Omne malum ab Aquilone. Images of the evil North in Early modern Italy and their impact on cross-­religious encounters (original) (raw)

Abstract

Omne malum ab Aquilone. Images of the evil North in Early modern Italy and their impact on cross-­religious encounters Abstract for presentation at UGPS workshop Northern visions in the pre-­‐modern era, 24-­‐25 November 2014, Umeå, Sweden by Dr Federico Barbierato, Assistant professor of History, Università di Verona and EMoDiR research network (Early Modern religious Dissents and Radicalism, www.emodir.net), and Helena Wangefelt Ström, PhD candidate of Museology, Umeå University, UGPS and EMoDiR research network. federico.barbierato@univr.it helena.wangefelt.strom@kultmed.umu.se "Out of the north the evil will break forth on all the inhabitants of the land” (Jeremiah 1:14) ”For disaster looms out of the north, even terrible destruction” (Jeremiah 6:1) The image of the North as a bringer of evil and destruction, or, in fact, an evil place in itself, is supported by numerous verses in the Bible and occurs through history in various fields of human life. In an early modern context where Northern Europe was connected to the profound changes following the Reformation, and where Sweden was building an image of a successful great power – the land of the Polar Star and the Lion of the North – an opposite narrative of evilness and danger was simultaneously alive and widespread. This paper aims at bringing forward some of these concepts of the evil North that were part of popular beliefs in early modern Europe, and also the impact of these images in terms of actions and encounters between South and North – not least in the field of religion. The Northern wind, even given personal names, was commonly feared as a destructive force spoiling harvests and caused medical problems. This might be one reason why, in Jacopo de Barbari’s map of Venice (1501), the Northern wind is the only one of the personalized putti head winds that is blindfolded. Diplomatic accounts and other archival sources from 17th century Italy describing the North paints a picture of a hostile, cold and uncivilized territory, where the question of religion (or lack thereof) is recurrent. The evilness of the North was highly relevant also when queen Christina moved into the Tower of the Winds in the Vatican in 1655, and the frescoe on the Northern wall stating ”Omne malum ad Aquilone” (All evil comes from the North) was hastily painted over.

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