Abstract

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. This Introduction surveys the topic of domestic devotions in the early modern era, querying older distinctions between public and private space, and personal and collective religious experience. It takes account of change over the early modern era, with a focus on the impact of the Catholic Reformation. The seventeen essays in the volume encompass religious history, the histories of art and architecture, material culture, musicology, literary history, and social and cultural history, and they are outlined here.