| Title | : | Lay Confraternities and Civic Religion in Renaissance Bologna (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0521522617 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780521522618 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published November 30, 1995 |
The Renaissance is still often wrongly characterized as a period of religious indifference. Contradicting that viewpoint, this book examines confraternities: lay groups through which Italians of the Renaissance expressed their individual and collective religious beliefs. Intensely local and dominated by artisans and craftsmen, the confraternities shaped the civic religious cult through various activities such as charitable work, public shrines, and processions. This book puts these religious activities into the turbulent social and political context of Renaissance Bologna.
Lay Confraternities and Civic Religion in Renaissance Bologna (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture) Reviews
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Re-read January 6/7, 2010. Argues that the increased bureaucracy needed to support the expansion of individual Bolognese confraternities led to the aristocratization (or pseudo-professionalization) thereof, while the Council of Trent effectively placed confraternities under parish control. The end result was the local politicization of these confraternities, which had formerly existed outside of (but in tandem with) formal political and ecclesiastical institutions.
