Piety And Charity In Late Medieval Florence

Abstract

Abstract This book explores the relationship between the secular and sacred in late medieval Florence. The vehicle through which this theme is examined is the religious confraternity, one of the most popular and ubiquitous forms of lay association of late medieval Europe. Known variously as gild, fraternity, society, company, brotherhood, and school, the confraternity fused two areas of life which are frequently portrayed by historians as mutually exclusive, but which to contemporaries formed parts of a complementary whole, the spiritual and temporal. If the main functions of a confraternity may seem pious (to perform devout works in honour of a patron saint and provide spiritual insurance for members in the after-life), they also did much to foster social relations.

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