Global Catholicism in Seventeenth-Century Prague

This article explores the Counter-Reformation medievalization of Polish-Lithuanian St. Kazimierz Jagiellończyk (1458-84)-whose canonization was only finalized in the seventeenth century-as a case study taking up questions of the reception of cults of medieval saints in post-medieval societies, or in this case the retroactive refashioning into a venerable medieval saint. The article investigates these questions across a transcultural Italo-Baltic context through the activities of principal agents of the saint's re-fashioning as a venerable saint during the late seventeenth century: the Pacowie from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Medici from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, during a watershed period of Tuscan-Lithuanian bidirectional interest. During this period, the two dynasties were entangled not only by means of the shared division of Jagiellończyk's bodily remains through translatio-the ritual relocation of relics of saints and holy persons-but also self-representational strategies that furthered their religio-political agendas and retroactively constructed their houses' venerable medieval roots back through antiquity. Drawing on distinct genres of textual, visual, and material sources, the article analyzes the Tuscan-Lithuanian refashioning of Kazimierz against a series of precious reliquaries made to translate holy remains between Vilnius and Florence, to offer a contribution to the entangled histories of sanctity, art and material culture, and conceptual geography within the transtemporal and transcultural neocolonial context interconnecting the Middle Ages, Age of Reformations, and the Counter-Reformation between Italy and Baltic Europe.

The paper is focused on cooperation between papal collectors and Italian merchants in thirteenth-century Central Europe. Money collected there were sent to Rome via Venice. The author therefore turns attention to the remarkable timing of King Ottokar´s reforms of weights, measures and coins with legal and administrative reforms in Venice in the 1260s and 1270s, which it is argued was as an important precondition for the development of contacts with Italy. He shows how the concentration of papal collections at the court of Bruno of Schauenburg, Bishop of Olomouc, in the early 1260s stimulated long-distance trade in this Moravian city, as is evident from archaeological finds of Venetian grossi and glass. He deals with the size of collectoria and with financial amounts appointed for collectors. His aim is likewise to bring into focus connections between the 1299 conflict among merchants in Florence and the arrival of some of them to Central Europe.

The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice Vol. 10, Prague: FILOSOFIA, 2015, ISBN 978-80-7007-446-6

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 license. Church History and Religious Culture 102 (2022) 222-249 Church History and Religious Culture brill.com/chrc This article centres on the emblem book Jesus en de Ziel, Een Geestelycke Spiegel voor ’t Gemoed, first published in Amsterdam in 1678, with texts and images composed by Jan Luyken. From the time of its first publication, the book was part of the literary devotional life of the Dutch Republic, undergoing numerous editions and reprints, at least until the final decades of the eighteenth century. Using the information provided by Book Sales Catalogues, the article explores different modes in which Jesus en de Ziel was consumed, paying attention to the material conditions under which the object was provided and acquired by the consumer. The emblem book, as a religious object, was constantly reconfigured and mobilized by their manufacturers, their providers, and by the consumers themselves. I argue that these patterns of consumption, elucidated by the catalogues, can make a fundamental contribution for historical and cultural research on religious practices.

Early Modern Low Countries

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2012

This paper interprets late medieval religious culture by considering lay expectations of and attitudes towards the clergy. The analysis is prompted by and framed around a convent controversy, which was extensively documented in the course of an ecclesiastical trial. Contemporary ‘convent reform’ is not conceived as an ecclesiastical event, but rather as a symptom of the changing relationship between town and convent. The description of religious provision in the town shows that there was a strong lay demand for the clergy and the rituals performed by them, and that parishioners were ready to invest financially in maintaining local priests, even if it involved considerable additional expenses. The conflict between town and convent can therefore be considered as a result of a liturgical deficit in the spiritual market of the town. The parishioners’ behaviour is interpreted as a symptom of the eucharistic and penitential devotional culture of the time, which was regulated in practice by the principle of intercession and the institution of good works. The paper argues that the divergent strands of late medieval religious culture generated a consumption ’of the sacred. The mendicant friars had a special role in the late medieval religious market as they provided opportunities for religious experiences which differed in kind from parish observances.

Annales UMCS sec. F, 2019

Jakub of Sienno was one of the most interesting and significant people of Polish Church in the late Middle Ages. Very well educated, he was considered to be an art lover and bibliophile and like his cousin Zbigniew Oleśnicki, he was involved in several foundations and donations for the Church and Kraków University. The main aim of the paper was to discuss Jakub's foundation and donation activity and an attempt to give an answer to the question about the reasons why he engaged in such a wide foundation activity. The author focused on those elements that distinguish his attitude to widely understood art from the attitude of other people of his time. Written sources (letters, bills, chapter's books and biographies) provide numerous information about liturgical vessels, vestments and other precious objects or books that Jakub of Sienno acquired and sometimes brought from his journeys.

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2011

This paper interprets late medieval religious culture by considering lay expectations of and attitudes towards the clergy. The analysis is prompted by and framed around a convent controversy, which was extensively documented in the course of an ecclesiastical trial. Contemporary ‘convent reform’ is not conceived as an ecclesiastical event, but rather as a symptom of the changing relationship between town and convent. The description of religious provision in the town shows that there was a strong lay demand for the clergy and the rituals performed by them, and that parishioners were ready to invest financially in maintaining local priests, even if it involved considerable additional expenses. The conflict between town and convent can therefore be considered as a result of a liturgical deficit in the spiritual market of the town. The parishioners' behaviour is interpreted as a symptom of the eucharistic and penitential devotional culture of the time, which was regulated in practi...