Examines the complex relationships between religion, society and charity in private and public life in Florence - Development of confraternities.

"The eleven articles by leading historians included in this collection engage with a variety of topics and microhistories that touch on some of the most important aspects of pre-modern Italian life (1400-1700): charity, finance, inheritance, sociability, dowries and family strategies, public performance, and illness and its cures. The book is divided into four sections: charity and economy, culture and society, family and inheritance, and medicine and health. All of the articles are firmly grounded in original archival research while, at the same time, engaging with the rich and complex array of secondary scholarship in the area."--

"The eleven articles by leading historians included in this collection engage with a variety of topics and microhistories that touch on some of the most important aspects of pre-modern Italian life (1400-1700): charity, finance, inheritance, sociability, dowries and family strategies, public performance, and illness and its cures. The book is divided into four sections: charity and economy, culture and society, family and inheritance, and medicine and health. All of the articles are firmly grounded in original archival research while, at the same time, engaging with the rich and complex array of secondary scholarship in the area."--.

An exploration of the relations between medical and religious discourse and practice in medieval culture, focussing on how they are affected by gender.

In early modern times, religious affiliation was often communicated through bodily practices. Despite various attempts at definition, these practices remained extremely fluid and lent themselves to individual appropriation and to evasion of church and state control. Because bodily practices prompted much debate, they serve as a useful starting point for examining denominational divisions, allowing scholars to explore the actions of smaller and more radical divergent groups. The focus on bodies and conflicts over bodily practices are the starting point for the contributors to this volume who depart from established national and denominational historiographies to probe the often-ambiguous phenomena occurring at the interstices of confessional boundaries. In this way, the authors examine a variety of religious living conditions, socio-cultural groups, and spiritual networks of early modern Europe and the Americas. The cases gathered here skillfully demonstrate the diverse ways in which regional and local differences affected the interpretation of bodily signs. This book will appeal to scholars and students of early modern Europe and the Americas, as well as those interested in religious and gender history, and the history of dissent.

This collection of essays by a team of international scholars addresses the topic of Charity through the lenses of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The contributors look for common paradigms in the ways the three faiths address the needs of the poor and the needy in their respective societies, and reflect on the interrelatedness of such practices among the three religions. They ask how the three traditions deal with the distribution of wealth, in the recognition that not all members of a given society have equal access to it, and in the relationship of charity to the inheritance systems and family structures. They reveal systemic patterns that are similar--norms, virtue, theological validations, exclusionary rules, private responsibility to society--issues that have implications for intercultural and interfaith understanding. Conversely, the essays inquire how the three faiths differ in their understanding of poverty, wealth, and justifications for charity.