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Literary Devotions: Italy, c. 1200–1550

Trinity College, º£½ÇÉçÇø, 19–20 September 2025

Generously supported by the º£½ÇÉçÇø Intesa Sanpaolo Fund, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, and the Society for Italian Studies.

The conference will be livestreamed via Zoom; to register, please click . In-person participation will be limited to speakers and official discussants.

For any questions, please email Helena Phillips-Robins (hcp34@cam.ac.uk) or Lachlan Hughes (ldbh2@cam.ac.uk).

Friday 19 September

11:20–11:30

OPENING REMARKS

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11:30–13:15

PANEL 1: LIVES

Chair: Helena Phillips-Robins

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Federico Rossi (Università della Svizzera Italiana)

Within the Walls of the Text: The Vita of Umiliana de’ Cerchi and Its Reception Context

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Natale Vacalebre (University of Alcalá)

‘Per mia divotione et diporto’: Contarina Gabrielli Ubaldini’s Vita di San Francesco (1519) and the Female Voice in Early Modern Hagiography

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Matteo Largaiolli (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)

Devotional Motifs and Intermediality in a Hagiographic Poem on Catherine of Siena by Giovanni Pollio Lappoli (1505)

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Jessica Maratsos (º£½ÇÉçÇø)

Reframing Saint Catherine of Siena: Textual Authority and the Gendered Relic

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14:15–16:00

PANEL 2: CODIFYING DEVOTION

Chair: Virginia Cox

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Carlotta Moro (University of Exeter)

‘Presi ardita la penna, alta regina’: Camilla Bonfiglio’s Libro di lodi delle donne e della crudeltà degli uomini Between Prayer and Polemic

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George Corbett (University of St Andrews)

Dante and Theology

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Erminia Ardissino (University of Turin)

Prayer: Theories and Texts in Florence in the Late 15th Century

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Gabriele Bucchi (University of Basel)

Early Modern Literary Confessions: Staging Piety and Constructing Self-Repentance

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16:30–17:45

PANEL 3: IMAGINED DEVOTIONS

Chair: Jessica Maratsos

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Becky Reilly (º£½ÇÉçÇø)

Marian Identification between the Erotic and the Maternal: The Embrace of Christ in the Tomb in Angela of Foligno’s Memoriale

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Giuseppe Ledda (University of Bologna)

Literary, Devotional, and Theological Ineffability in Jacopone da Todi’s Laudarium

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Lachlan Hughes (º£½ÇÉçÇø)

Devotional Masochism in Jacopone

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Saturday 20 September

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9:15–11:00

PANEL 4: Magdalena degna da laudare: Devotional and Contemplative Themes in the Lauda Repertory for Mary Magdalene (ERC Project ‘LAUDARE’)

Chair: Lachlan Hughes

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Matteo Leonardi (University of Trento)

The Magdalene of the Confraternities: Reinterpretations of a Sinful Saint in the Lauda Repertoire

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Lucia Marchi (University of Trento)

The Role of Music in Mary Magdalene’s Devotion

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Cristina Ghirardini (University of Trento)

Mary Magdalene in Italian Traditional Music

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Giacomo Pirani (University of Trento)

Ruminating on Lauda: Devotional Songs in the Cells of the Italian Monastic Reform

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11:30–12:45

PANEL 5: CONTEXTS AND COMPILATIONS

Chair: George Corbett

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Dávid Falvay (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)

The Meditationes Vitae Christi and Jacopone da Todi

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Noemi Pigini (CNR Institute Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, Florence)

Repurposing Monastic Works as Devotional Devices: Lay Translation Practices in Siena (14th–15th Century)

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Jonathan Schiesaro (University of Bern)

‘In Nomine Domini’: Tracing Devotional Practices in Florentine Family Books

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14:00–15:45

PANEL 6: USE AND RE-USE

Chair: Anna Pegoretti

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Nicola De Nisco (University of Siena)

Scaling Devotion: Tracing the Vernacular Journey of the Gradi di San Girolamo

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Valentina Rovere (Palacký University Olomouc)

Echoes from the Cloister: The Devotional Reception of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De montibus

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Ditta Szemere (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)

Choices and Possibilities: The Collection and Use of Devotional Literature in Late Medieval Umbrian Poor Clare Communities

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Helena Phillips-Robins (º£½ÇÉçÇø)

‘Until…you kiss me with the happiest kiss of your mouth’: The Letters of Clare of Assisi and the Performance of LiturgyÌý

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Discussants: Virginia Cox (º£½ÇÉçÇø), Caitlín Kane (UCL), Catherine Keen (UCL), Anna Pegoretti (º£½ÇÉçÇø)

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Image details:ÌýFlorence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 18, fol. 130v (detail), licensed under CC BY-NC (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).