Carapecchia's intervention at the Inquisitor's Palace, 1733-34

The Inquisitor's Palace, sited in the heart of the historical city of Vittoriosa, is one of the very few surviving palaces of its kind which in the early modern period could be found all over Europe and South America. Many simply succumbed to the ravages of time or else were victims of the reactionary power unleashed by the French Revolution. Fortunately, the Maltese Inquisitor's Palace, throughout its five centuries of history, always hosted high-ranking officials representing the main powers on the island, who ensured its survival. The Palace also managed to survive through the ordeal of the Second World War and the threat of modern development, and although much has been changed in its structure by its successive occupants, it is today an architectural gem, representative of the chequered history of the Maltese islands. Yet, until now, our knowledge of the Palace arid its history remained very incomplete, and all one can find is small pieces of information scattered here and there in various sources. The history of the Palace received a boost last year with the publication of three previously unknown plans of the building discovered in Rome.1 Yet much still remains to be done in foreign as well as (as in this case) in local archives, in order to fully appreciate the history and vicissitudes of the Inquisitor's Palace, especially when placed in a wider Maltese and European context.peer-reviewe

A Saint or an impostor? : the case of Francesca Protopsalti during the plague of 1676

Following the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church attempted to limit widespread beliefs on sainthood. Yet, even though by the late seventeenth century ecclesiastical control proved to be largely successful, in a society where the local clergy actively participated and shared traditional beliefs, the reforms ushered in by the Tridentine Council were slow to penetrate. Access to sacred power over natural misfortunes and calamities which saints provided through prayer, pilgrimage and relics were unceasing. This often led local populations into conflict with the central authorities of the Church as they continually proposed new holy people and miraculous events to meet the demand. It was the duty of the Inquisition Tribunal to examine people suspected of questionable sanctity while they were still alive and decide whether it was a true or simulated saintliness. Some of them were accepted as genuine by the Catholic Church, but others were rejected as false. Yet all of these manifestations in some way expressed the meaning and role of sanctity in early modern society. Here we shall attempt to discuss the models of sanctity in early modern Malta with a special emphasis on a local saint as well as the personalisation of the sacred and the function of relics.peer-reviewe

Augustin en Espagne

Ce volume rassemble l'ensemble des conférences prononcées lors du congrès international consacré à l'influence de saint Augustin en Espagne (xvie-xviiie siècle) qui s'est déroulé à l'École normale supérieure de Lyon du 24 au 27 novembre 2010. Il s'inscrit dans le cadre du programme ANR-07- JCJC-0129, dirigé par Marina Mestre Zaragozá et Philippe Rabaté et clôt, après la parution de trois numéros de la revue Criticón (107, 111-112, 118), un cycle de publications sur ce même thème. Les 23 contributions de cet ouvrage portent sur les combats et controverses autour de la réappropriation de l'autorité augustinienne, sur l'importance de l'œuvre de l'évêque d'Hippone dans la volonté, présente chez de nombreux auteurs modernes, d'offrir une pensée rénovée du monde et, enfin, sur l'influence de l'œuvre de saint Augustin dans la constitution d'une esthétique chez des écrivains comme sainte Thérèse d'Avila, Miguel de Cervantès, Lope de Vega ou Calderón de la Barca