medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
An interesting sidelight: Alexander Stille, in his account of the
'defenestration' of Leonard Boyle as Prefect of the Vatican Library
("Library Privileges", The New Yorker, Sept. 28, 1998), frelates:
"But Father Boyle's puckish humor sometimes got the better of him. He
told one licensee that a silver hammer with which the Pope breaks the
seal on a door at St. Peter's each jubilee year was actually used to tap
an ailing Pope's body to tell whether he was dead or alive. The
licensee, who was Jewish, went around repeating the story until [Elaine]
Peconi [the California businesswoman who founded Cortile del Bevedere,
the company producing gift shop items which got Boyle into such trouble]
told him that Father Boyle had been joking."
Has the joke entered the mainstream of history? or was he in fact not
joking at all?
Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, Art History, Rutgers University
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