Academic literature on the topic 'Domestic devotion'

While scholarship often focuses on how early modern Italians used images in their devotions, particularly in the post-Tridentine era, little attention has been placed upon how laypeople engaged with devotional text during times of prayer and in their everyday lives. Studies of early modern devotional texts have explored their literary content, investigated their censorship by the Church, or concentrated upon an elite readership. This thesis, instead, investigates how ordinary devotees interacted with holy words in their material form, which I have termed ‘material prayers’. Since this thesis developed under the aegis of the interdisciplinary research project, Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Italian Renaissance Home, 1400-1600, it focuses primarily on engagement with these material prayers in domestic spaces. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing from material culture studies, literary history, social and cultural history, and art history, it brings together objects, images and archival sources to illuminate how devotees from across the socio-economic and literacy spectrums accessed and employed devotional text in their prayers and daily life. From holy words, Biblical excerpts, and prayers to textual symbols like the Sacred Monogram of the Name of Jesus, this thesis explores how and why these material prayers were employed for spiritual, apotropaic and intercessory purposes. It analyses material prayers not only in traditional textual formats (printed books and manuscripts), but also those that were printed on single-sheets of paper, inscribed on jewellery, or etched into the structure of the home. To convey how devotees engaged with and relied upon these material prayers, it considers a variety of inscribed objects, including those sanctioned by the Church as well as those which might be questioned or deemed ‘superstitious’ by ecclesiastical authorities. Sermons, Inquisition trial records, and other archival documents have been consulted to further illuminate the material evidence. The first part of the thesis, ‘On the Body’, considers the how devotees came into personal contact with texts by wearing prayers on their bodies. It examines a range of objects including prayers with protective properties, known as brevi, that were meant to be sealed in a pouch and worn around the neck, and more luxurious items of physical adornment inscribed with devotional and apotropaic text, such as necklaces and rings. The second part of the thesis enters the home to explore how the spaces people inhabited and the objects that populated their homes were decorated with material prayers. ‘In the Home’ begins with texts inscribed over the entryways of early modern Italian homes, and then considers how devotees decorated their walls with holy words and how the objects of devotion and household life were imbued with religious significance through the addition of pious inscriptions. By analysing these personal objects and the textual domestic sphere, this thesis argues that these material prayers cut across socio-economic classes, genders, and ages to embody quotidian moments of domestic devotion as well as moments of fear, anxiety and change.

Cette thèse se propose d’expliciter l’esthétique et l’éthique de Marcel Proust par le biais du personnage de la servante et du thème du dévouement qui lui est lié, en inventoriant ses sources d’inspiration possibles et en débrouillant sa « polychromie intertextuelle ». La première partie tente de mesurer la portée esthétique propre à l’image de la servante à travers le langage, l’art du quotidien ou la religion qui la caractérisent, en examinant l’influence d’Anatole France, de Gustave Flaubert, de John Ruskin et de Joris-Karl Huysmans. Par la suite est abordée la question du dévouement qu’incarne le personnage de la grand-mère de la Recherche, par une lecture comparative avec les Goncourt, Paul Hervieu, Alphonse Daudet, qui explorent le sacrifice méconnu et la tragédie de la mère, puis avec Pierre Loti et Charles Baudelaire, qui ont traité de l’amour et de la culpabilité du fils. Cette thèse se conclut par une étude sur le personnage énigmatique de la femme de chambre de la baronne Putbus, antithèse de l’image de l’humble servante, en analysant l’influence d’Anna de Noailles, afin de mettre en lumière l’ambivalence du désir proustien<br>This thesis aims to clarify Proust’s aesthetics and ethics through both the character of the servant and the devotion theme, which is closely related to the former, by listing the author’s possible sources of inspiration and unravelling the “intertextual polychromy”. The first chapter attempts to measure the aesthetic importance peculiar to the servant found in language, the art of daily life or religion, which define the character, by examining the influence of Anatole France, Gustave Flaubert, John Ruskin and Joris-Karl Huysmans. Secondly, the question of devotion, incarnated by the grandmother in À la Recherche, is treated, by a comparative reading with the Goncourt brothers, Paul Hervieu, and Alphonse Daudet, who explored the mother’s unrecognized sacrifice and tragedy, then with Pierre Loti and Charles Baudelaire, who dealt with filial love or culpability. This thesis concludes with a study of the enigmatic character of the Baroness Putbus’s chambermaid, antithesis of the image of the humble servant, by examining Anna de Noailles’ influence, in order to throw light on the ambivalence of Proustian desire

Au moment où se poursuit l’établissement des princes de l’Église dans la campagne romaine par la construction de somptueuses villas, le Concile de Trente (1545-1563) adopte une série de décrets qui entendent réaffirmer les dogmes catholiques et réformer les mœurs du clergé, critiqués par les protestants. Puisque la villa est perçue au 16e siècle comme un lieu où le fidèle peut faire l’expérience d’une retraite spirituelle, ce mémoire souhaite lever le voile sur les pratiques dévotionnelles suburbaines post-tridentines. Pour ce faire, les cycles picturaux de trois chapelles de villas romaines dont la décoration a été réalisée à la suite de cet important concile sont examinés : la chapelle du palazzo Farnese à Caprarola, appartenant au cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589), la chapelle de la villa d’Este à Tivoli, construite pour le cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (1509-1572), et la chapelle de la villa Mondragone à Frascati, commanditée par le cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps (1533-1595) pour le pape Grégoire XIII (1502-1585). Il s’agit de vérifier l’impact des pratiques dévotionnelles sur le choix des décors dans ces lieux de culte privés. S’attarder à la perception du regardeur de l’époque et au rapport spirituel du public à l’image implique que nous analysions notre corpus à l’aide d’un cadre anthropologique.<br>The taste for countryside palaces among the Princes of the Church was already well established when the Council of Trent (1545-1563) moved to counter the protestant Reformation. This council asserted catholic dogmas and significantly reformed clerical mores. In this context, villas are seen as the perfect stage to realize spiritual ambitions. This thesis thus studies extra-urban devotional practices by examining three chapels in countryside palaces around Rome decorated after the Council of Trent: Cardinal Alessandro Farnese’s (1520-1589) chapel in his villa at Caprarola; the Villa d’Este chapel at Tivoli built for Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (1509-1572); and the Villa Mondragone chapel at Frascati, ordered by Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps (1533-1595) for Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585). We seek to examine the influence of contemporary devotional practices on the iconographic cycles in the private sphere. The public’s perception and spiritual response to the frescoes will be probed through an anthropological approach to images.