Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Religion, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

My doctoral dissertation examines the relationship between the sacred and literature, explores how the Bible has influenced the literary production of Antonia Pozzi, Cristina Campo, and Margherita Guidacci, and reveals that each author had a distinctive way of dealing with the Sacred Book. In the first chapter I retrace the studies on the topic of Bible and Literature, and I show how literary critics only recently have begun to work intensively on them (in the past the "historical school" founded by De Sanctis and followed by Croce devoted few studies to the subject of the sacred and even so, only to those periods where the influence of the Scriptures was clear and indeed obvious, such as the Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation). In the same chapter I explain my reason for deciding to study Pozzi, Campo, and Guidacci. These three authors share analogous biographical experiences and episodes that deeply influenced their lives (the presence of an authoritarian father, family losses, and sad love experiences). Moreover, their studies (specifically, European writers and philosophers) were of the same nature. I demonstrate that, although contemporary Italian literature is heterogeneous and varied, these three women astonishingly shared the same background that explains their concentration on the sacred. In the following chapter I consider the writers individually, in order to examine the path that led them to a dialogue with the religious and the sacred. In Pozzi, the sacred is something that lies beyond human understanding and, for all her attempts to reach it, she always fails due to her incapacity to fully free helself from human passions. In Campo and in Guidacci on the other hand, the sacred search is always consistent and, notwithstanding some missteps and second thoughts, they are able to basically fulfill their task. After the study of their ideas, in the last chapter I move to the poetical language used by these writers. It has been very interesting to see what is essentially the same vocabulary appearing again and again in our poets. As it is known, the biblical language is based on symbols that evoke a union between the contingent and the Absolute. Pozzi, Campo, and Guidacci were not only able to interpret the biblical symbology but they also used some of those terms in their poems; specifically I focused my attention on the recurrence of five words-symbols: assenza, deserto, nulla, fiore, luce (absence, desert, emptiness, flower, light). It is really significant that the writers in question use the same biblical symbols as poetical words: it is a vocabulary that ties together literary and religious experience. Their connection is also strengthened by the reference and the predilection for same specific books of the Bible, such as Job and The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet for Pozzi, and the Gospels, Psalms, and The Song of Songs for Campo and Guidacci. In my analysis I show that already in the desert we can see the first signs of Pozzi's weakness: In this solitary place, where the soul must deal with herself to reach the emptying of earthly passions, Pozzi got lost and fell into the error of looking backwards, to the beloved she had left. On the other hand, Campo and Guidacci were able to reach the spiritual light, so their journey through biblical symbolism can be finally considered complete. In other words, Pozzi's path towards the Scripture is fulfilled piecemeal and never ends in it, while in Campo and Guidacci the Scripture becomes an integral part of their lives, so they are constantly enlightened by the Word of God, while Pozzi misses this Light and sinks into the darkness of death. Finally, considering the fact that they have been relatively isolated from the literary world until recently, I do not believe they were rejected by a misogynist society, but rather by the fact that those years were demanding an active social participation. The women treated here never made that choice, instead they dedicated themselves to the search for the sacred, an issue not "present" in the years in which they lived. So I think that it was this combination of poetic themes and lifestyle choices that excluded them. In conclusion my work, which could have considered many other poets, confirms the point of view from which I started: the theme of the sacred in the twentieth century literature does not seem to present itself as a school or current, but is characterized by its inevitable uniqueness so that each poetic experience is described for its extraordinary authenticity and uniqueness. If anything, we can talk about similarities and links between these poets based on common readings that provide the basis on which to develop their own religious experiences.

La presente ricerca fornisce l’edizione critica delle oltre quattrocento epistole inviate dalla contessa Margherita Trivulzio al figlio, il cardinal Federico Borromeo, nel corso del quindicennio 1586-1601. Lo studio di tale nucleo di missive permette non solo di gettare nuova luce sulla figura del Borromeo, approfondendo la trama delle sue relazioni familiari, ma consente soprattutto la messa a fuoco di un personaggio finora rimasto in ombra eppure meritevole di essere scoperto, quello della nobile Trivulzio. A partire dallo studio del materiale epistolografico esaminato, la presente indagine si propone infatti di ricostruire il profilo biografico, il retroterra religioso e il livello culturale della contessa – quest’ultimo indagato anche sul piano dell’analisi linguistica – offrendo al tempo stesso anche un possibile itinerario di lettura delle numerose lettere destinate al celebre fondatore della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano. / This research provides the critical edition of over four hundred letters sent by the countess Margherita Trivulzio to her son, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, between 1586-1601. The study of this nucleus of letters allows one not only to shed new light on the figure of Borromeo, analysing his family relationships, but allows a particular focus on a personality, who has so far remained little known and yet worthy of being discovered: that of the noble Trivulzio. Starting from the study of the examined epistles, the following analysis aims to reconstruct the biographical profile, the religious background and the cultural importance of the countess – the latter being investigated as well in terms of linguistic analysis – while at the same time it offers a possible itinerary of reading the numerous letters addressed to the famous founder of the Ambrosian Library of Milan.

The survival and success of religious reform groups in the late medieval period was often due to the efforts of an ecclesiastical patron, a powerful and often wealthy individual who exerted their influence on behalf of the group or their leaders and spokesmen. This thesis uses the wealth of documentation available on the Spiritual Franciscans to explore the origin, development and wider effect of the relationships between the most powerful ecclesiastical patrons of the reformers and their clients, spokesmen for the Italian Spirituals at the papal court who were taken into the patrons’ households for years or even decades. During that time, the political fortunes of the different groups of Spiritual Franciscans fluctuated dramatically: in only a handful of years they went from hopeful expectation at the Council of Vienne c. 1311 to heresy trials, imprisoned spokesmen and friars burned at the stake c.1317-1318. Using testaments from the patrons’ families and the patrons themselves, the thesis explores the possible reasons for the patrons’ initial attraction to their Spiritual Franciscan clients. Letters, chronicles and exegetical texts written by the clients during and after their time in the patrons’ households are examined along with papal registers and other narrative and epistolary sources to develop models of the nature and progression of the patronage relationship, and how it survived in the face of periods of intense disapproval and harassment from the papacy, other prelates and some members of the Franciscan hierarchy. After establishing a framework for the progression of the patronage relationship, evidence of art patronage and other religious and patronage interests that the patrons and clients shared is used to develop a deeper understanding of how the patrons’ choice to involve themselves with the Spiritual Franciscans positively or negatively affected others in their orbit, especially their other clients.