Miraculous Images and the Sanctification of Urban Neighborhood in Post-Medieval Italy

Abstract

In Liguria, in northern Italy, religious images (usually of the Virgin Mary) dating from the medieval and early modern period continue to be the focus of local cults that create a powerful spiritual sense of neighborhood through common visual references. Their histories are often complex, at certain times involving the defense of local interests against outsiders, sometimes serving as a focal point for the reconciliation of disputes. Some local cults have been coopted by wider groupings, yet they may continue to unite individual neighborhoods. They are able to create a shared identity that ties migrants and travelers to their place of origin. The histories of such local cults reveal the creation of neighborhood identity to be an ongoing and fluctuating process, one that local people deliberately cultivate, and yet one that may simultaneously serve different groups in different ways.

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