Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy is a robust collection of essays that address the intersections of religious ritual, material culture, and public and private space in the Italian peninsula, and in one example in Sicily, during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Its seventeen essays incorporate considerations of gender, class, and geography (urban and rural). The editors provide a thorough introduction that presents current historiographical issues and theoretical frameworks and points to the ways in which the essays in this volume contribute to how scholars conceptualize religion and the domestic environment. They argue that "domestic devotions were often simultaneously personal, familial and communal" and, while those devotions were shaped by public participatory rituals and practices, "equally, rituals that took place in the church, confraternal hall or street had domestic aspects and meanings, and the language and imagery of home and family appeared frequently in Catholic discourse" (3). Throughout the introduction and the essays, care is taken to interrogate conventional binaries such as public/private and elite/popular religious practices or belief. As a result, the collection highlights the complexity of both social networks and religiosity in the period.
The volume is interdisciplinary with essays divided into five parts: "The Unbounded Nature of Domestic Space," "Domesticating the Divine," "The Materiality of Devotion," "Prayer and Meditation," and Conflict and Control." The number of essays makes a consideration of each individual one impossible in the scope of a review. In general, they are all meticulously researched contributions that are appropriate for a scholarly audience. Almost all of the essays provide some background on their topic before addressing the specific aspect of domestic devotion being examined, which makes the volume useful for those who might not be experts on each of the many disciplines represented in the collection's essays.
Part I, "The Unbounded Nature of Domestic Space," consists of four essays that examine the interaction between public and private space through music (Chiu, Fenlon), the ex voto offering (Garnett and Rosser), and architecture (Viola). Conceptually these essays are perfect to start the volume, but somehow seem to lack unity through a common dialogue regarding the concept of space or the sacred and secular. The three contributions to Part II on "Domesticating the Divine" address portraits (Morse), religious art (Chavarria), and sculptural representations of the Nativity or presepi (Sarnecka). This section is perhaps the most traditional, discussing how families incorporated religious imagery as devotional objects into daily life at home. Part III, "The Materiality of Devotion," expands the parameters of how we should think about early modern devotion and what aspects of material culture can be utilized to do so. Its four essays address earthenware maiolica display dishes (Brody), wax sacramentals or Agnus Dei (Cooper), sealed texts or brevi as amulets (Tycz), and Byzantine-influenced devotional panels (Bacci). Three essays comprise Part IV. They cohesively address "Prayer and Meditation," bringing together literary and visual means to provoke devotions through reading (Corbellini), art (Corry), and the rosary (Ardissino). The final section, on "Conflict and Control," problematizes the notion of Catholic devotions through Savonarola's contested cult 100 years after his execution (Dall'Aglio), the impact of censorship on devotion (Caravale), and the problem of religious dissent (Kostylo). While all of these are fascinating studies, as in the essays in Part 1 they lack a certain cohesiveness to conclude the edited collection.
The editors of this volume took great care to gather essays that look at religious devotion and the home from a multitude of perspectives. The breadth with which the collection engages with material culture--through music, art, architecture, texts, pottery, religious objects like rosaries and Agnus Dei--deserves high praise. The contributions discuss examples from both elite and lower-class households, which enhances the richness of the volume. There are many color images to accompany the essays, and credit should be given to Brill for the layout and inclusion of these aids, although they undoubtedly are reflected in the higher cost of the hardback edition.
It is somewhat unfair to critique a collection of seventeen essays on what also could have been included, so instead I will note a couple of points that will hopefully clarify what one might expect to find in this volume based on the title alone. While the introduction discusses the historical background of the Protestant Reformation and how Protestantism shaped Catholic devotion (6-8), there is little consideration of this in the essays themselves besides Caravale's consideration of Luther's views on private Christian devotional practices, such as prayer. In addition, the title Domestic Devotions in Early Modern Italy suggests an inclusive look at the connection between religiosity and the home, yet the essays address only Catholic devotions. This approach does not fully encompass the religious landscape or the range of source material, such as inquisitorial trials or other records, which might inform non-Catholic devotional practices, including that of the Jewish population. Similarly, besides Bacci's essay on the prevalence of Byzantine icon-styled panels in Italian homes, there is little discussion of interaction and possible influences from other cultures. In a place and time in which many Catholics came into contact with other religions and societies through trade, war, and conquest, some more consideration of potential influences might be expected. This lacuna might result in part from the fact that only one essay substantively addresses the south, Valeria Viola's contribution on palaces in Palermo (besides some brief examples from Naples by Sarnecka and Cooper). Viola herself notes in a footnote that "the current debate is overwhelmingly focused on northern Europe and often limited to northern and central Italy" (65). The value of this volume, however, lies in its deep engagement with early modern material culture and examples of devotion in a way that is accessible to scholars, but non-experts, in the many disciplines that the essays represent.