheatre des Vaudois 115 MICHELE LODONE, Un teologo, un medico e un libro (Padova, 1502) 141
RASSEGNE E DISCUSSIONI
FRANCESCA TASCA, Riflessioni su un martirologio trecentesco antagonista 185
In the late 1500s, dozens of Italians fleeing their homeland found refuge in England. These were often exiles for religious reasons, though some emigrated for political reasons. Many of them had children in their newly adopted country. This paper will present several case studies in an attempt to investigate whether common patterns can be identified among the biographies of these exiles and immigrants, and especially among their seventeenth-century descendants, in an effort to discover the weight and significance of their Italian heritage in their composite identity.