Ricerc@Sapienza

The Papal Curia was the gravitational centre of power and culture of the Roman Catholic Church throughout many centuries. This project aims to study the hegemony carried out by the papacy, which shaped both religious propaganda and cultural communication among humanists, artists and politicians who were part of, or had exchange with the Papal Court in a period extending from the pontificate of Benedict XII (1334) until the end of that of Paul III (1549). Such an approach will help to reconstruct the dynamics among the international milieu of intellectuals, diplomats and officials operating in the Curia. At the same time, the analysis will show how the theological debate changed from Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern, influenced by, and at the same time influencing, European Renaissance Humanism. From the tense dispute concerning the papal seat during the so-called Avignon Captivity to the elaboration of the papal monarchy during Renaissance papacies, the theological and political debate held in the Curia deeply affected mentality and communication. Far from being isolated, the Curia was indeed a very complex environment which elaborated wide-ranging and long-lasting theological-political devices.
Within the frame of a growing scholarship devoted to the Curia in the period taken into consideration, this interdisciplinary project will analyse the role of theology in cultural communication through a selection of case studies committed to a team of specialists of history, history of Christianity, history of art and literature, coordinated by the recipient of the "assegno di ricerca". All the single researches, based on both published and unpublished sources, will be discussed in public webinars and seminars. The final outcome of the research will be a multidisciplinary database that will be used as a way of exchanging data among the participants during the research and finally released online as a way of disseminating the results of the project.