Storia di un paradosso. Il mito di Giorgio Luti in Età Moderna

The essay resumes, with new historical sources, the research concerning the biography of the Sienese Jesuat Giorgio Luti, the prophecy of 1491 attributed to him and the exegetical evolution of this text in the Modern Age, published in Giorgio Luti da Siena a Lucca. Il viaggio di un mito fra Umanesimo e Controriforma, Siena, Accademia degli Intronati (Monografie di storia e letteratura senese, XV) 2008. The essay is divided into two parts. The first is a study of historical sources on Giorgio Luti in the Venetian area. The second part is dedicated to the study of historians from Lucca who lived between the XVI and XVIII centuries: Gherardo Sergiusti, Giovanni Cividale, Giuseppe Bonafede and Giovanni Domenico Mansi. They paid attention to the content of the Sienese prophecy for the description about wars and devastation of the Towers of Lucca, the conversion of Islamic peoples to Christianity, thanks to a company of Lucca men and women, attributing a meaning of political pacification and religious palingenesis. Overall, however, the evolution of the myth about Giorgio Luti, paradoxically, reflects in particulary the identity crisis of the Jesuats between the XV and XVI centuries.

Caterina Colombini, o della cugina sedotta. Una ‘ricostruzione’ della figura di Caterina attraverso i testi

In this essay the author demonstrates that it is possible to “reconstruct” the figure of Caterina Colombini (1340?-1387) – Giovanni Colombini’s cousin – through a group of texts: the hagiography of Caterina, the letters sent to her by Giovanni Colombini and, finally, Giovanni’s biography written by Feo Belcari. The author divides his text into four parts: the first part analyzes the content of Caterina’s hagiography; the second examines the linguistic form of the hagiographic text; in the third, the author analyzes the latent meaning of the window, a symbolic place where Giovanni and Caterina converse on divine topics; in the last part, to conclude, the teachings that Giovanni gives to Catherine and her spiritual daughters – the Gesuate – are analyzed.

Relazioni pericolose: i gesuati e la povertà

This essay looks at the specific iconography of saint Jerome in the artistic commissions of the Jesuati during the 15th century. This specific iconography meant to show the Doctor of the Church as the illustrious founder of the congregation in place of Colombini who never was canonized and meant to presents their form of religious life and the rejection of the Holy Orders through the extremely rare illustration of the episode in the life of Saint Jerome: The anticiceroniano dream. The dissemination of this theme was previously attributed to Hieronymites of Fiesole.

I gesuati a Chiusi

The presence of the Gesuati in Chiusi, although limited in size and length of time, developed beyond all expectation. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the followers of the Blessed Colombini were called to officiate at the church of the “Madonna della Quercia al Pino” in the countryside just outside Chiusi. The friars arrived at a difficult moment after other religious orders had relinquished the post. The Gesuati did their utmost for the spiritual good of the faithful as well as the material good of the church. Unfortunately after only a few years, the Bishop of Chiusi entrusted the building to a secular priest effectively closing the little convent. The conflict which followed between the church, the diocese and the municipality only worsened the situation to the deep regret of the faithful.

Ludovica Torelli e lo Specchio interiore di fra’ Battista da Crema

The Specchio interiore (Interior Mirror) is a work by the dominican Fra' Battista da Crema partly dedicated to the theme of mystical union. Written close to the foundation, in 1522, of the Hospital of the Incurables in Venice, it remained unpublished for almost two decades and it was first published in 1540 thanks to Ludovica Torelli, countess of Guastalla (1499-1569), alias Paola Maria. Widow, for the second time at age twenty-eight, Ludovica Torelli enjoyed an unusually powerful position for a women. Forced to sell her small state to Ferrante Gonzaga, she spent the second part of her life founding religious institutions and hospitals in Milan and other cities in northern Italy.

L’iconografia di Giovanni Colombini (1304-1367): fondatore dei gesuati

This work will try to follow the development of the iconography of Blessed Giovanni Colombini from the first images handed down to us throughout the XV century. By reading the hagiographic sources, we will try to go back to when the choice of the Jesuati habit started and whether this remains unchanged over the years. The iconographic evidences will be of help to this end. The change in Colombini's social status led him to a radical change in his clothing, which, for some aspects, is very close to that of penitents. We will also try to understand what influence the decision (made towards the mid-XIV century) of Pope Urban V had on the Jesuati habit and therefore on the iconography of Giovanni Colombini, as regards the dress of the ‘povari di Christo’.

San Girolamo ‘gesuato’

This essay looks at the specific iconography of saint Jerome in the artistic commissions of the Jesuati during the 15th century. This specific iconography meant to show the Doctor of the Church as the illustrious founder of the congregation in place of Colombini who never was canonized and meant to presents their form of religious life and the rejection of the Holy Orders through the extremely rare illustration of the episode in the life of Saint Jerome: The anticiceroniano dream. The dissemination of this theme was previously attributed to Hieronymites of Fiesole

Giudizi universali. Reti devozionali e tensioni escatologiche attorno ai gesuati milanesi

This essay provides an outline of the familial, social, and cultural network of the Milanese Jesuati between the end of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the sixteenth century. Particular attention is given to their interactions with Cardinal Bernardino López de Carvajal, one of the protagonists of the schismatic Council of Pisa-Milan (1510-1512). Starting from the creation of their settlement of San Girolamo, new documentary evidence is employed to show how the surrounding urban area and the physical buildings that should have been erected there actually mirrored the local network of both the Jesuati and Carvajal. The patronage of the cardinal in San Girolamo and the creation of a Last Judgement fresco are then discussed and connected to the eschatological tensions stirring Milan at the time.

Il complesso architettonico dei gesuati a Venezia

This paper aims at explaining exactly how the Jesuati slowly appropriated the Holy Name for themselves, visually incorporating it in their artistic creations. Through an exploration of the uses and practices of the supporters the cult of the Name of Jesus, such as Bernardino of Siena, and the similarly named Jesuiti, a more nuanced understanding of the Jesuati's own reception emerges.

I gesuati farmacisti di Lucca

The essay constitutes the historical premise for the contribution of Marco Biffi, dedicated to the pharmacological Jesuat manuscript (1562), and it describes the context in which was produced this manuscript, the most important pharmacological codex of the Jesuats: San Girolamo in Lucca. Is investigate the identity of the authors of the codex, which is briefly described, and the importance of scientific studies and the practice of distillation and pharmacology among the Jesuats.