IMC 2019: Sessions
Session 1138: Harnessing the Authority of the Devotional Object
Wednesday 3 July 2019, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Prato Consortium for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Monash University, Victoria |
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| Organiser: | Jennifer Lord, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Monash University, Victoria |
| Moderator/Chair: | Miri Rubin, School of History, Queen Mary, University of London |
| Paper 1138-a | 'I bequeath the book of our holy mother to…': A Unique Codex as Source of Status and Authority in a 14th-Century Provençal Beguinage (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Literacy and Orality, Religious Life |
| Paper 1138-b | 'This divine figure performed and continues to perform miracles…': Devotional Objects and the Miraculous in Italian Convent Chronicles (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Liturgy, Religious Life |
| Paper 1138-c | The Power of the Statue: Veneration of the Virgin of Le Puy as a Means of Influence over Medieval Languedoc (Language: English) Index terms: Art History - General, Religious Life |
| Abstract | This session offers case studies of how material objects such as relics, books, and statues were recruited to perform immaterial functions, in Italy and France in the late medieval and early modern periods. For women, religious devotional objects mediated the space between heaven and earth, while connecting their communal past with their present and future form of life. Political actors could make use of cult objects to consolidate regional power bases and allegiances in both practical and symbolic ways. The three papers will consider how particular devotional objects not only structured religious observance but also came to confer status, authority, and power on those who controlled or claimed them. |