NYTT DATUM: Seminar – hybrid event: Accepting Death through Laude: Lay Theology in Early Modern Bologna
- Datum: 29 mars 2022, kl. 16.15–18.00
- Plats: SCAS, SCAS, Linnéanum, Thunbergssalen, Thunbergsvägen 2 Uppsala
- Typ: Seminarium
- Föreläsare: Gioia Filocamo, Fellow, SCAS. Professor of Poetry for Music and Musical Dramaturgy, Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali di Terni
- Webbsida
- Arrangör: Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS)
- Kontaktperson: Klas Holm
Gioia Filocamo, SCAS och Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali di Terni, talar på temat "Accepting Death through Laude: Lay Theology in Early Modern Bologna". Seminariet hålls på engelska och följs av en frågestund.
Abstract
My research deals with a very unusual corpus of fifteenth-century laude, or non-liturgical devotional poems in Italian set to music. These consist of over two hundred texts assembled by the brethren of the Confraternity of Flagellants of St. Mary of Death, founded at Bologna in 1336, and active until 1798. From its very beginning, this vibrant lay institution devoted its efforts to two very innovative activities: (1) comforting prisoners condemned to death, from the evening before their execution until they took their last breath; and (2) running a hospital for terminally ill patients. In addition, from 1433 on, it was in charge of the yearly city procession of the icon of the black “Madonna di San Luca”, supposed to have been painted by St Luke the Evangelist and still venerated today.
The purpose of my work is to enter the social, religious, and ethical world of these brethren using the words of their laude as ‘keys’. The starting point is a close analysis of the Manual of the Bolognese confraternity, a document intended to teach willing lay-comforters how to approach and manage the fears and doubts of condemned prisoners in their final hours. In addition to exhortations, the Manual of the comforters is accompanied by several laude, typically called “lode e altre oracioni” (laude and other prayers), some of which encompass as many as 2000 verses. These are the focus of my study.
Walking a path among these largely unpublished poems, I plan to explore in detail the moral world and personal expectations of the laymen who supported those condemned to death, the prisoners themselves, and the people who listened to their words when the brethren sang in public. As I will show, the actions of the confraternity unfolded against a rich canvass, and their music and poetry have much to tell us about moral, spiritual, and civic life in one of the liveliest cities in medieval Europe.
För mer information och webinarielänk, se http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Events.html.