2019 | 1

Browsing 2019 | 1 by Author "von Wyss-Giacosa, Paola"

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  • Article
    Between Erudition and Faith: Jean-Jacques Chifflet’s Tract on the Shroud of Besançon (1624)
    von Wyss-Giacosa, Paola (2019) , S. 47-68
    The shroud of Besançon, a large cloth considered being a precious relic, an “imprint” left by Christ’s body on his burial linen, knew a period of intense veneration and public debate from the early 16th century to the end of the 18th century. With the publication of De linteis sepulchralibus Christi servatoris crisis historica (Antwerp, 1624), a treatise that was as erudite as it was intellectually and conceptually biased, the Bisontine author Jean-Jacques Chifflet significantly contributed to his local shroud’s perception and reception. A noteworthy selection of visual material, among it the very first reproduction of the shroud of Besançon in a print medium, was an important part of the book’s argument. The present article offers a close reading of parts of Chifflet’s treatise, with a particular attention given to the author’s targeted use of engravings as illustrationes (images meant to, quite literally, illuminate the text, its meaning and intention), thus looking at this representation of a local relic as a part and as a product of a cultural practice and of shared notions.
  • Article
    Understanding Jesus in the Early Modern Period and Beyond. Editorial
    Facchini, Cristiana; von Wyss-Giacosa, Paola (2019) , S. 7-12
    The exceptional and yet very human life of Jesus has been represented in a vast breadth of forms, from the visual to the textual, in a kind of intertextual relationship that is highly complex, in that it outreaches an impressive amount of different cultures both in terms of chronological depth and geographical reach. In order to properly appreciate the richness of early modern scholarship on these topics, a more inclusive approach might be of use, one that is capable of grasping and conveying how scholars belonging to different communities of faiths performed their historical quest on such charged theological themes. Jewish, Catholic, and different Protestant scholars left interesting traces of their understanding of the historical context where Jesus lived. Their work often reached vast clandestine circulation to become part of a shared library of religious reformers and enlighteners, not to mention fervid critics of Christianity. The collection of articles presented here combines various methodological lines of inquiry. At the same time, it brings together, albeit very selectively, the early modern and the modern period, including the second half of the twentieth century; we believe that this selection of case studies offers a composite view on different, and often contrasting practices of historiographical writing, which may belong to different religious, anti-religious, and neutral traditions that span across a few centuries
  • Journal Issue