Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800) ed. by David D'Andrea and Salvatore Marino (review)

Reviewed by: Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800) ed. by David D'Andrea and Salvatore Marino Diane Cole Ahl Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800). Edited by David D'Andrea and Salvatore Marino. (Toronto: Victoria University Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2022. Pp. 579, 101 ill. $59.95 CAD. ISBN 978-0-772-72220-1.) Since the publication nearly a century ago of Gennaro Maria Monti's Le Confraternite Medievali dell'Alta e Media Italia (1927), historians have been recovering the role of Italian confraternities in shaping sacred and social identities. From the medieval period through the early modern era, these lay religious brotherhoods performed ritual, penitential, and philanthropic acts to ensure public welfare and beseech salvation. They commissioned architecture and art, founding and decorating hospitals, orphanages, chapels, oratories, and churches. Although confraternity studies are now well established, their focus, especially among Anglophone scholars, remains, as in Monti's day, major cities in northern and central Italy. The omission [End Page 795] of the Mezzogiorno––the vast territories encompassing the former Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia––can be explained by the region's tumultuous past, the destruction of documentary evidence, and, equally troubling, deeply-rooted prejudice. Yet as this volume compellingly demonstrates, the history of southern Italian confraternities demands integration in the field. Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800) is a milestone in scholarship. The volume––the first on this subject in English––reconstructs the rich history of sodalities in the region's major cities and small towns across seven centuries. It elucidates the innovative approaches that the authors employed, given the loss of documents and monuments. The co-editors' introduction presents a historiography that explains the exclusion of the south from most studies. It establishes the organizational principles, themes, and objectives to which all essays conform. The glossary by Marco Piana defines specialized terms and their etymology. Fifteen essays, eleven fluently translated by Piana, are ordered in three sections. They consider Naples (1–4), the southern Italian mainland (5–12), and the southern Italian islands (13–15). Each includes an introduction with clearly stated objectives, lucid subheadings, and a conclusion with recommendations for future research. Discursive footnotes are complemented by a list of archival and secondary sources. Latin and Italian texts and inscriptions are translated into English. Illustrations, many in color, and in some cases, maps, ground plans, charts, and statistical tables follow each essay. Six of the contributions are co-authored, serving as models of collaboration. The uniformly high quality and originality of the essays must be underscored. The authors identify the characteristics of each site and reconstruct historical context through ingenious archival research. Essays delineate the devotional practices, charitable activities, and networks of diverse sodalities as well as their interactions with civic authorities and religious orders. Among the distinguished discussions, the quantitative analysis by Valeria Cocozza, who identifies 868 confraternities in 383 towns in Abruzzo and Molise during the first half of the seventeenth century, is especially impressive. Co-editor Salvatore Marino's comparative study of sodalities in Abruzzo presents a micro-history of the Misericordia in Penne, noting "how, from a modest collection of documents, one can reconstruct the life and the history of a medieval confraternity" (250). The book's title foregrounds confraternal art, which is considered from multiple perspectives. In particular, the two art historians offer detailed contextual, iconographic, and stylistic analyses. Stefano D'Ovidio introduces the staurite (charitable associations dedicated to the Cross) of medieval Naples that evolved into confraternities and explicates the distinctive images that shaped the city's lay spirituality. Luciana Mocciola reveals the history of the Neapolitan confraternity of Santa Marta and its famous illuminated codex, whose female patron she identifies. As historians Salvatore Bottari and Alessandro Abate note, sodalities in Messina patronized renowned artists, including Antonello da Messina, Antonello Gagini, and Polidoro da Caravaggio. By interweaving religious, political, and art histories, [End Page 796] this exemplary volume demonstrates the richness of southern Italian sacred and visual culture and makes a major contribution to confraternity studies. Diane Cole Ahl Lafayette College (emerita) Copyright © 2023 The Catholic University of America Press

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