Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy illuminates the vibrancy of spiritual beliefs and practices which profoundly shaped family life in this era. Scholarship on Catholicism has tended to focus on institutions, but the home was the site of religious instruction and reading, prayer and meditation, communal worship, multi-sensory devotions, contemplation of religious images and the performance of rituals, as well as extraordinary events such as miracles. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this volume affirms the central place of the household to spiritual life and reveals the myriad ways in which devotion met domestic needs. The seventeen essays encompass religious history, the histories of art and architecture, material culture, musicology, literary history, and social and cultural history. Contributors are Erminia Ardissino, Michele Bacci, Michael J. Brody, Giorgio Caravale, Maya Corry, Remi Chiu, Sabrina Corbellini, Stefano Dall’Aglio, Marco Faini, Iain Fenlon, Irene Galandra Cooper, Jane Garnett, Joanna Kostylo, Alessia Meneghin, Margaret A. Morse, Elisa Novi Chavarria, Gervase Rosser, Zuzanna Sarnecka, Katherine Tycz, and Valeria Viola.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Notes on the Editors Notes on the Contributors Introduction  Maya Corry, Marco Faini and Alessia Meneghin Part 1: The Unbounded Nature of Domestic Space 1 Singing on the Street and in the Home in Times of Pestilence: Lessons from the 1576–78 Plague of Milan  Remi Chiu 2 The Ex Voto between Domestic and Public Space: From Personal Testimony to Collective Memory  Jane Garnett and Gervase Rosser 3 Spaces for Domestic Devotion in the Noble Residences of Palermo in the Age of Catholic Reform  Valeria Viola 4 Music and Domestic Devotion in the Age of Reform  Iain Fenlon Part 2: Domesticating the Divine 5 Domestic Portraiture in Early Modern Venice: Devotion to Family and Faith  Margaret A. Morse 6 Domestic Religion and Connected Spaces: Isabella della Rovere, Princess of Bisignano (1552–1619)  Elisa Novi Chavarria 7 “And the Word Dwelt amongst Us”: Experiencing the Nativity in the Italian Renaissance Home  Zuzanna Sarnecka Part 3: The Materiality of Devotion 8 Religious Subjects on Sixteenth-Century Deruta Piatti da Pompa  Michael J. Brody 9 Investigating the ‘Case’ of the Agnus Dei in Sixteenth-Century Italian Homes  Irene Galandra Cooper 10 Material Prayers and Maternity in Early Modern Italy: Signed, Sealed, Delivered  Katherine M. Tycz 11 Devotional Panels as Sites of Intercultural Exchange  Michele Bacci Part 4: Prayer and Meditation 12 Creating Domestic Sacred Space: Religious Reading in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy  Sabrina Corbellini 13 Delight in Painted Companions: Shaping the Soul from Birth in Early Modern Italy  Maya Corry 14 Literary and Visual Forms of a Domestic Devotion: The Rosary in Renaissance Italy  Erminia Ardissino Part 5: Conflict and Control 15 Domestic Prayers and Miracles in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Savonarola and His Cult  Stefano Dall’Aglio 16 Private and Public Devotion in Late Renaissance Italy: The Role of Church Censorship  Giorgio Caravale 17 Contested Devotions: Space, Identities and Religious Dissent in the Apothecary’s Home  Joanna Kostylo Index Nominum