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Th e Art of Executing Well

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Elaine BeilinFramingham State College

Christopher CelenzaJohns Hopkins University

Miriam U. ChrismanUniversity of Massachusetts, Emerita

Barbara B. DiefendorfBoston University

Paula FindlenStanford University

Scott H. HendrixPrinceton Th eological Seminary

Jane Campbell HutchisonUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison

Robert M. KingdonUniversity of Wisconsin, Emeritus

Ronald LoveUniversity of West Georgia

Mary B. McKinleyUniversity of Virginia

Raymond A. MentzerUniversity of Iowa

Helen NaderUniversity of Arizona

Charles G. NauertUniversity of Missouri, Emeritus

Max ReinhartUniversity of Georgia

Sheryl E. ReissCornell University

Robert V. SchnuckerTruman State University, Emeritus

Nicholas TerpstraUniversity of Toronto

Margo ToddUniversity of Pennsylvania

James TracyUniversity of Minnesota

Merry Wiesner–HanksUniversity of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Habent sua fata libelli

Early Modern Studies Series

General EditorMichael Wolfe

St. John’s University

Editorial Board of Early Modern Studies

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OF

THE

Well

Edited byNicholas Terpstra

rtA

Early Modern Studies 1Truman State University Press

Rituals of Execution in Renaissance Italy

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Copyright © 2008 Truman State University Press, Kirksville, Missouri USAAll rights reservedtsup.truman.edu

Cover: Detail of miniatures demonstrating the stages of comforting, ca. 1480. Illuminated manuscript, Compagnia del spedale de la morte, Bologna, Italy. Th e Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Gift J. P. Morgan (1867–1943), 1924. Ms. M 188, fol. 5r. Reproduced by permission.

Cover design: Teresa WheelerType: Warnock Pro © 2000 Adobe Systems Inc.; Minion Pro © 2000, 2002, 2004 Adobe Systems Inc.Printed by: Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Th e art of executing well : rituals of execution in Renaissance Italy / Nicholas Terpstra, ed. p. cm. — (Early modern studies ; v. 1)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-931112-87-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-931112-88-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)1. Executions and executioners—Italy—History. I. Terpstra, Nicholas.HV8551.A75 2008364.660945'09031—dc22

2008034780

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any format by any means without written permission from the publisher.

Th e paper in this publication meets or exceeds the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materi-als, ANSI Z39.48–1992.

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vii

Contents

List of Graphs, Illustrations, and Tables ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Th e Other Side of the Scaff old 1Nicholas Terpstra

ContextsChapter 1 Scaff old and Stage: Comforting Rituals and Dramatic Traditions

in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy 13Kathleen Falvey

Chapter 2 Comforting with Song: Using Laude to Assist Condemned Prisoners 31

Pamela Gravestock

Chapter 3 Mirror of a Condemned: Th e Religious Poems of Andrea Viarani 52Alfredo Troiano

Chapter 4 In Your Face: Paintings for the Condemned in Renaissance Italy 79Massimo Ferretti

Chapter 5 Consolation or Condemnation: Th e Debates on Withholding Sacraments from Prisoners 98

Adriano Prosperi

Chapter 6 Th eory into Practice: Executions, Comforting, and Comforters in Renaissance Italy 118

Nicholas Terpstra

Illustrations 159

Contemporary TextsChapter 7 Th e Bologna Comforters’ Manual Comforting by the Books: Editorial Notes on the Bologna

Comforters’ Manual 183Nicholas Terpstra

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viii

Book 1 193trans. Sheila Das

Book 2 246trans. Sheila Das

Book 3: Laude and Prayers 276trans. Sheila Das and Nicholas Terpstra

Book 4: Authorities 289Nicholas Terpstra

Chapter 8 Luca della Robbia’s Narrative on the Execution of Pietro Paolo Boscoli and Agostino Capponi 293

Alison Knowles Frazier

Chapter 9 Public Execution in Popular Verse: Th e Poems of Giulio Cesare Croce 327

Meryl Bailey

Contributors 341

Index 345

Biblical Index 354

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ix

Graphs, Illustrations & Tables

Fig. 1 Anonymous, Execution of John the Baptist, ca. 1522 159

Fig. 2 Annibale Carracci, Th e Hanging, late 16th century 160

Fig. 3 Miniatures demonstrating the stages of comforting, ca. 1480 161

Fig. 4 Filippo Dolciati, Execution of Antonio Rinaldeschi, 1502 162

Fig. 5 Giulio Morina, Th e Death of the Prisoner Converted by the Saint, ca. 1594 163

Fig. 6 Madonna of Mercy with Brothers of the Confraternity of S. Maria della Morte, 1562 164

Fig. 7 Francesco da Rimini, St. Mary Magdalen with Sts. Jacob, Margherita, Francis, Dominic, Petronio, and Christopher, ca. 1335 165

Fig. 8 Francesco da Rimini, Crucifi xion, ca. 1335 166

Fig. 9 Two Comforters with a Prisoner, late 15th century 167

Fig. 10 “Dalmasio,” Madonna and Child with Two Condemned, ca. 1336 168

Fig. 11 “Dalmasio,” Crucifi xion with Martyrdoms of Sts. Catherine and John the Baptist, ca. 1336 169

Fig. 12 Cristoforo da Jacopo, Madonna and Child with Sts. Anthony Abbot, James, Catherine, John the Baptist, and Two Condemned, ca. 1395 170

Fig. 13 Cristoforo da Jacopo, Flagellation, Crucifi xion, and Martyrdoms of Sts. Lorenzo and Biagio, ca. 1395 171

Fig. 14 Simone di Filippo [Simone dei Crocefi ssi], Madonna and Child with Sts. Bartolomeo and James and Two Condemned, ca. 1390 172

Fig. 15 Simone di Filippo [Simone dei Crocefi ssi], Decapitation of St. John the Baptist with St. Anthony of Abbot of Egypt, ca. 1390 173

Fig. 16A, B Bernardo Daddi, Portable Double-sided Cross, ca. 1335 174

Fig. 17 Leonardo da Vinci, “Sketch of a hanged man,” 1478 176

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x

Fig. 18 Alessandro Magnanza, Mutilation of St. Adrian of Nicomedia, 16th century 177

Fig. 19 Anonymous, Th e Martyrdom of Savonarola, 15th century 178

Fig. 20 Ippolito e Dianora, late 15th century 179

Graph 6.1 Annual Executions in Bologna, 1540–1600 123

Table 2.1 Laude in Manuscripts of the Bolognese Comforters’ Manual 44

Table 6.1 Criminal Prosecution in Bologna, 1507–1600 124

Table 6.2 Forms of Execution in Bologna,1507–1600 127

Table 6.3 Multiple Executions in Bologna, 1540–1600 131

Table 6.4 Burial of Executed Prisoners in Bologna, 1540–1600 136

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xi

Acknowledgments

Th e fi rst seeds for this project were sown in conversations that Kathleen Falvey and I had at Kalamazoo in 1990. Both of us were intrigued by the manual that Bolognese comforters had used to prepare themselves for their trip into the cells to comfort prisoners condemned to death, and we had already begun presenting papers on it at conferences. Little happened for a decade, until Pamela Gravestock began casting about for a primary source on which to base a graduate essay. Th e idea for a translation revived, and soon more contribu-tors began joining the project. Th eir emergence was usually unexpected, oft en serendipitous, and always added new dimensions to the project. A chance phone call from Falvey, retired in Hawaii, led to an exchange of letters and she immediately signed on for an expanded version of the original project. At an early point, Sheila Das agreed to translate the two books of the manual, and at our regular meetings to discuss and debate chapters and laude, we exchanged verbs and insults in equal measure and ended up having more fun than either the subject or the text warranted.

Das was working with an early transcription, but in the spring of 2004 Alfredo Troiano sent a message out of the blue asking whether, as a historian of Bologna, I knew anything about a new manuscript that Yale’s Beinecke Library had recently purchased. Th e Beinecke manuscript of the manual had also come out of the blue. No earlier scholars had been aware of its existence, but it became an important element in Troiano’s dissertation and Troiano became a key collaborator in the team. He produced an expanded critical transcription of the manual based on a wide reading of copies found in Italy and America, and during an extended period of research in Italy in 2005 and 2006, he broadened the circle of collaborators further. Troiano’s lengthy con-versations with Mario Fanti, the author of the fi rst study of the Company of S. Maria della Morte and its manual, brought Fanti into the work as a vicari-ous collaborator. Troiano also contacted Adriano Prosperi, the author of an authoritative early article on the Italian conforterie. He learned that Prosperi had just launched a seminar at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa bring-ing senior scholars and graduate students together around this very text, not

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xii Acknowledgments

unlike the one he had conducted with Carlo Ginzburg around the Benefi cio di Cristo some years before. We invited Prosperi to join our collaborative ef-fort, and he reciprocated by inviting Troiano and me to off er seminars in Pisa in the spring of 2006. It was on the steps of the Scuola Normale, heading into that seminar, that I fi rst met Massimo Ferretti, who chatted about his work on early tavolette and immediately off ered to contribute an article. A few weeks later, Alison Frazier and I talked over lunch at Villa I Tatti about her work on the 1512 plot against the Medici, and soon she too had brought her translation of the della Robbia account into the project. Over the course of these years, members of the group gave papers individually or together at McGill University, the University of Toronto, the Biennial New College Con-ference in Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Sarasota, and at meetings of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference (2006), the Society for Renaissance Studies (2008), and the Renaissance Society of America (2007, 2008). It was aft er one such session at the RSA meeting in Chicago in the spring of 2008 that Meryl Bailey came forward to talk about her work on the conforteria of Venice and also about the sixteenth-century ballads by Giulio Cesare Croce that she had come across. Soon Bailey too was in the volume.

I have never been involved in a project that expanded so unexpectedly, and yet so naturally, without any particular outline or foresight. Sometimes following your nose just makes more sense than engineering a plan. Yet this only works if others are around to pick up pieces and off er impromptu aid. Apart from its nine authors and translators, this volume grew through the ener-gies and contributions of a host of collaborators. Graduate and undergraduate research assistants from both the University of Regina and the University of Toronto came in at various stages from building databases to copyediting bib-liographies. I would like to thank in particular Corina Apostol, Winston Black, Jason Kelln, Cynthia de Luca, Sarah Mantel, Colin Rose, and Jenea Tallentire. Filomena Calabrese and Sarah Melanie Rolph translated the Italian articles in the collection. Students in History 443H took the translation of the manual it-self for a test run in seminar and their discussions generated many helpful ideas for the project.

When expansion in one area opened gaps in another, colleagues in Amer-ica and Italy volunteered to go to the archives to chase down documents or references, usually on very short notice. Shortly aft er arriving at Yale, Jennifer De Silva headed to the Beinecke Library to transcribe the “Authorities” found in the manuscript there. Federica Franceschoni picked up more “Authorities” with a digital camera in the University’s manuscript reading room while in Bologna

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Acknowledgments xiii

between fl ights. Mauro Carboni checked an obscure but vital reference in one of the Libri di Giustiziati when he too had much else on his mind.

Beyond this very practical help, other friends and colleagues have given appropriate measures of hospitality, critique, suggestions, and wine over the years. I would like to thank in particular Mauro Carboni, Giancarlo Angeloz-zi, Armando Antonelli, Titzia di Dio, Konrad Eisenbichler, Mario Fanti, Olga Pugliese, John Roney, Anna Maria Scardovi, Larissa Taylor, Don Dino Van-nini, and Lynn Welsh. Most special thanks above all to Mary Posthuma, who appreciates the unexpected and is the most generous of friends.

Michael Wolfe, General Editor of the Early Modern Studies series, and Nancy Rediger, Director and Editor-in-Chief at Truman State University Press, have supported the project strongly, while the suggestions of the Press’s two anonymous readers helped bring the manuscript into shape. Barbara Smith-Mandell has been an extraordinarily sharp-eyed and effi cient editor.

Beyond moral support, funds from various sources have allowed the proj-ect to move ahead in fi ts, starts, and a fi nal burst. A research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities and Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) funded the fi rst archives trip to Bologna in 1990 and also the work of two re-search assistants in setting up an early database of executions and comforters. More recently, SSHRCC funds administered by the History Department at the University of Toronto have allowed research assistants to transcribe, tabulate, and translate materials. Victoria University underwrote the work of research assistants with a series of Senate Research Grants, including a particularly gen-erous grant to cover the costs of photographs, editorial work, and publication.

i

It may seem odd to dedicate a volume to one of its contributors. Yet Adriano Prosperi’s 1982 article in Quaderni storici was for many of the rest of us the fi rst guide and inspiration for our own work on the conforterie. Th rough con-versation and publication, Prosperi has mentored many of those who work at the intersection of politics, religion, and reform in the sixteenth century. I fi rst came to know him as a graduate student embarking on dissertation research in Bologna. He off ered guidance freely and helped me navigate through one of those particularly delicate and diffi cult situations that could arise for foreign students in the archives. While we had little contact in the years following, one of the great privileges of this project has been the opportunity it has aff orded to work together as colleagues. He has sought with characteristic generosity of

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xiv Acknowledgments

spirit to promote the work of scholars in Italy and North America who over the past decade or so started comparing their notes, their ideas, and questions about comforters, comforting, and the comforted, and the tragic framework in which this activity took place. Th at collaboration has made this volume, and much else, possible.

Nicholas TerpstraTorontoMay 2008

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1

IntroductionTh e Other Side of the Scaff old

Nicholas Terpstra

In Renaissance Italy a good execution was both public and peaceful—at least in the eyes of authorities. Yet how could one be sure that the prisoner and crowd would cooperate? Studies of early modern executions oft en focus on the means by which authorities kept public order or how executioners did their work. Th ey say little about a feature that was unique to Italy: the presence in prisons and on scaff olds of laymen who worked intensely with the prisoners themselves to pre-pare them spiritually and psychologically for execution. In most parts of Europe, clergy accompanied those condemned to death through their fi nal hours. In Italy this was largely the work of the laity, oft en men from the highest social ranges, who gathered in confraternities called “companies of justice” or conforterie to undertake this charitable work. Lorenzo de’ Medici was a member of Florence’s conforteria, S. Maria della Croce al Tempio, commonly known as the Th e Blacks (Neri), and Michelangelo Buonarroti belonged to Rome’s S. Giovanni Decollato (St. John the Baptist). Italy’s fi rst conforteria was Bologna’s S. Maria della Morte, known colloquially as the Company of Death, and it inspired imitators in Flor-ence, Rome, Naples, and other major cities. Th ese confraternities produced a rich literature of works aimed at helping comforters to prepare for and carry out their work with condemned prisoners through the night before execution and on the diffi cult journey to the scaff old. From at least the fourteenth century, authors across Europe had been penning sermons and treatises on how to prepare oneself for death, articulating a form of spiritual discipline known as the Ars moriendi or “Art of Dying Well.” Th e confraternities dedicated to helping prisoners drew heavily on this literature as they developed a customized literature that would train them in how to use persuasion and argument, stories and prayers, images and songs to divert a condemned man’s attention from his impending death and so reconcile him to his fate. Th e literature they developed thereby helped them

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2 Nicholas Terpstra

achieve the goal of a “peaceful” public execution.Th is volume off ers a sampling of some of the tools comforters used, and

sets the stage for approaching them with a series of essays that expand on the theatrical, artistic, theological, musical, and historical contexts of com-forting. Th e primary sources move us directly into the wrenching process of executions by including rare fi rst-person accounts that convey vividly the prisoners’ experience of their fi nal hours. While there are numerous studies of the offi cial public theater of execution, none examine executions from “the other side,” and ask how things looked from the point of view of the prisoners themselves or of those who assisted them. Most of the documents here are translated for the fi rst time into English. Th e longest is a manual produced in Bologna by and for those who comforted prisoners through their last night and up to the point of execution. Two anonymous authors wrote books 1 and 2 of this Comforters’ Manual, passing on the experience they had gained through many executions. Th eir two books highlight the distinct approaches of laymen and clergy to the condemned. Th e other extended text in the vol-ume is a riveting eyewitness account of the last hours of two patrician Floren-tines who were executed for conspiracy in 1513. In the anguished chaos of this cell, all manual-driven prescriptions get thrown aside. Yet the prisoners, steeped in the same religious culture as the comforters, seek the same peace, reconciliation, and consolation as they cry out against their fate and huddle with friends. Th eir conversation shows how alive they are to the diff erences between classical humanist and Christian approaches to death, but also how they want desperately to intertwine the two at a critical point in Renaissance Florentine history. Th is poignant account also became a manual of sorts for later comforters who wanted to understand the anguish of prisoners before they entered any individual cell, and who thus sought out anything that pris-oners had either written or from which they had taken comfort. Included here are poems written by prisoners on the eve of their execution, songs sung by the condemned and their comforters in those last hours, sayings from various classical and Christian authorities on how best to approach death, and illus-trations of the small panel paintings called tavolette that were thrust into the prisoners’ faces to distract them as they made the public journey to the gal-lows. Finally, a pair of broadsheet ballads from the early seventeenth century show how executions became sources of popular entertainment, complete with violence, romance, and moralizing messages.

i


Introduction: Th e Other Side of the Scaff old 3

Book 1 of the Comforters’ Manual of Bologna’s Company of Death was written in the early fi ft eenth century, and book 2 in the later fi ft eenth century. Th ere is no sure information on either the dates or the authors. Th e Comforters’ Manual is unique among Renaissance literary texts in opening a window onto the contrasting attitudes of Italian laity and clergy towards the theological, spiritual, and psychological dimensions of punishment and death. Although it was widely copied across northern and central Italy, there is no complete published Italian edition and no part of it has ever been available in English translation. Beyond books 1 and 2, the manual also sometimes incorporated a section of songs and prayers and a set of sayings about death and dying; no single extant manuscript has all four of these parts together. It was, above all, a working document. Th ere are variations between particular copies that refl ect the needs and interests of diff erent comforters at diff erent times. Th e transla-tion off ered in this collection has been prepared by Sheila Das, working with a base text edition prepared by Alfredo Troiano, and drawing elements from some of the best available manuscripts in Italian and American libraries.

Th e diff erent parts of the Comforters’ Manual present diff erent views of the execution rituals. Book 1, written by a priest or friar, is more formal and overtly theological, while book 2, written by an educated lay comforter, is more practical and pastoral. Both deal directly with the questions that must have overwhelmed those taking on this charitable work for the fi rst time: How do you prepare yourself? What can you possibly say? How do you deal with other prisoners crowding round as you try to pray with a prisoner, or with family members who protest the injustice of the sentence? How do you defl ect awk-ward theological arguments. Where do you position yourself as the prisoner moves up the gallows ladder or kneels at the block?

Some copies of the Comforters’ Manual include selections of prayers and the popular songs called laude that prisoners and comforters sang together in order to allay the dread of the impending execution. Some of these songs were very old and others quite new. It is a sign of how popular they were that no manuscript has quite the same collection of them. Th is suggests that the songs a comforter included in his own copy of the manual refl ected what he heard sung most oft en on the streets or in the churches and to which the prisoner could most readily sing along. Similarly, some copies of the manual include pages of brief sayings drawn from biblical, classical, and early Christian writings called “Authorities.” No manual has the same collection—some emphasize Christian authors while others emphasize classical ones, and some off er the same sayings in Latin and in Italian. Th is very idiosyncratic approach refl ects the sayings that


4 Nicholas Terpstra

students would pick up in their studies of history, literature, or moral philoso-phy, and that they would collect in personal notebooks.

Beyond the Comforters’ Manual, the next major document in this col-lection is Luca della Robbia’s (1484–ca. 1519) Narrative on the Death of Pietro Paolo Boscoli and Agostino Capponi (1513), a memoir of the last night of two patricians arrested for conspiracy. Both the translation and the introduction have been prepared by Alison Knowles Frazier, working with older Italian published editions and manuscripts in Florentine and Roman libraries; the version presented here marks its fi rst complete translation into English. Della Robbia’s gripping account takes us from the time when Boscoli and Capponi fi rst realize to their horror that they will not be pardoned and released, and includes their frantic eff orts to put their aff airs in order while also preparing themselves psychologically for what is to come in a few hours. Th e memoir highlights the tensions between the patricians’ classically oriented approach to death and the more theologically oriented approach of the comforters who, frankly, do not come off particularly well in the account. Th e divide here is not between classical and Christian, because the humanist Boscoli is also a disciple of the radical cleric Savonarola, who had been burned as a her-etic over a decade earlier. What Boscoli fi nds hard to take is the thoughtless rote droning of laude and prayers that his confraternal comforters from the Company of the Blacks off er. He engages instead in a more learned spiritual discussion with della Robbia and demands that a friar associated with the still-vibrant Savonarolan movement come in to give him spiritual comfort. Is this a “true” account? All our manuscript copies date from at least a century aft er the executions, when it had become a comforters’ manual of sorts in Florence and, as Frazier notes, a deeply politicized document. Frazier traces the disputes about its “reliability” and situates the text in larger debates about republicanism, civic humanism, and the aims of the Savonarolans. Certainly della Robbia nudges the characters into somewhat stereotypical frames: the comforters are anonymous, unlearned, and ignorant, while Capponi is ver-bose and self-absorbed. Boscoli is thoughtful, humble, and articulate, dem-onstrating both classical virtues and Christian convictions as he courageously faces his fortuna with virtù.

Finally, a pair of ballads by the Bolognese poet Giulio Cesare Croce (1550–1609) shows how public executions returned to the street as popular literature and song. Self-taught and immensely popular, Croce had a keen ear for the popular mood and a sharp eye for profi t. He produced hundreds of ballads that spanned the range from comic to tragic and that remained in


Introduction: Th e Other Side of the Scaff old 5

print long aft er his death. Meryl Bailey has translated two ballads that dem-onstrate a diff erent emotional range and hint at shift s in how executions were being received. Th e fi rst, Th e piteous case and tearful lament of two unhappy lovers, recounts the execution in 1587 of a young patrician Bolognese woman and her lover who had murdered the father who stood in the way of their hap-piness. Th e other, Th e lament and death of Manas the Jew, refracts these same themes of love and murder through the lens of anti-Semitism. A Jew in Ferra-ra helps a Christian woman murder her brother-in-law and both are executed for the crime in 1590. Yet in this second ballad, Croce makes all references to the crime—and even the woman—oblique, and concentrates his verses on the protracted torture of the Jew and his cries for mercy. Bailey shows that while classical allusions, a romantic tone, and composition in terza rima turn the fi rst ballad into a sympathetic account, the violence, scorn, and catchy rhythm of the second render it mocking, vengeful, and callous. Both hit the market as broadsheets aimed at a popular audience, and so inevitably they too joined the evolving library of moral literature that aimed to shape how the condemned, the comforters, and the citizenry thought about the meanings and rituals of public executions.

Th ese Renaissance texts make up the second half of this volume. In place of a single introduction, six essays off ered in the fi rst half explain the contexts and meanings of the primary sources and of execution rituals generally. Th ey explore the spiritual and theological issues around public executions in the Renaissance, the relation of execution rituals to late medieval public theater, the use of art to comfort the condemned, the literature that issued from pris-ons by the hand of condemned prisoners, the psychological dimensions of the comforting process, and social, political, and historical dimensions of ex-ecutions and comforting in the city of Bologna, where the lay confraternities dedicated to this work fi rst emerged and where the manual that was to infl u-ence many others across Italy was fi rst written.

Th e comforters were well aware of the theatrical dimension of executions generally and of their work in particular. But they saw drama in two dimen-sions—both the drama of the execution as a public event, and also their own work with the prisoners as a scene in the eternal drama of salvation. Kathleen Falvey demonstrates that comforters’ awareness of both dimensions was sharp-ened by the passion plays and sacre rappresentazioni that were staged by con-fraternities in Italian cities and squares. Th eir counseling aimed to help prison-ers imagine themselves in the role of martyred saints or of biblical characters like John the Baptist, a dramatic parallel highlighted when passion plays were


341

Contributors

Meryl Bailey (University of California, Berkeley) is a doctoral candidate in the history of art, specializing in the Italian Renaissance. She also holds degrees in anthropology and law. Her dissertation explores the imagery and ritual associated with capital punishment in Venice, and focuses on the com-forting confraternity known as the Scuola di San Fantin. Her research draws upon art history, anthropology, law, and theology to broadly consider how imagery, private ceremony, and public spectacle help cultures to deal with state-sanctioned violence.

Sheila Das (Vanier College, Montreal) is a scholar of late Renaissance rhet-oric who has published a number of articles on Venetian literature, includ-ing “Sarpi’s Portraits in the Istoria del concilio tridentino,” in Studi Veneziani (2004) and “Th e Disappearance of the Trojan Legend in the Historiography of Venice” in Fantasies of Troy: Classical Tales and the Social Imaginary in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Alan Shepard and Stephen D. Powell (2004).

Kathleen Falvey (University of Hawaii, Manoa) is a scholar of late me-dieval and literary drama who has conducted research on the public plays produced by the confraternities of northern and central Italy. Among her publications in this area are “Th e First Perugian Passion Play: Aspects of Structure,” Comparative Drama 11/2 (1977); “Th e Italian Saint Play: Th e Ex-ample of Perugia” in Th e Saint Play in Europe, edited by C. Davidson (1986); and “An Investigation into the Imaginative and Dramatic Context of the Ital-ian Conforteria,” Fift eenth Century Studies 13 (1988).

Massimo Ferretti (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) is an art historian and conservation expert who taught at the universities of Bologna and Milan and was director of the civic collections of art in Bologna (where he oversaw the reopening of two long-closed museums) before becoming professor of art history and director of the Laboratory of Visual Arts at the Scuola Normale


342 Contributors

Superiore in Pisa. He is the author of numerous studies dealing both with art conservation and with late medieval artists, including “Un nuovo momento bolognese di Jacopo della Quercia,” in Arte a Bologna: Bolletino dei musei civici d’arte antica V (1999); and Fonte Gaia di Jacopo della Quercia (2001).

Alison Frazier (University of Texas, Austin) is a historian who writes on the intersection of humanism and religion in the Renaissance, with an empha-sis on the humanist reconstruction and rewriting of sacred history. Her 2005 book, Possible Lives: Authors and Saints in Renaissance Italy, was awarded the Phyllis Goodheart Gordon Book Prize of the Renaissance Society of America. She has held fellowships from Villa I Tatti and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Pamela Gravestock (University of Toronto) is a research associate at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies who works on issues related to death and memorialization and also on dimensions of the early modern imagination. She is the author of Expectations and Experience: Th e World of the Medieval and Renaissance Traveler (2002); and “Did Imaginary Animals Exist?” in Th e Mark of the Beast: Th e Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Litera-ture, edited by Debra Hassig (1999).

Adriano Prosperi (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) is the leading inter-national authority on sixteenth-century Italian religious history, and holds the Chair in Reformation and Counter-Reformation History at its most pres-tigious university. His work ranges over the fi elds of popular culture, social discipline, history, and anthropology, and he has conducted advanced semi-nars on the conforterie. Prosperi has published eleven books and over fi ft y articles, including most notably Storia di un infanticidio (2005) and Tribunali della coscienza. Inquisitori, confessori, missionari (1996).

Nicholas Terpstra (University of Toronto) is a historian of early modern social history in Italy whose work has focused on the intersection of religion and politics, and particularly confraternities, charitable institutions, and the networks of care available to marginal populations. He has written many ar-ticles and is the author of Abandoned Children of the Italian Renaissance: Or-phan Care in Florence and Bologna (2005) and Lay Confraternities and Civic Religion in Renaissance Bologna (1995), which was awarded the Howard Mar-raro Prize of the Society for Italian Historical Studies.


Contributors 343

Alfredo Troiano (Yale University) is a literary scholar who has conducted research on various themes in late medieval and Renaissance Italian poetry and songs, and in particular on literature produced in relation to death. Among his publications are “ ‘Sozzo, malvascio corpo, lussurïoso e ‘ngordo’: La visione del corpo nel contemptus mundi di Iacopone da Todi” in Yale Italian Poetry VIII (2005); and “Un laudario per condannati a morte: Il ms. 1069 della Yale Beine-cke Library di Yale,” in Studi e problemi di critica testuale (2005).


345

t = table; italic number = illustration

Acciaiuoli, Alessandro, 299Acciaiuoli, Zanobi, 304Alberti, Leon Battista

Ippolito e Dianora woodcut, 179altarpieces, related to tavolette, 90–91anatomy, as public spectacle, 99–100, 135n,

136nnAngeli, Angelo de, 98angels

as comforters of Christ, 19–22Gabriel, 220as guardians, 218hierarchy and orders of, 217–18Michael, 20–21in miracle story, 256Uriel, 19–20

Antichrist, as descendant of Dan, 219Apostles’ Creed, 318Archdiocesan Archive/Library, laude holdings,

44–51tAristotle, 291art history, as heritage history, 79–80artworks

Croce’s cover illustrations, 330oldest paintings for the condemned, 93tavolette as panels, 84–87

asceticism, 66, 227astrology, 187, 233–37Athanasian Creed, 310Augustine, Saint

on death, 238, 240on faith, 231in heaven, 226on receiving communion, 211on the soul, 262, 291

Augustinians, 107–12, 125, 186authorities, in ms. copies of Comforters’

Manuals, 289–92

Bacchelli, Ricardo, 296, 324ballads, 4–5, 327–39Banco, Maso di, 88Barbiero, Tommaso, 148

Battuti Neri (Compagnia di S. Maria Annunziata), 55–56

Beccaria, Cesare, Essay on Crimes and Punishments, 9

Bede, Venerable, 226beheading

of Bendadei, 328–29of Boscoli, 322of John the Baptist, 159numbers of, 127tin Passion play, 18, 22–23, 26–28process of, 126of unhappy lovers, 328, 331–35

Beheading of John the Baptist play, 26–28Beinecke Library, Yale University, 44–51t,

291–92bell tolling, 269, 272Benati, Danielle, 85Benincasa, Catherine, 23–26, 29Benivieni, Girolamo, 299–300Bentivoglio, Giovanni II, 32Bentivoglio signory, 120, 122, 128Bergamo, Venturino da, 133Bernardino of Siena, 66, 83Bernard of Clairvaux, 66Bertaro, Giovanni Antonio, 139, 141Berti, Giovanni Lorenzo, 113Bible, use of, 61–62, 191, 206–7, 290. See also

Scripture Indexbodily mutilation. See anatomy; tortures/

terrorsbodily pleasure, as fl eeting, 199–200body-soul dichotomy, 108, 304, 333–34. See

also souladvice to prisoner about, 195, 197–98,

231–32, 249, 261Christian concept of, 102–3, 186Erasmus on sacraments for, 106–8and fear of death, 200–201, 260–61and martyrdom, 224–25and three kinds of death, 238–41, 332–33

Bologna archival holdings of laude, 44–51tBiblioteca Universitaria ms., 290–91charitable confraternities in, 32–33criminal prosecution in, 124tdepiction of, 82, 163–64

Index


346 Index

Bologna (continued)famine, poverty, plague, crime in, 119patron saints of, 86

Book of St. John the Baptist, 22–23Book of the Dead, 139, 140nn, 155Boscoli, Francesco, 306–7Boscoli, Pietro Paolo, account of his

execution, 28–29, 132, 293–326Buoncompagni, Ugo (Pope Gregory XIII), 152burials

of Boscoli and Capponi, 322of Hippolita and Lodovico, 334places of, 136tprisoners’ concern about, 100, 102, 137procedures for, 135–37and social status, 139, 328, 334

burning, as execution method, 126, 129–30, 130n

capital punishment, 9–10, 102–6, 110–11. See also execution

Capponi, Agostino, account of his execution, 28, 293–326

Capuchin Order, as comforters, 80–81, 150–51Carafa, Carolo, 154Carpi, plot against the Este, 54–55Carracci, Annibale, Th e Hanging, 80–81, 160Carranza, Bartolomé de, 105Catherine (Benincasa) of Siena, Saint

as comforter for the condemned, 23–24on human justice, 66letter to Raimondo da Capua, 52, 69n, 295symbolism on human justice, 53

Catherine of Alexandria, 23–26, 29, 89, 169Catholic Church, 102–4, 109–11Catholic Reform, and confraternities, 144–45Cato, on mysteries of God, 262Cattanio, Giovanni Francesco, 189censors, in Post-Tridentine conforteria, 146character of the condemned, 250charity, 32–33, 241Christ. See Jesus Christchurch and state, and execution rituals,

110–11, 115, 125Cipriano, Fra, 296, 314–15, 323civic humanism, in della Robbia’s Recitazione,

299clergymen, as criminals, 82comforters

as advocates of the system, 9, 131angels as, 19–22Capuchins as, 80–81, 150–51della Robbia as, 302–24

duties of, 27, 128, 131–32, 137–38encouragement for, 246–48foundational documents of, 295guidelines for, 134–35; addressing the

condemned, 248; approaching execution site, 273–75; ascending the gallows, 275; comforting the hardhearted, 254–55; controlling prison space, 150–51, 154, 167, 248–50, 265; fi nal hours, 270–75; focusing prisoner’s attention, 150; leading the condemned to execution, 271–75; stages of comforting, 81, 161, 167; strength at bell tolling, 267–70; touching the condemned on hand/mouth, 272–73

Inquisitors as, 147–48Jews as, 132motives of, 120, 153–56, 187, 193–94nuns as, 306as pardoners, 152–53preparation aids for, 15–18, 36–38, 60,

133–34, 187prisoners as, 53, 61, 319profi les of, 101, 140–54psychological preparation of, 187purpose of, 102–3relationship with condemned, 130, 134restricted to confraternity members, 155social status of, 7–8, 147–48, 153uniforms of, 134, 161–62

Comforters’ Manual archival copies of, 191, 289–92book 1: as condensed, 189; focus of,

144–45; as practical, 186–88; translation of, 193–245

book 2: focus of, 144–45; as theoretical, 187, 189; translation of, 246–75

book 3: lauds and prayers, 276–88book 4: authorities (sayings), 289–92composition of, 2–4, 14–15, 28, 59–60, 167contemptus mundi theme in, 52, 57–58, 63fl exibility of, 132–33introduction, 183–84laude in, 31–43, 189legacy of, 8on prisoners as confraternal brothers, 138themes in, 191

communion. See EucharistCompagnia di S. Giovanni Decollato, 146Compagnia di S. Maria Annunziata, 55–56


Index 347

Compagnia di S. Maria della Croce al Tempio (Th e Blacks), 1, 28

Compagnia di S. Maria della Morte. See also Scuola dei Confortori

books of dead/executed, 138–40burial practices of, 136–37as the Company of Death, 6–7, 246, 255control of prison system, 149–51founding and development of, 84, 88, 119,

132–40, 145–54illuminated folio of, 164insignia of, 82–83laude of, 32laypersons in, 81, 140–54in poems: of Croce, 328; of Viarani, 53, 56purchase/sale of prefecture offi ce, 152resistance to Tridentine reforms, 146

Compagnia di S. Maria dell’ Ascensione (Th e Blacks), 6

Compagnia di S. Maria di Mezzarata, 84–85companies of justice. See confraternities/

conforteriaCompany of Death. See Compagnia di S. Maria

della Mortecondemned persons

in art, 159–79clergymen as, 81–82, 121as comforters, 53, 138comforter’s care of, 15–18, 37–41, 134–35,

149–50, 161, 179and compassion, 131, 247, 253–54, 268, 328devotional books for, 253family of, 249–50, 255–56, 306–9fi nal hours of, 263–74, 303–24fi nal prayer of, 274the hardhearted, 254–55, 308, 313not to protest innocence, 242pardoning of, 152–53penance and confession of, 109–12, 206–9,

253, 263–65preparation aids for, 187release of, on feast day, 152scaff old literature of Viarani and Pio, 53–69should accept death sentence, 238–41states of mind at death, 98–99, 101–2and their wealth, 257–58as “the suff ering,” 102tying of hands, 270–71wills and disposition of goods, 137–38,

255, 315confession

of Boscoli and Capponi, 315–17characteristics of, 61–64

for condemned/dying persons, 109–12, 253, 263–65, 273–74

of Hippolita, 332–33judicial vs. sacramental, 113and mercy of God, 206as prerequisite for comforters, 247as spiritual discipline, 133ways and conditions of, 207–9

confessors, 227, 304–5, 309, 313–15confraternities/conforteria. See also

individual companiesbooks of the dead, 138–39, 140nn, 155care of Viarani and Pio, 59–60early tavolette for, 91–92of Ferrara, 98as fl agellants, 66focus and duties of, 9, 27; Larga and

Stretta, 133, 144–45; laudesi and disciplinati, 33–35

insignia of, 82–83membership of, 80–81, 83politicization of, 145–54restructuring and discipline of, 146–54sociopolitical profi le of, 7–8, 148–56Tridentine reforms of, 145–48unique to Italy, 1, 101–2

Confraternity of St. Andrew, 26–27Confraternity of the Blacks, 66, 294, 296, 303,

316, 319–20contrition/repentance, 60–62, 132, 201Cornagliotti, Anna, 18, 22Cortona laude, 34Council of Elders, 118–19, 143, 148–49Council of Trent, conforteria guidelines, 145Covoni, Giovanni, 319crime/crimes

arson, 129assassination, 129assault of the highborn, 129in Bologna, 120–22capital, 5, 53–56, 81–82distinguished from sin, 106list of, 124, 130nnplace of, 122political, 126, 128and poverty, 122robbery, 129sexual, 82, 122, 130

criminal justice. See justice systemsCristoforo da Bologna, 186–87Cristoforo da Jacopo, 90, 92

Flagellation, Crucifi xion and Martyrdoms of Saints …, 171


348 Index

Cristoforo da Jacopo (continued)Madonna and Child with Saints …, 170

Croce, Guilio Cesare Caso compassionevole, 156, 327–29, 331–35Lamento et morte di Manas hebreo, 132,

328–29, 336–39poems/ballads of, 4–5, 327–39

Crocefi ssi, Simone dei Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist …,

173Madonna and Child with Saints …, 90, 172

Daddi, Bernardo, 93, 174–75Dalmasio

Crucifi xion with Martyrdoms …, 169identifi cation of, 88Madonna and Child with Two Condemned,

168Dan, as father of Antichrist, 219Das, Sheila, 52n, 191David (prophet/saint), 312

on accepting God’s sacrifi ce, 21on angels, 218on contrition and humility, 206, 213, 247on heaven, 219, 229on pilgrimage of life, 227on worldly danger, 196

Davis, Natalie Zemon, 107death

and “art of dying well,” 101of body and soul: as distinguished, 102–3,

195; as indistinguishable, 107–8Boscoli’s discussion about, 310–11Christ’s Passion as model for, 15, 65–66,

201–2and divine grace, 100and eternal life, 67–69, 202, 311–12as inevitable, 195–96, 198, 238, 260as preferable to vile world, 215three kinds of, 238–43

della Robbia, Luca, 28Narrative on the Death of Paolo Boscoli

and Agostino Capponi, 4, 28, 132, 156; background and analysis of, 294–301

biographical information, 294, 299friendship with Boscoli, 311, 316, 321as Savonarolan, 294, 296works edited by, 299

despair/doubt, 62–63, 212–13devil, 62–63, 257, 267diet

as hindrance to confession, 304, 309

simple, for comforters, 248doctors of the church, 226Dolciati, Filippo, Execution of Antonio

Rinaldeschi, 162drama

executions as, 5–6, 13–14, 99–101, 107, 127–32

and lauda singing, 33ludus of Mary Magdalene, 23martyrdom themes, 13–14, 25–26relationship of plays to executions, 28–29

Edgerton, Samuel, 40–41England, public hangings in, 107Erasmus, Disiderius, 108Este, Borso d’, Duke, 53–54eternal life. See under lifeEucharist. See also sacraments

for Boscoli, 318for the condemned, 66, 106, 109–10,

209–10, 253, 264–65Last Supper of Christ, 222–23purpose of, 211–12

evil, and astrology, 235execution

in Bologna, 122, 123books of, 119, 121–22Croce’s poems about, 327–39and disposition of bodies, 99–100hood worn for, 272–73, 320illustrations, 81, 159–79methods of, 118–19, 125–27, 177notary to read sentence, 271–72numbers of, 121places of, 81, 127–30political, 120–21ritual of, 127–32as self-sacrifi ce, 321–22sentence of, 16and social status, 328–30states of mind at, 98–99, 267–72as theater, 5–6, 13–14, 99violence at, 99as will of God, 249

Execution of Antonio Rinaldeschi (painting), 162Execution of John the Baptist (woodcut), 159

faith, purpose and eff ect of, 108, 231–32, 314Falvey, Katherine, 296family, of the condemned, 249–50, 255–56,

306–9, 316, 331–35famine, and crime, 119, 122, 143


Index 349

Farti, Mario, 14, 56, 67, 79, 140, 183, 185–86, 189

feast days, and prisoner release, 152Ferrara, 53, 55, 98Ferretti, Massimo, 19Filippo, Simone di

Decapitation of St. John the Baptist …, 173Madonna and Child with Saints …, 172work of, 90–92

fl agellants (Stretta), 13, 65–66, 133, 144, 272–73Florence, 1, 27–28, 33–34, 81, 121, 162, 293–326forgiveness

Boscoli to Capponi, 319and confession, 307and mercy of God, 206–7, 230–31, 313prerequisite for salvation, 204–5, 232, 263

France, denies sacraments to criminals, 111Francesco, Antonio di, 307free will, 232–34, 263friendship, 249, 297, 308Frugoni, Arsenio, 296

Gabriel (angel), 220Gaetani, Enrico, 150Gerson, Jean, 111Ghirardacci, Gherardo, 83Giugni, Anton, 308Giunti, Filippo, 299, 319nGiustiniani, Leonardo, 34God. See Trinitygonfalone imagery, 82grace of God, 100, 103, 197Graniero, Anna, 52nGravestock, Pamela, 189Guardia, Otto di, 293Guicciardini, Francesco, 120–21Guicciardini, Pier, 311

hanging crimes leading to, 130nplace of, 127–28as prior to bodily mutilation, 129sketches of, 160, 176as usual execution method, 125

heaven, 215–31, 233, 243. See also life: eternalhell, 232–33, 240heresy/heretics

among comforters, 147astrology, 233–37as capital crime, 82, 122Capuchin friar, 121execution of, 130

penalty for, 126and prayers for executed persons, 103–4

Hippolita (misguided lover), 327–35Holy Spirit, and the prophets, 219–20hospitals, as outgrowth of conforteria, 133Huizinga, Johan, 100humility, 196–97, 206, 213, 312

iconography, 83–84, 86imagery

of Christ’s Passion, 65–66in Croce’s book covers, 329–30gonfalone and tavolette compared, 82spousal, 16–17, 24–25, 28–29, 211, 245

imagination, and the devil, 197–98, 212–13innocence, as no excuse for clemency, 241–42Inquisition, 103–5, 110–11, 147–48intellect

and faith, 231as prerequisite for comforters, 248as spirit/soul, 217, 219, 226, 229, 262–63,

308Ippolito e Dianora woodcut, 179Isolani, Antonio, 153–54

Jacopo, Cristoforo da, 90, 92, 170–71Jesuits, 145Jesus Christ. See also Passion of Christ

as comforter of John the Baptist, 27humanity of, 312as model: for comforters, 247; for the

condemned, 15–18, 39, 56–57, 65, 138–39, 242

Passion play portrayal of, 18–22as sacrifi ce of God’s justice, 63–64vs. astrology, 235–36

Jews as comforters, 132conversion of, 251–52execution of, 329–30, 336–38

John the Baptist, Saint, 169Book of John the Baptist, 22–23Decapitation of, 173as martyr, 220–21, 243, 260as model for the condemned, 242, 260in Passion of Revello, 18as patron of the condemned, 16, 65, 89, 221saint plays about, 26–28

Judas, 222judgment of God

accompanied by saints, 223as deserved, 199–200


350 Index

judgment of God (continued)and unforgiven sin, 206vs. astrology, 236

justice and death of wrongdoers, 238–39divine vs. human, 63, 108–9judicial vs. sacramental, 113and religious guilt, 113

justice systems controlled by papal governors, 149as politicized, 122relationship with confraternities, 153Rota, 149

Kaiserberg, Geiler von, 113

Laclotte, Michel, 88Lambertini, Giulio Cesare, 152–54Landinelli, Ludovico, 328, 331–35Larga (charitable comforters), 133, 144–45Latin, in Comforters’ Manual, 289–90laude (devotional songs)

archival holdings of, 44–51tin Comforters’ Manual, 31–43, 189–90,

276–88for the condemned to sing, 245development of, 32–35, 190–91examples of: “Have Mercy, Oh God Most

High,” 282–84; “Have Mercy, Oh Highest Eternal God,” 284–88; “Into your arms, Virgin Mary,” 279–80; “Jesus Splendor of the First Light,” 280–82; for Lent, 26; “My Christ, Give me Strength,” 276; Neoplatonic, 16–17; “Oh High Queen Crowned in Stars,” 277–79

popularity of, 41–42, 190–91as sung in heaven, 222use of, 6, 14–15, 32, 39–40; with tavolette,

190law vs. astrology, 236–37Le Bon, Gustave, 107Leonardo da Vinci, “Sketch of a hanged man,”

176life

brevity of, 198, 201eternal, 67–69, 202–5, 213, 230, 311–12,

335as middle mansion, 233vileness of, 214–15

literature consolatio genre, 102della Robbia’s humanist account as, 298–301

Lodovico (misguided lover), 327–35Longhi, Roberto, 88Lorenzetti, Ambrogo, 24love, misguided, 331–35Luther, Martin, 107–8

Machiavelli, Carlo Antonio, 85Madonna. See Virgin Mary, SaintMadonna of Mercy with Brothers of the

Confraternity, 164Magnanza, Alessandro, Mutilation of St. Adrian,

177Malvasia (art historian), 85–86Manas the Jew, 336–38Manelli, Iacopo, 296, 305, 309, 315, 318–19Manfredi, Taddeo, 54mannaia (beheading instrument), 18, 22–23,

126, 159martyrdom

accounts of, 294–95, 300desired by Catherine of Siena, 23–24, 53as dramatic theme, 25–28heavenly reward of, 225invoked in laude, 38by judicial sentence, 66, 242–43as model for the condemned, 15–17, 38,

59, 63–65, 132, 186, 202martyrs

Bishop Petronio, 86Boscoli as, 323in heaven, 223–24holy virgins, 228as not protesting execution, 213Pietro Paolo Boscoli as, 297prayers of, to forgive persecutors, 205saints, 23–24, 53, 205, 222–23, 225, 260youthful, 260

Mary, Saint. See Virgin Mary, SaintMary Magdalene, 86, 267Mary of Egypt, 207Master of Verucchio, 84Meadow of the Gate of Justice, 28Medici, Giuliano de’, 293Medici, Giulio de’, 293Medici, Lorenzo de’, 1Medici, Pierfrancesco de’, 299memory, and the soul, 263mercy of God, 60–61, 209

for comforters, 246–47prayers for, 206–7


Index 351

processions for, 133sought by Boscoli, 305, 310, 319–20

Mézières, Philippe de, 111Michael (angel), 20–21Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1mind, as soul, 262miracle stories, 251–52Molanus, Johannes, 113Montalbini, Ovidio, 83Monte di Pietà, 149moral philosophy vs. astrology, 237Morina, Giulio, Death of the Prisoner

Converted by the Saint, 81–82, 163murder, as capital crime, 5, 81music, 33–34, 229–30mystical union with Christ. See imagery: spousal

Naples, 80–81, 114Narrative on the Death of Paolo Boscoli and

Agostino Capponi (della Robbia), 4, 28, 32, 156

background and analysis of, 294–301translation and versions of, 323–24

Nicene Creed, 318nNobile, Bernardo, 187

Olivi, Pietro di Giovanni, 66Oratories of Divine Love, 145

Pagnini, Sante, 306npain, of the condemned, 40, 131paintings. See tavolette (small paintings)papacy vs. astrology, 237papal governors, 120–24, 133n, 148–49Passion of Christ

in drama/literature: Feast and History of St. Catherine, 19; Passion of Revello play, 18–22

and the Eucharist, 210and forgiveness, 204–5imagery of, 65–66as model: for Boscoli, 321; for the

condemned, 15, 37, 39, 65–66, 201–2, 212–13, 243

rituals and traditions of, 13–19vs. astrology, 236

patriarchs in paradise, 218–19Paul (apostle/saint), 66, 206, 211, 222, 227,

231, 246Pensabene, Cristoforo, 144–45, 147–48Pensarotti, Ippolita, 328, 331–35Perugia, 26

Peter, Saint, 206–7, 222, 298, 313Petrarca, Francesco, 52Phillip II, 114Piccat, Marco, 22–23Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 185,

189laude holdings, 44–51turban execution illustrations, 81, 161

Pio, Giovanni Ludovico, 54–55Pio, Giovanni Marco, 54–56plague, 119, 139, 143plays. See dramapoetry/poems. See also laude (devotional

songs)of Andrea Viarani, 52–78of Croce, 327–39of Pio, 52, 56–58

Polidori, Filippo Luigi, 296, 298, 323popes

Benedict XIV, 114Clement V, 11Clement VIII, 152Gregory I, Saint, 226, 291Gregory XIII, 152Innocent VIII, 114Julius II, 148Julius III, 114Leo I, Saint, 226Leo X, 148, 293Paul III, 114, 149Pius IV, 149Pius V, 113–14on sacraments for the condemned, 111,

113–15Poveri Prigionieri, 151–52poverty, 119, 122, 143, 256prayers

to be said with the condemned, 253, 265–66

book 3 of Comforters’ Manual, 276–88of Boscoli, 308, 319–20comforters’ use of, 41for the condemned, 103–5, 243by della Robbia before writing Account, 303at execution, 14–16, 18, 272, 275for forgiveness, 207, 272to forgive others, 205–6of Jesus, in Passion plays, 20Lord’s Prayer (Paternoster), 205–6, 310,

314, 319–20Magnifi cat, 319prescriptions for, 203–7Salve Regina, 319


352 Index

prayers (continued)at tolling of the bell, 269upon awakening the condemned, 263upon receiving communion, 266–67

preaching, as resource for comforters, 248priests, 207, 263–65prisons

controlled by confraternity, 149–50and privacy, 150, 154–55reform/secularization of, in Papal States,

152processions

at executions, 18, 27–28, 128–29, 131for God’s mercy, 133laude singing at, 33

prophets, in paradise, 219–20Prosperi, Adriano, 63, 66Pseudo-Dalmasio. See Dalmasiopunishment theories, 107–12Pythagorus, 291

Raphael, angel, 240Rave, B., 89Raymond of Capua, 23, 52reason, as soul, 262–63religion vs. astrology, 237Revello, Book of St. John the Baptist, 18–23revenge, as ungodly, 205Ridolfi , Piero, 309Ridolfi , Roberto, 293, 304nRimini, Francesco da

Th e Crucifi xion, 86–87, 166St. Mary Magdelen with Saints, 84, 87, 165

Rinaldeschi, Antonio, 128, 162rites and rituals. See also processions

in Croce’s poetry, 328of execution, 127–32, 328outlined in book 2, 188purposes of, 7–8, 125and urban setting of, 81

Robbia, Luca della. See della Robbia, LucaRovorobella, Gregorio da, 32, 190Rufus, Quintus Curtius, Historia magni

Aleandri, 299

Sacchetti, Giovanni Battista, 305sacraments

confession, 207–9denied to criminals, 111Eucharist, 209–12and judicial vs. sacramental justice, 113penance, 209

validity of, for the condemned, 104–5, 108vs. astrology, 236

saints in heaven, 222invoked in laude, 38mentioned, 66, 89, 100–101, 205, 207,

220–23, 225–28, 238, 243, 247, 260, 289, 291, 314, 323

salvation of body and soul, 202–3for the condemned, 187, 308, 317–18, 332forgiveness as prerequisite for, 204–5and ways of confession, 207–9

San Marco, 304n–305nSavonarola, Girolamo

burning of, 126followers of, 296, 298, 311nmartyrdom of, 178, 313–14as model, for Boscoli, 313–14and San Marco, 304nviewed as heretic, 298

Scuola dei Confortori, 134–40, 144–54Segni, Antonio, 299Segni, Lorenzo, 299–300, 311n, 315sense, as soul, 262Serafi no, Fra, 306sermons, and lauda, 33nSerristori, Antonio, 304n, 309shame, 207–8, 212, 268–69Siena, 23–26sin

and conditions of confession, 207–8crime distinguished from, 106despair, as unpardonable, 62–63, 212–13forgiveness of God, 206–7as hindrance to comforters, 247as human nature, 214–15mortal, to protest innocence, 242secret vs. manifest, 197

singing, as disruptive to confession, 316social status

and burial, 139, 328of comforters, 7–8, 147–56and execution, 328–30

Solomon, 233, 290songs. See laude (devotional songs)Soto, Domingo de, 113soul

as corrupted, 207–8death of, 225, 239–40defi ned/described, 262–63as eternal, 213, 231–32, 261, 334and forgiveness, 204–5


Index 353

free will of, 232–33prescriptions for immortality of, 203–7as unknowable, 263

Spain, 113spirituality, 13, 39, 138–39stories/parables, 251–52, 256–59Stretta. See fl agellants (Stretta)Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, tavoletta at, 89–90,

170–71suff ering

at beheading, 275of the condemned, 15, 269–70

Sugari, Sigismondo, 150–51

tagliadura (beheading instrument), 18, 274–75Tapper, Ruard, 113tavolette (small paintings)

for Boscoli, 308, 318, 321as distraction for the condemned, 6–7,

17, 19, 28, 49, 65, 134as last thing the condemned sees, 271–72,

274–75as panel paintings, 84–87size of, 87, 89–90as tavoluccia, 308, 318typology and functions of, 79–80, 83, 91–92,

187used with laude, 190

theater. See dramatheft , as capital crime, 81Th ompson, Edward P., 107Todi, Jacopone da, 15, 34Toldo, Niccolò di, 23, 29, 295Tolle, Giovanni Antonio dal, 328Torre dei Leoni prison, 55tortures/terrors. See also anatomy

crimes leading to, 130nof individuals: Antonio Segni, 299;

Boscoli, 309; Capponi, 316; Christ, in Passion plays, 19–22; Manas the Jew, 329, 336–38; martyrs and prisoners, 16–18, 223–25; virgin saints, 228

methods of: cutting off hands, 329, 336–38; with pincers, 329, 336–38; quartering, 118, 126, 129–30; strappado, 155, 309n, 316

Traversari, Ambrogio, 54treason, as capital crime, 53–56, 329–30, 336–38

Tribunes of the People, 148Trinity, 210, 215–16, 226Troiano, Alfredo, 191Tuscany, 10Two Comforters with a Prisoner (ms. illus.), 167

University Library, Bologna Comforters’ Manual holding, 185laude holdings, 44–51t

Uriel (angel), 19–20

Valori, Bartolomeo the Elder, 300Valori, Niccolò, 299, 307Venice, 34Venturio da Bergamo, 84, 93vernacular, of della Robbia’s account, 298–301Viarani, Andrea, 55–78, 191Viarani family, 53–54Vigri, Caterina di, 66, 81–82Villon, François, 113Virgin Mary, Saint

attributes of, 216–17iconography of, 86invoked in laude, 15, 35–38, 56–57and John the Baptist, 220and the Trinity, 210–11

virgins, 221, 227–28

war, 66, 106wealth, as hindrance to good death, 257–59weapons, forbidden to comforters, 155wills and disposition of goods, 137–38, 255,

315Wilson, Blake, 33women

as cowardly, 260execution of, 328as martyr virgins, 228spirituality of, 301

Yale University, archival holdings of laude, 44–51t

youth confraternities, 33

Zanobi, Ser, 307


354 Index

Biblical Index

Acts 1:8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313Acts 7:60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Col. 3:3–4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Col. 3:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2471 Cor. 13:1–3 . . . . . . . . . . 2461 Cor. 13:8 . . . . . . . . . . . . 2311 Cor. 13:12 . . . . . . . . . . . 2311 Cor. 13:13 . . . . . . . . . . . 2311 Cor. 15:44 . . . . . . . 203, 2111 Cor. 15:53 . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Dan. 4:24 . . . . . . . . . . 240–41

Eccles. 1:2. . . . . . . . . . . . . 200Ecclus. 12:2–3 . . . . . . . . . 216Ecclus. 30:24 . . . . . . . . . . 241Ecclus. 31:10 . . . . . . . . . . 233Eph. 4:24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Ezek. 18:20 . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Ezek. 33:11 . . . . . . . . 110, 206

Gen. 1:31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Gen. 2:7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262Gen. 2:17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Gen. 25:19–25 . . . . . . . . . 234

Isa. 11:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

James 5:16 . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Job 1:21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2591 John 1:8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247John 1:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221John 1:29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220John 3:16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196John 10:11–16 . . . . . . . . . 194John 15:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . 223John 18:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311John 18:16–23 . . . . . . . . . 313John 18:22 . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

1 Kings 19:8 . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Luke 7:47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310Luke 11:41 . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Luke 12:4–5 . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Luke 15:7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203Luke 16:22 . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Luke 18:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . 208Luke 22:43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Luke 23:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Luke 23:34 . . . . . . . . . . . . 205(Luke 23:46) . . . . . . . . . . 274Luke 23:46 . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Mark 6:17–29 . . . . . . . . . . 26Matt 6:26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255Matt 20:1–16 . . . . . . . . . . 259Matt. 3:17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220Matt. 5:13–16 . . . . . . . . . 223Matt. 6:12 . . . . . . . . . 205, 320Matt. 6:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206Matt. 7:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Matt. 7:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254Matt. 7:18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239Matt. 8:22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Matt. 10:28 . . . . . . . . . . . . 304Matt. 10:29 . . . . . . . . . . . 305nMatt. 18:35 . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Matt. 19:17 . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Matt. 22:21 . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Matt. 25:34–36 . . . . . . . . 102

1 Pet. 1:24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1981 Pet. 5:8–9 . . . . . . . . . . . 312Phil. 2:7–8 . . . . . . . . . . . . 196Prov. 14:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . 200Prov. 23:26 . . . . . . . . . . . . 308Ps. 1:3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323Ps. 10:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241Ps. 10:17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321Ps. 27:14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320Ps. 31:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318(Ps. 31:5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Ps. 31:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Ps. 32:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Ps. 34:22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Ps. 39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Ps. 39:3–4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213Ps. 39:4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Ps. 42:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305Ps. 43:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242Ps. 50/51:3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 313Ps. 51 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134Ps. 51:3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310Ps. 51:4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206Ps. 51:17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247Ps. 54:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211Ps. 69:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Ps. 69:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196Ps. 70:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318Ps. 84:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Ps. 84:4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229Ps. 104:3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218Ps. 112:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Ps. 116:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Ps. 119:124–25 . . . . . . . . 194Ps. 120:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Ps. 131:1–2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Ps. 144:4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Rev. 14:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238Rev. 20: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Rom. 7:24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227Rom. 11:33–34 . . . . . . . . 195Rom. 12:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

2 Tim. 2:5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223Titus 1:16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314Tob. 4:11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Wisd. 1:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . 239


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