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Le chemin d’Abel

By Pubblications

This research aims to contribute to the study of the current of non-violence in Islam. A phenomenon often considered extraneous to the heritage of this religion, it nevertheless has several examples of commitment, among whom the Syrian preacher and theologian Ǧawdat Saʿīd (1931-2022) deserves particular attention. Central to our work is a reconstruction of his biographical profile as well as an analysis of the development of his theoretical framework over time. Initially a follower of the salafiyyah and then close to the Islamist movement, Saʿīd played a pioneering role in promoting non-violence as the sole modus operandi of an Islamic activism oriented towards the establishment of global peace and justice. Drawing on a social and anthropocentric reading of the Quran, Saʿīd aims to demonstrate that this is the true meaning of revelation and the purpose of the divine eschatological project.

Paola Pizzi

Le chemin d’Abel

Firenze University Press 2024

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«A maggior gloria di Dio»

By Pubblications

The book investigates the emergence in Italy between the 16th and 17th centuries of the so-called ‘Jesuitesses’, i.e. congregations of laywomen inspired by the spirituality of the Society of Jesus. Sources in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu show that in the early modern period various Jesuit spiritual directors helped many women, especially nobles, to set up communities without eclosure, dedicated to practices of spiritual improvement and educational activities similar to those of their confessors. In addition to providing a census of these congregations, the study examines the innovations of their forma vitae and analyzes the attitudes, at times supportive and at times oppositional, that territorial princes, bishops, Jesuit generals, the Holy Office, Roman congregations, and popes took towards the Jesuitesses.

Fabio Arlati

«A maggior gloria di Dio»

Firenze University Press 2024

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Per lo buono istato de la città

By Pubblications

The volume offers a new perspective for the study of the mendicant orders between the 13th and 14th centuries through the example of the Servites in central and northern Italy. The study, despite considering a so-called ‘minor’ order, has made it possible to analyse two essential issues for Western Europe’s late medieval history. The first concerns the transformations of religiosity between the 13th and 14th which saw the prominence of new social classes and institutions. The second concerns the urban expansion, the economic growth and the political-institutional and socio-cultural changes that characterised the cities of the time. The Servites were expression and later fine interpreters of these processes, becoming actors who were anything but marginal in the social context of late medieval Italy.

Emanuele Carletti

“Per lo buono istato de la città”

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2023

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Da «selvaggi» a «moretti»

By Pubblications

During the 19th Century, more than 2000 children of sub-Saharan origin were redeemed from slavery by missionaries and educated in Europe with the aim of sending them back to Africa as «indigenous missionaries». Yet, so far this phenomenon has found no place in historiography and collective memory.
Forgotten, perhaps, or removed. The so-called «moretti» were not mere anonymous satellites, orbiting around the European missionaries. Victims of the choices of others, but also protagonists according their own choices, they were real «agents of history».
This book is a first attempt to remove them from the peripheries of our narratives and to return them a place and a name. The archives show it clearly: African-Europeans are far from being just recent actors of European history.

Giacomo Ghedini

Da «selvaggi» a «moretti»

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2023

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Entre l’Aigle, les Lys et la tiare

By Pubblications

This research focuses on the d’Este cardinals’ diplomatic and religious actions and on their role as mediators between Italy and France. The objective is to uncover the geopolitical foundations of their actions whilst highlighting the different scales thereof. The presence of Ippolito II and Luigi d’Este is studied both in terms of their material presence and their participation in the political stakes of the time. Finally, by examining their modus operandi on the international scene, this study argues that a Catholic identity is emerging which is not heterodox for which crossing the mountains leads to readjustments in manners of expressing and representing the Catholic faith.

Jean Sénié

Entre l’Aigle, les Lys et la tiare

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2021

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Os Judeus Portugueses de Hamburgo

By Pubblications

The present book investigates the social and religious history of the Portuguese-Jewish community of Hamburg during what may have been the most important period of its history – the second half of the seventeenth century. The political and economic rise of this small but influential community of New Christian bankers and merchants is analysed against the backdrop of its institutional dynamics, in an overall perspective never before conceived. The political, religious, economic, legal, charitable and disciplinary history of the community is thus explored through the analysis of the protocol books of the Portuguese Nation of Hamburg, written between 1652 and 1682. This is the intimate and fascinating journey of their everyday lives, hopes and challenges, as brought to us by their leaders.

Hugo Martins

Os Judeus Portugueses de Hamburgo

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2021

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Between altars and barricades

By Pubblications

The Roman Republic of 1849 is one of the most exciting moment of the heroic season of the Italian Risorgimento, a short adventure in which the contemporaries recognized the opportunity to realize ideals of freedom, tolerance and democracy. This research aims to analyses the role played by religion in the political and social experiment that started in Rome after the pope’s escape, when it was necessary to redefine relations between civil and religious authorities, as well as the role of religion itself in society: a task not at all easy if applied to a State reality, where political and religious powers had been superimposed for centuries, but that will set an inescapable precedent for the subsequent attempts to build a secular State.

Jacopo De Santis

Between altars and barricades

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2020

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The Path of Pleasantness

By Pubblications

Ippolito II d’Este (1509-1572), cardinal and prince of Ferrara, played a crucial role in shaping the political and cultural connections between Italy and France. Seen by his contemporaries as staunchly ‘French’, his life rather followed a difficult balance between the political and spatial entities – Rome, Paris, and Ferrara – through which he continuously moved and from which he derived his power. Following his career as cardinal protector of the Valois crown, royal administrator of Siena on behalf of Henry II, and papal legate to France on the eve of the Wars of Religion, this book argues that Ippolito’s apparent diplomatic access ultimately weakened his family’s position in Italy and left it ill-equipped to compete in the changing politics of the peninsula.

Giulia Vidori

The Path of Pleasantness

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2020

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A escola do diabo

By Pubblications

The book is about the work done by the Italian Capuchins dealing with the American alterity, especially with the catechization of the indios and the mestizos, accused of having relations with the devil. The friars had to update their missionary methods, facing an alleged indigenous resistance to Christianity and to European social rules. Portuguese colonial sources describe evangelization as a field of dispute among friars, natives and settlers, giving news about the daily conflicts and the changes both in social and symbolic traditions and the management of the missions. The indigenous people were not at all passive subjects in the process of evangelization, because they opposed missionaries for the determination with which, presumably, they practiced their costumes and “gentile” rituals. The documentation contains important information for the study of indigenous people in contact with the Capuchins in the Portuguese colonies of South America.

Carlos Henrique Cruz

A escola do diabo

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2019

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Translatio Sanctitatis

By Pubblications

The book aims to analyze the hagiographic tradition of the thefts of relics in medieval Italy.
Since the theme of ‘furta sacra’ claims a consolidated historiographical tradition, it was decided to focus on texts and contexts that have not always received due attention in order to enhance its characteristics and affinities.
The heart of the book is concerning the analysis of the furtive translationes, hagiographical tales narrating the transfer of relics from one place to another following a theft. Through the study of historical contexts, narrative dynamics, literary themes and anthropological aspects, the book has tried to focus attention on the richness and complexity of the phenomenon over the centuries, outlining the history of a specific aspect of the cult of saints and relics, which is also history of the medieval culture and the medieval religious imagery.

Marco Papasidero

Translatio Sanctitatis

Firenze University Press, Firenze 2019

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