>Dear medieval-religionists,
>
>although he's too modest to admit it himself, Mark Davie (a dear colleague
>from
>Exeter) is a leading authority on Luigi Pulci, one of Renaissance Florence's
>leading writers. (In fact, Mark's book on Pulci has just come out:
>*Half-serious
>Rhymes. The Narrative Poetry of Luigi Pulci.* [Publications of the
>Foundation for
>Italian Studies, University College, Dublin.] Dublin: Irish Academic
>Press. 1998.
>199 pp. ISBN 0 7165 2601 8.) Mark has asked me in a private e-mail:
>
>>A detail which I'm trying to follow up is the contemporary
>>report (the source of which I still have to check out) that
>>when Pulci died he was buried in unconsecrated ground. What
>>would this signify - i.e. what were the grounds on which
>>people were denied Christian burial in the 15th c? I wonder
>>if the collective wisdom of the Medieval-Religion list
>>could come up with anything?
>
>Well, could it? I hope so!
>
>Many thanks,
>George
>
>George Ferzoco tel ++ 44 (0)116 252 2654
>Director of Studies for Italian fax ++ 44 (0)116 252 3633
>University of Leicester e-mail [log in to unmask]
>School of Modern Languages
>LEICESTER LE1 7RH UNITED KINGDOM
One reason for burial in unconsecrated ground in the fifteenth century
could be death without having made a confession. This is the fear in a
story of a resurrection worked by St. Vincent Ferrer on an archer named
Johannes Guerre, and the happy ending is that the poor sinner avoids burial
in unconsecrated ground by being brought back to life and allowed to
confess [the possibility of burial extra locum sanctum is spelled out in
the miracula compiled by Francisco Castiglione, and is in the AASS, April,
vol. 1, p. 510].
laura smoller
Laura Smoller
Department of History
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
2801 South University Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
tel 501-569-8389
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