This seminar will discuss the results of a study of an unpublished Italian notarial source, known as the ‘Miracles of Fabriano’. It contains insights into the religious sentiments and emotional responses of worshippers who were granted miracles from St Rose of Viterbo in the period between 1738 and 1740.
Notarial sources are generally regarded as very strict and purely administrative documents, but this case includes depositions in which worshippers recall and explain the emotions of their miraculous experiences (desperation, hope, compassion, etc.). In earlier times, depositions were given in the vernacular and the notary translated them into Latin, the language used for official and legal acts. In the eighteenth century, depositions were registered in Italian, which had become the accepted language for administrative documents. For this reason, the text of depositions became more genuine and adhered more closely to the emotional responses of devotees. Apart from the emotional moods of people who were granted miracles by St Rose of Viterbo, it has also been possible to analyse the reactions of a little ‘emotional community’ that lived in Fabriano (family, the neighborhood, doctors, priests, the collector of relics in the city, etc.), along with the records of relics and devotional objects involved in the healing process (St Rose’s water, St Rose’s oil lamp, the cord of St Rose’s dress, etc.). The seminar will also consider this evidence. This seminar is supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies and Italian Studies within the School of Humanities at The University of Western Australia. This is a free event, but please RSVP to [email protected]
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