Habilitation - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München.

This thesis asks how the curatorial framing of medieval objects - the processes of selection, classification, display and interpretation - affect how medieval objects are made legible within the museum. It investigates how different collectors and curators have deployed medieval objects over a period of two hundred and fifty years of museological practice. Throughout this history, medieval objects have been appropriated within a range of museological narratives that have positioned them variously as objects of curiosity, utility, scientific analysis, nationalistic interest and as sites of scholarly and popular attention. My purpose is to inquire how the epistemological re-positioning of objects is articulated through their presentation within the framework of the collection, museum or temporary exhibition and to question how the mechanics of display facilitate particular readings of medieval objects. I then consider how certain curatorial approaches may produce unintended effects that render the medieval object illegible or problematic in unexpected ways. I also acknowledge that unforeseen exhibitionary outcomes may not be solely due to the effects of curatorial intervention but may be wrought by the agency of objects themselves. This thesis therefore examines medieval objects as active participants that play a crucial role in influencing the communication of curatorial objectives and in affecting how they may be apprehended through exhibitionary practice. The thesis examines sixteen chronologically presented case studies, beginning in the mid eighteenth century and concluding in the early twenty-first century, that represent important or influential episodes in the history of the display of medieval art. It traces a selective history of the various ways medieval objects have been culturally positioned at particular points in time to reveal how curatorial techniques have worked to reinforce or undermine the perception of medieval objects as carriers of specific meanings. Through the examination of historical approaches to the display of medieval objects I reveal how familiar tropes of display, such as the use of specific lighting techniques and stained glass have characterized the museological staging of medieval objects and how these have endured into the twenty-first century. Drawing on performance theory, material culture theory and sensory theory I identify how the biographical histories, material characteristics and sensory properties of medieval objects have been re-activated or suppressed by curators to encourage audiences to engage with them in specific ways. This theoretical approach reveals a previously unacknowledged sensory cultural history of engagement with the medieval object and highlights how historical approaches that have privileged embodied engagement with objects continue to inform contemporary museological practice. I also draw on Actor-Network theory to illuminate how medieval objects may be understood as active agents within the chain of correspondences that links people, objects and exhibitions at particular points throughout this history. In this way I delineate an exhibitionary landscape through which we can understand medieval objects as multi-authored and polysemic entities but principally as the products of exhibitionary practice.

Le 22 juin 1845, une curieuse procession religieuse se met en branle dans les rues de Montréal. Une « foule immense » est présente pour accompagner à travers la ville le corps d’un homme exhumé des catacombes romaines. Transportés à Montréal, ses ossements étaient contenus dans une figure en cire représentant un soldat romain. Présumé mort pour sa foi, ce martyr fut porté à bout de bras au milieu d’encens et de cantiques, à travers les rues. Étonnamment, cette procession n’est pas un cas isolé. Entre 1830 et 1930, les restes de dizaines de présumés martyrs chrétiens extraits des catacombes romaines sont envoyés au Canada. À Halifax, Rimouski, Joliette, Toronto et Windsor, ils attirent les fidèles et les curieux. Adoptés comme de puissants intercesseurs, ces saints étrangers façonneront les croyances, les représentations et l’identité de plusieurs générations de catholiques. Autour de leurs reliques se développera tout un univers dévotionnel aux relations complexes et nombreuses avec toutes les sphères de la société. Ces reliques constituent une véritable fenêtre sur la société canadienne du XIXe siècle. Cette thèse contribue de manière importante à l’historiographie en explorant pour la première fois en profondeur le champ des dévotions ultramontaines au Canada. Elle étudie le déploiement du culte des martyrs romains et de leurs reliques dans l’Église canadienne et reconstitue l’essor de cette dévotion dans une perspective d’histoire culturelle. Au moyen de documents d’archives provenant des deux côtés de l’Atlantique, elle se questionne sur les manières par lesquelles les Canadiens découvrent, recherchent et s’approprient cette dévotion étrangère. En effet, l’engouement pour les reliques romaines est avant tout un phénomène transnational qui s’inscrit dans les bouleversements que connaît l’Église catholique au XIXe siècle, poussés notamment par le mouvement ultramontain. Cette thèse veut donc replacer la présence des reliques catacombaires au Canada dans son contexte global tout en se penchant sur les particularités canadiennes. Elle s’appuie sur une documentation importante et largement inédite provenant de plus d’une trentaine de centres d’archives. Grâce à ces documents, elle se penche sur les différentes facettes que prendra cette dévotion, que ce soit en ville ou à la campagne, chez les anglophones ou les francophones, ou dans des milieux à majorité catholiques ou protestants. Le premier chapitre révèle la fascination pour la Rome chrétienne chez les Canadiens du XIXe siècle et l’importance que revêtent les catacombes et leurs martyrs dans l’imaginaire des fidèles catholiques. Le second chapitre identifie quant à lui les nombreux réseaux unissant l’Église canadienne à Rome, et plus largement à l’Europe, qui ouvraient la porte à l’obtention et à l’expédition de reliques au Canada. Il permet d’inscrire cette dévotion dans un cadre plus large en la liant aux autres traces de cette piété ailleurs dans le monde. Il porte une attention particulière à la circulation des biens entre la péninsule italienne et l’Amérique du Nord en étudiant les corridors commerciaux par lesquels circulent les marchandises. Les trois chapitres suivants sont consacrés à la présentation, la réception et l’adoption des reliques catacombaires au Canada. Ils examinent le processus de fabrication des corps en cire dans lesquels sont insérés les reliques et la symbolique que revêtent ces gisants-reliquaires, puis considèrent la cérémonie religieuse marquant l’arrivée d’un nouveau martyr. Finalement, cette thèse explore les traces témoignant de la piété des fidèles : les patronages, les prières, les indulgences et les récits de miracles. Elle examine l’attachement, mais aussi l’opposition et les tensions provoquées par les reliques romaines au sein de la société. Cette recherche permet de démontrer l’influence des dévotions étrangères sur la vie spirituelle des Canadiens et les nombreux liens unissant la société canadienne à l’Europe. Elle témoigne également de changements importants dans l’univers dévotionnel du XIXe siècle. Mais elle met surtout en lumière les transformations profondes de la culture et des mentalités, particulièrement des croyances, des sentiments et de l’idée de la mort. Cette étude contribue à mieux comprendre le passé religieux de plusieurs générations de Canadiens en étudiant une dévotion aujourd’hui complètement oubliée. / On 22 June 1845, a curious religious procession took place in the streets of Montreal. A “huge crowd” gathered to accompany through the city the body of a man exhumed from the Roman catacombs. His bones had been shipped to Montreal and placed in a wax figure representing a Roman soldier. Presumed to have died for his faith, this martyr was carried through the streets at arm’s length amid incense and hymns. Surprisingly, this procession was not an isolated one. From 1830 to 1930, the remains of dozens of presumed Christian martyrs extracted from the Roman catacombs were sent to Canada. In Halifax, Rimouski, Joliette, Toronto, and Windsor, they attracted the faithful and the curious. Adopted as powerful intercessors, these foreign saints would shape the beliefs, representations, and identity of generations of Catholics. Around their relics, a whole devotional universe would develop and maintain various and complex relations with society. These relics provide us with a unique window into nineteenth-century Canadian society. This thesis makes a significant contribution to historiography by exploring for the first time the topic of ultramontane devotions in Canada. It studies the deployment of the cult of Roman martyrs and their relics in the Canadian Church and reconstitutes the development of this devotion from a cultural history perspective. Using archival documents found on both sides of the Atlantic, this thesis examines how Canadians discovered, sought, and adopted this foreign devotion. In reality, this infatuation for Roman relics is primarily a transnational phenomenon that is part of the profound changes that the Catholic Church experienced in the nineteenth century, driven in particular by the Ultramontane movement. Therefore, it seeks to situate the presence of relics from the catacombs in Canada in its global context while considering its Canadian particularities. It rests on a considerable number of novel sources drawn from more than thirty archival centers. With the help of these documents, it examines the different facets that this devotion had, whether in cities or the countryside, among English-speaking or French-speaking communities or in predominantly Catholic or Protestant environments. The first chapter reveals the fascination with Christian Rome among nineteenth-century Canadians and the importance that the catacombs and their martyrs had in the minds of the Catholic faithful. The second chapter identifies the many networks uniting the Canadian Church with Rome, and more broadly with Europe, that allowed the acquisition and shipping of relics to Canada. It replaces this devotion in a larger framework by linking it to other manifestations of this expression of piety elsewhere in the world. It pays particular attention to the exchange of goods between the Italian peninsula and North America by studying the commercial routes that allowed the circulation of relics. The remaining three chapters are devoted to the presentation, the reception, and the adoption of catacomb saints in Canada. They examine the art of molding wax bodies containing relics and the symbolism of these recumbent-reliquaries, before describing the religious ceremony organized to mark the arrival of a new martyr. Finally, this thesis explores the faithful’s various expressions of piety: patronages, prayers, indulgences, and claims of miracles. It examines the attachment but also the opposition and the tensions provoked by Roman relics within society. This research demonstrates the influence that foreign religious devotions held in the spiritual lives of Canadians and the many connections uniting Canadian society with Europe. It also testifies to significant changes in the devotional universe of the nineteenth century. But above all, it highlights the profound transformations of both culture and mentalities and particularly of beliefs, emotions, and the idea of death. This study contributes to a better understanding of the religious past of several generations of Canadians by studying a devotion that has now completely been forgotten.

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