“Look how I Suffer and Make my Passion Yours”. The Passion of Christ as Collective Emotional Script (1300-1500)
Pietro Delcorno
University of Bologna
12 May 2025, 15.00-17.00
University of Florence, SAGAS Department, Via San Gallo 10, Aula Parva
Mediterranean Emotions – A Global Research Hotspot
Seminar Series “Emotional Grammars of Globalization”
GMeet Link: meet.google.com/rof-cvgp-qro
Abstract
Starting from the recent volume Communicating the Passion: The Socio-Religious Function of an Emotional Narrative (1250-1530) (Turnhout, Brepols, 2025), this seminar will discuss how the commemoration of the Passion of Christ was a key element in late medieval religious culture. First, it will exemplify the different media involved in this cultural process and their interplay, next it will focus on the ways sermons fostered an affective approach to the Passion and tried to control the emotional response of the audiences. Particular attention will be given to the dramatization of the sorrows of the Virgin Mary and of the hatred of the Jews, whose opposite behaviours served to polarize the reactions of the faithful, teaching them both to love and to hate other people.
Speaker’s Bio
Pietro Delcorno, Ph.D. (2016) is Associate Professor in Medieval History at Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna. He has published widely on medieval preaching and religious theatre and on late medieval social history, including Lazzaro e il ricco epulone: Metamorfosi di una parabola fra Quattro e Cinquecento (Il Mulino, 2014) and In the Mirror of the Prodigal Son: The Pastoral Uses of a Biblical Narrative (c. 1200-1550) (Brill, 2018).
Thomas of Coloswar, Christ carrying the Cross (1427), Esztergom, Christian Museum. Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File
Ultimo aggiornamento
19.12.2025