medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear learned ones,
I was reading Samuel Y. Edgerton's Pictures and Punishment: Art and Criminal
Prosecution during the Florentine Renaissance (Cornell U.P., 1985), this afternoon,
when I came across a peculiar account of the famous run-in between Pope Pius II
and Sigismondo Malatesta in 1462. Apparently Pius ordered the Roman sculptor
Paolo di Mariano Taccone to make images of Malatesta, quite accurately depicting
his features and dress, one of which was then publicly burnt on the steps of St
Peter's Basilica, after which the pope issued a bull "wherein Sigismondo was
officially canonized as a saint in hell" (p. 70). Is this just colourful language, or did
some canonical category of a "saint of hell" exist? I had previously heard that
Malatesta was the only living person ever consigned to hell, but I had never
imagined that he occupied such an exalted position there!
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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