A New Look at Spirituality Knowledge and Transformation in Early Modern Italy (original) (raw)
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Words of Conversion: Poetry and Religious Identity in Early Modern Italy
Journal of Religion in Europe, 2013
The essay examines three cases of poets (Baptista Mantuanus, Giles of Viterbo, Jacopo Sannazaro) who wrote texts about conversion in early modern Italy. Its goal is to illustrate the evolution of conversion before the Reformation and to explore the role of poetic writing in the construction of religious identities. More precisely, the essay investigates how members of mendicant orders used a so-called ‘language of experiential knowledge’ to define their religious identity and defend the knowledge claims of their order against competing options. In doing so, the essay brings forth an original hypothesis concerning the target and motives of the condemnation of poetry at the Fifth Lateran Council, while further contributing to the current debate on religious pluralism and European identity.
Il poeta fiorentino Nicolò Martelli (1498-1555), in contatto con i più importanti letterati e artisti dell’epoca e noto per le sue rime amorose e burlesche, si dedicò anche alla tematica spirituale. Numerose fra le epistole antologizzate nel Primo libro delle lettere (1546), infatti, accennano a sonetti che facevano parte di un raccolta denominata Fervori spirituali e che l’autore usava inviare alla spicciolata ai suoi corrispondenti. Per quanto Martelli dovette lavorare per un buon numero di anni ai Fervori, dedicandoli ora a uno ora a un altro illustre mecenate, siamo a conoscenza solo di alcuni di questi testi grazie al manoscritto autografo 2862 della Biblioteca Riccardiana di Firenze, che trasmette una «Una parte delli Fervori Spirituali di Nicolò Martelli al Redemptore», con lettera di dedica a Marguerite d’Angoulême, regina di Navarra, datata 31 ottobre 1542. I trenta sonetti presenti nel codice, tuttora inediti, sono dominati da un petraschesco senso di pentimento: il «pensiero» del poeta si allontana troppo spesso da Dio, «Sommo bene», per dedicarsi alle «cose terrene». Ne conseguono accorate e insistite richieste di perdono a Dio Padre, o preghiere al Figlio, a Maria Vergine o a santa Lucia, accanto alle quali compaiono temi scottanti del dibattito religioso coevo, come il libero arbitrio e il ruolo salvifico della grazia divina. Dietro a tanto ‘fervore spirituale’, però, si nascondono anche intenti encomiastici e scopi personali: Martelli intendeva ingraziarsi la regina, ben nota per i suoi interessi religiosi e potenziale intermediaria per una sistemazione del poeta alla corte di Francia.
During the1920s and 1930s the idea of transmutation, so essential to esotericism, was at the core of the Fascist agenda in Italy. Sharing with esotericism a repertoire of myths, symbols and rituals, Fascism aimed to create a new kind of man pushing the individuals to fuse into one radically transformed common consciousness. In order to create the new Italian man, to form and fashion the masses into a homogeneous and compliant collectivity, Fascism disqualified individualistic tendencies: subjects had to integrate into collectivity and only thus attain consciousness of themselves as Italians and as Fascists. While these processes were taking place in society, Italian esotericists continued to elaborate the theme of the transmutation of consciousness. Two books published in Italy in those years significantly warned against the risks that such a transmutation could entail: Mario Manlio Rossi’s Spaccio dei maghi (1929) and Julius Evola’s Maschera e volto dello spiritualismo contemporaneo (1932). Both these works were harsh critiques of esotericism written by esotericists, as they reviewed the main schools and personalities of the contemporary occult scene with the purpose of demolishing most of them. Starting from very different premises, both Rossi and Evola expressed a deep concern about the self-determination and distinctiveness of individual consciousness, and denounced the possibility that the ideal of the “new man,” shared by esotericism and Fascism, could lead to the flattening of the differences among otherwise unique human beings and to the erasure of individual specificity.
2016
Scholars agree that the imagination is central to esoteric practice. While the esoteric vis imaginativa is usually attributed to the influx of Neoplatonism in the Italian Renaissance, this article argues that many of its key properties were already in place in medieval scholasticism. Two aspects of the history of the imagination are discussed. First, it is argued that esoteric practice is rooted in a broader kataphatic trend within Christian spirituality that explodes in the popular devotion literature of the later Middle Ages. By looking at the role of Bonaventure's " cognitive theology " in the popularization of gospel meditations and kataphatic devotional prayer, it is argued that there is a direct link between the scholastic reconsideration of the imaginative faculty and the development of esoteric practices inspired by Christian devotional literature. Secondly, it is argued that the Aristotelian inner sense tradition of the scholastics left a lasting impression on later esoteric conceptualizations of the imaginative faculty. Examples suggesting evidence for both these two claims are discussed. The article proposes to view esoteric practices as an integral part of a broader kataphatic stream in European religious history, separated out by a set of disjunctive strategies rooted in the policing of " orthopraxy " by ecclesiastical authorities.
The meditative techniques practiced by alchemists in the Middle Ages were different from what we think of as meditation today. Alchemical meditation was an active instead of a passive activity, and it focused on harnessing spiritual forces for positive transformation and specific manifestations. The alchemists sought to actually work with the transcendental powers during meditation to achieve union with the divine mind or somehow bring the transformative powers from Above directly into their practical work in the lab or their personal work in the inner laboratory of their souls. This paper reviews two actual meditations practiced by medieval and Renaissance alchemists. The first is a form of mystical contemplation popular with spiritual seekers of all kinds during this period. The other is a meditation created specifically for alchemists and kept secret from the public for over 200 years. The two meditations are intended to be practiced by those interested, and free audio recordings of the guided meditations are available. 1 Résumé Les techniques de méditation pratiquées par les alchimistes du Moyen-Âge étaient bien différentes de ce que nous considérons comme méditation aujourd'hui. La méditation alchimique était une activité active et non passive, elle se focalisait sur la maitrise des forces spirituelles en vue d'atteindre une transformation évolutive ainsi que des manifestations psychiques particulières. Au cours de la méditation, les alchimistes s'efforçaient d'oeuvrer en conjonction avec les pouvoirs transcendantaux, afin d'atteindre l'union avec le Mental divin ou capter de quelque manière les pouvoirs de transformation qui se trouvent En-Haut pour les besoins de leur travaux pratiques en laboratoire, ou de leur travail personnel dans le laboratoire intérieur de leur âme. Cette oeuvre examine de près deux véritables méditations pratiquées par les alchimistes du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance. La première est une forme de contemplation mystique, courante auprès des chercheurs spirituels de diverses écoles au cours de cette période. L'autre est une méditation créée spécifiquement pour les alchimistes et tenue secrète du public pendant plus de deux-cents ans. Toutes deux sont expliquées en détail afin de pouvoir être effectuées par les chercheurs qui s'y intéressent, et des enregistrements audio « guide pas à pas » sont disponibles gratuitement. 2