From Words to Deeds

The Effectiveness of Preaching in the Late Middle Ages

Edited by Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli

Book cover: From Words to Deeds

Extent: 262, 262 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Sermo

Series volume number: 12

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(September 2014)

ISBN: 9782503549255

Price: $113.00

In stock

The volume investigates both the tools employed by preachers and the pragmatic aims and outcomes of their sermons. It does this by exploring the various oratorical and gesticular techniques employed by preachers, as well as their methods of preparing themselves to deliver their message and preparing their audiences to receive it. Fur


Preaching is a method of exhorting the practice of virtues and the performance of one’s duties. If people are not moved to act, preachers become obsolete. Because of this, preachers in the Middle Ages understood the importance of ensuring that their words were heeded and disseminated. The focus of this volume is the relationship, whether direct or indirect, between what was preached and what was achieved. The articles in this collection present a range of studies, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century and, while focused on Italy, also give a broad European perspective. The volume investigates both the tools employed by preachers and the pragmatic aims and outcomes of their sermons. It does this by exploring the various oratorical and gesticular techniques employed by preachers, as well as their methods of preparing themselves to deliver their message and preparing their audiences to receive it. Furthermore, the volume considers both hypothetical and concrete relationships between preachers’ words and civic policies and the behaviours of groups or individual citizens, as well as the question of how and when words were translated into actions.

I. Efficacious Words 1. Letizia Pellegrini, Faire en disant. Aspects performatifs de la predication a l'automne du Moyen Age 2. Shunji Oguro, From Ears to Hand, from Hand to Heart; Writing and Internalising Preaching in Fifteenth-Century Florence 3. Pietro Delcorno, 'We Have Made It for Learning'. The Fifteenth-Century Florentine Religious Play Lazero ricco e Lazero povero as a Sermon in the Form of Theatre 4. Elisa Tosi Brandi, The Challenges of Chiara of Rimini: from Deeds to Words II. Effects on Society 5. Jussi Hanska, Mendicant Preachers as Disseminators of Anti-Jewish Literary Topoi: the Case of Luca da Bitonto 6. Alberto Cadili, Effects of Synodal Preaching at the Councils of Constance, Pavia-Siena and Basel 7. Marina Montesano, Preaching, Magic and Witchcraft: a Feedback Effect? 8. Yoko Kimura, Preaching Peace in Fifteenth-Century Italian Cities: Bernardino da Feltre III. Words and Deeds: Franciscan Exemplars 9. Bert Roest, Franciscan Preaching in Germany and the Low Countries c. 1450-1550 10. Ippolita Checcoli, Biographies of the Franciscan Observance: Texts Narrating the Deeds 11. Mara Ioriatti, When Words Alone Are Not Enough: A Franciscan Preacher Facing a Reluctant Audience in Fifteenth-Century Italy 12. Fabio Giunta, Francesco Panigarola and "i frutti delle prediche"

  • Edited by Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli