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Publications of the
Centre for Renaissance and Reformation and Studies
Essays and Studies, 52
Series Editor Konrad Eisenbichler
Victoria University
in the
University of Toronto
Confraternities in Southern Italy:
Art, Politics, and Religion
(1100–1800)
Edited by
David D’Andrea and Salvatore Marino
Toronto
Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies
2022
CRRS Publications
Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1K7, Canada
Tel: 416/585–4465 Fax: 416/585–4430
Email: crrs.publications@utoronto.ca Web: www.crrs.ca
© 2022 by the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies
All Rights Reserved
Printed in Canada.
The CRRS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support it receives for its publishing
activities from Victoria University in the University of Toronto. In the case of this volume, it also
gratefully acknowledges the support it received from the Ashley D’Alessandro Fund in European
History and the History Department at Oklahoma State University.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Confraternities in Southern Italy : art, politics, and religion (1100-1800) / edited by David
D’Andrea and Salvatore Marino.
Names: D’Andrea, David Michael, editor. | Marino, Salvatore, 1976- editor. | Victoria University (To-
ronto, Ont.). Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, publisher.
Series: Essays and studies (Victoria University (Toronto, Ont.). Centre for Renaissance and Reforma-
tion Studies) ; 52.
Description: Series statement: Essays and studies ; 52 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220080097 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220080135 | ISBN 9780772722201
(softcover) | ISBN 9780772722225 (PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Confraternities—Italy, Southern—Historiography.
Classification: LCC BX808.5.I8 C66 2022 | DDC 267.0945/70902—dc23
Cover image: Giacomo Bonfini, Madonna della Misericordia (c. 1526), Chapel of the Misericordia in
Tortoreto (© Sergio Di Giampietro). We thank Dott. Giancarlo Chicchirichì, president of the Miseri-
cordia di Tortoreto, and the photographer Sergio Di Giampietro for permission to publish the image.
Typesetting and cover design:
Iter Press
Contents
Introduction
David D’Andrea and Salvatore Marino 9
The Language(s) of Southern Italian Confraternities:
A Glossary of Terms
Marco Piana 31
Part I. Naples
1. Sacred Imagery, Confraternities, and Urban
Space in Medieval Naples
Stefano D’Ovidio 43
2. The Art of Power: The Confraternity of Santa
Marta in Naples during the Reign of the Angiò-
Durazzo (1381–1425)
Luciana Mocciola 103
3. Chivalric Ideals and Popular Piety in an Early
Modern Metropolis: The Confraternita dei
Pellegrini and its Hospital
Giovanni Lombardi 137
4.“Spanish” Confraternities in Early Modern
Naples
Ida Mauro and Elisa Novi Chavarria 169
Part II. Southern Italian Mainland
5. Confraternities in Medieval Benevento
Gemma T. Colesanti and Eleni Sakellariou 203
6. Medieval Confraternities in Abruzzo
Salvatore Marino 231
7. Confraternities in Abruzzo and Molise between
the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Valeria Cocozza 269
8. Religious Sociability in Early Modern Terra
di Lavoro
Giulio Sodano 303
9. Confraternities and Historical Memory in the
Principato Citra
David D’Andrea 325
10. The Religion of the Laity: The Confraternities
of Reggio in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries
Mirella Vera Mafrici 363
11. An Early Modern Apulian Confraternity:
The Real Monte di Pietà in Barletta (ca.
16 th–18 th Centuries)
Angela Carbone 391
12. Beyond the Capital: An Eighteenth-Century
Survey of Charitable Institutions in the
Kingdom of Naples
Paola Avallone and Raffaella Salvemini 415
Part III. Southern Italian Islands
13. Medieval Confraternities in Palermo
Vita Russo and Daniela Santoro 449
14. Confraternities and Public Display in
Messina: From Antonello da Messina to the
Arciconfraternita degli Azzurri and the
Arciconfraternita dei Rossi
Salvatore Bottari and Alessandro Abbate 477
15. Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities in
Sardinia
Mariangela Rapetti 507
List of Illustrations 557
List of Maps 563
Contributors 567
Index 571
Medieval and Early Modern
Confraternities in Sardinia
Mariangela Rapetti
1. Introduction
Sardinia probably had its first confraternities at the beginning of the four-
teenth century, but the scarcity of sources precludes study of their medieval
origins. The later widespread presence of confraternities in cities and small
towns in the early modern period, however, has left significant traces not
only in the archives but above all in local devotional practices, many of which
have been handed down to this day. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
marked by the significant development of religious associations, are charac-
terized in Sardinia by a strong influence of Hispanic, and especially Catalan,
traditions that affected all social classes, religious practices, the language, and
the economy. Toward the end of the seventeenth century economic pressure
on the confraternities’ charitable and devotional activities led to a period of
crisis. Nevertheless, the presence of the confraternities on the island remained
more or less constant through the following centuries.1
The tradition of the Sardinian confraternities has generated numerous
studies, mainly monographs or local histories. Essays that provide an over-
view are mainly summaries within general works on Sardinia or introductions
to monographs.2 The lack of medieval sources and the inability to reconstruct
the origins of the first confraternities has led scholars to develop two op-
posing historiographical theories: one emphasizing the Italian influence and
the other the Catalan-Aragonese impact on confraternal development. The
Italian influence was allegedly formed through relations with the cities of
Pisa and Genoa and by the presence of important Pisan and Genoese com-
munities between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, before the island’s
1
Usai, “Le confraternite,” 162−163.
2
See Usai, “Le confraternite;” Usai, “L’associazionismo;” Poletti, Le confraternite,
27−34. For the general context and the relationship between the confraternities and the
Church in Sardinia, see Turtas, Storia, 333−453.
507
508 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
conquest in 1323 by Alfonso IV of Aragon (1299–1366) and the beginning of
Catalan-Aragonese influence.3
A recurring question among Sardinian scholars, still mostly unresolved,
concerns the relationship between religious confraternities and professional
guilds. Many researchers agree that the boundaries between the confraterni-
ties (cofradías, confrarie de habit) and the Sardinian guilds (gremios, confrarie
de cap) were somewhat blurred. Francesco Loddo Canepa was the first to
point out that the confraternities that had arisen in Sardinia in the fifteenth
century had borrowed the statutory model and the internal organization
of the gremi (guilds) of Barcelona, combining religious duties, mutual as-
sistance, and professional obligations according to an already-established
statutory system.4
Among the regional studies of Sardinian religious associations are those
by Antonio Virdis, published between 1990 and 2005. In 1990, Virdis stressed
the need to analyze the local confraternities both individually and collectively,
and his overview of Sardinian confraternities influences this study. According
to Virdis, Sardinian cities had confraternities born of “various charismatic
derivations,” while the regions saw the prevalence of Rosarianti (Rosarians)
in the south and Disciplinati (Flagellants) in the north.5 Nine years later, the
scholar underscored the complexity of the Sardinian confraternal phenom-
enon and its novelty in the world of historiography.6 Virdis also affirmed
that sociohistorical research in the field of Sardinian religious associations
represented an almost wholly unexplored field.7 Even twenty years later, he
affirmed that a general and overall picture was still lacking.8
This essay, therefore, will present a general overview of the Sardinian
religious confraternities (de habit) that arose between the late Middle Ages
and 1700, examining the state of current studies and the local archives in
the hope of contributing to the overall analysis of Sardinian confraternities
while developing a few specific themes. In this fragmented field of study, we
3
On the Sardinian political context between the late Middle Ages and the early mod-
ern age, see Anatra, La Sardegna; Ortu, La Sardegna; Manconi, La Sardegna. On Sardinian
society and the different forms of local religiosity, see Manconi, La società.
4
Loddo Canepa, “Statuti,” 208. On the Catalan influence, see the syntheses and bib-
liography cited in Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto,” 11−15, and Demontis, “Le cofradías,”
193−198.
5
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 349−350.
6
Virdis, “Le associazioni,” 265.
7
Virdis, “Rapporto,” 536.
8
Virdis, “Le associazioni,” 265.
Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 509
have chosen a chronological-geographical approach focused on the major
cities, with references to their respective dioceses. We will start with the old-
est evidence of confraternities in Cagliari, proceed towards the north of the
island, and conclude with the city that is symbolic of the Sardinian hinter-
land: Nuoro. We have tried to emphasize the confraternities’ role in the local
context of charity and welfare, while for the purely devotional or guild aspects
we refer to the most recent bibliography.9 The last paragraph is dedicated to
the sources and the state of the local confraternity archives, as surveyed by
the Archival Superintendency of Sardinia.
2. Confraternities in Sardinia: The State of the Question
2.1 Cagliari
The history of the Sardinian capital’s late-medieval confraternities has re-
cently been expanded by the research of Maria Giuseppina Meloni and An-
tonio Forci (map 15.1).10 The absence of medieval confraternal archives has
pushed researchers to examine other sources, a challenging task considering
that the archives of Cagliari are poor in medieval notarial records and that
the most ancient minutari date back to the fifteenth century. The studies of
Meloni and Forci identified the oldest brotherhood in the city, unknown until
a few years ago. On 3 May 1378, the Confraternita di Nostro Signore Gesù
Cristo e della Vergine Maria received the approval of the sovereign Peter
IV of Aragon (1319–1387). The confraternity was established in Cagliari’s
cathedral by a group of citizens from the Castello district. The presence in
the document of the adverb “anticamente,” referring to either the institution
or the rules and rituals, led researchers to think that it was an institution of
Catalan-Aragonese origins. The confraternity, in fact, was likely established
by the descendants of the first nucleus of Catalan-Aragonese who settled in
1328 after Alfonso IV of Aragon conquered the Castrum, which was aban-
doned by the Pisans.11
9
The literature on the rites of Holy Week in Sardinia is extensive. For a diachronic
look at the studies and a reconstruction of the written and oral tradition to the liturgies
and paraliturgies of Holy Week, see Mele, La passione; Mele, “Tradizione.” On the state
of studies on religious singing, see Macchiarella, “Pratiche.” For an examination of the
historiography on the Sardinian guilds, see Brick, “Corporazioni,” 28−50.
10
Meloni, “Pratiche devozionali;” Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto.”
11
Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto,” 23−25.
510 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
The statute, preserved in the General Archive of the Crown of Aragon
in Barcelona,12 outlined the organizational, religious, and charitable aspects
of the confraternity, recalling the structure of the statutes of fraternities in
Barcelona without copying their provisions exactly.13 The document estab-
lishes the devotional practices, the election of offices, the safeguarding of
property (including account books and other documents), the management
of assets, and membership requirements. It also details the organization of
the funerals of deceased brothers and the care of the sick. Two members of
the fraternity, taking daily shifts, were to spiritually assist, care for, and aid
their sick brethren day and night until their complete recovery or death. If
they were unavailable, the brothers would have to pay a substitute who would
perform their duty. Loans were also provided for those members who could
not pay for medical care. Nonexistent, by contrast, was any form of charity
and assistance for the general population. According to Forci and Meloni, the
confraternity of Cagliari was organized like most of the confraternities in the
Crown of Aragon. It was an association organized exclusively for the mutual
benefit of its members.14 The absence of other reliable documentary sources
does not allow us to know the evolution of the confraternity, but scholars
hypothesize a certain continuity between the confraternity and the local asso-
ciation named Santa Maria e San Michele Arcangelo, which existed between
1455 and 1498 in the cathedral chapel of San Michele.15
The studies carried out by Meloni and Giuseppina Usai on the fifteenth-
century notarial minutari records led to the identification of the Confraternita
delle Anime Purganti (1481)16 and, from the same period, of the silversmith
confraternity of Sant’Eligio (Sant Aloy),17 and the confraternity of San Pietro
Martire, with its headquarters in the homonymous chapel in the local Do-
minican church.18 In Usai’s words, “The typology of documentary sources,
which are scarce in quantity and information, makes it difficult and problem-
atic to establish with any precision the nature of such confraternities.” Some
12
General Archive of the Crown of Aragon, Real Cancillería, reg. 1044, fols. 184v−187v,
in Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto,” 41−47.
13
Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto,” 28−29. See also Benítez Bolorinos, “Las cofradías,”
262.
14
Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto,” 37−38.
15
Forci and Meloni, “Lo statuto,” 41. On the Confraternita di Santa Maria e San
Michele, see Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 191−203; Meloni, “Pratiche,” 240−241.
16
Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 194; Meloni, “Pratiche,” 235.
17
Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 196.
18
Meloni, “Pratiche,” 233.Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 511
of these associations could belong to the category of the gremi, such as that
of the gardeners (ortolani) of Santa Maria del Porto, which had its seat in the
homonymous church and perhaps included brothers who joined for religious
devotion.19
Beginning in the first half of the sixteenth century, we witness the ap-
pearance of some of the most influential and long-lived confraternities in the
history of Cagliari: Sacro Monte di Pietà; Gonfalone sotto l’invocazione di
Sant’Efisio; Santissimo Sacramento; Crocifisso e Orazione, or della Morte;20
Santi Giorgio e Caterina, or dei Genovesi; Vergine della Solitudine; Nostra
Signora d’Itria; San Cristo. The confraternities of Santa Restituta, Nostra
Signora degli Angeli, Nostra Signora del Rosario, and Santissimo Sangue
di Gesù e Sacre Piaghe di Gesù Cristo also soon appeared. Their presence
at the solemn procession of 27 November 1618, when the relics of martyrs
were translated to the cathedral sanctuary, was reported in the chronicle of
Serafino Esquirro.21
In 1623, Archbishop Francisco Desquivel (1550–1624) informed the
Holy See of the existence of 15 confraternities, while in 1628, his successor
Ambrogio Machin (1576–1640) listed ten.22 The reality of Cagliari is decid-
edly varied (see table 15.1), and some sodalities have been the subject of more
or less detailed monographic studies, which we will review briefly.
The Confraternita del Sacro Monte di Pietà, reserved for knights and
nobles,23 was established in 1530, reputedly after the Lenten sermons of the
19
“La tipologia delle fonti documentarie, così scarse quantitativamente e soprattutto
troppo scarne e avare di notizie, rende però arduo e problematico il tentativo di stabilire
con una certa precisione la natura delle confraternite.” Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 193, 198.
20
These confraternities were the only ones existing in 1575 when the archbishop of
Cagliari indicated the order in processions for the guild confraternities (confrarias) and
for the religious companies (companyas), which had to be: “preciosissima sanch de Nostre
Señor en Sant Efis; (…) oratio alias de la mort (y del Sant Crucifixi) en San Sepulcre; (…)
Sant Monte de la pietat; (…) Santissim Sacrament de la Seu,”; Loi, “Le confraternite,”
70−71. The Congregation of Craftsmen was founded for devotional purposes in 1581 un-
der the invocation of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. It brought together artisans (and
still does today); Dadea, Misterius, 168, 170.
21
Usai, “Le confraternite,” 156; Esquirro, Santuario, 554−557. On the relics of the
martyrs (cuerpos santos), see Turtas, Storia della Chiesa, 373−382.
22
Loi, “Le confraternite,” 71−74. In the synod he celebrated that year, Machin focused
on strengthening relations between the city brotherhoods and the rest of the faithful.
23
Usai, “Le confraternite,” 160.512 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
Carmelite Desiderio San Martino of Palermo.24 Among the activities of the
association, charitable assistance to the needy played an important role. The
confraternity provided food, medicine, and medical care to the poor; it also
offered spiritual and material support to prisoners.25 Those condemned to
death spent their last hours of life comforted by the brothers singing the
Miserere. After their death, the confraternity took care of their burial.26
The date of the foundation of the Confraternita del Gonfalone sotto
l’invocazione di Sant’Efisio is not clear. Some popular histories state 1538,
while Giuseppina Usai and Mauro Dadea indicate 1539.27 Franca Calatri
reports April 1564, citing a bull of Paul III that she unfortunately does not
publish in her appendix.28 The 1564 date attributed by Calatri is undoubtedly
a mistake because Paul III was pope from 1534–1549, and the document,
which we could not find, must therefore date to 1538 or 1539. 29 On 24 March
1618, under Paul V, the confraternity was incorporated into the Primaria
Arciconfraternita del Gonfalone della Santissima Vergine del Riscatto in
Rome, which had had the task since 1581 of redeeming Christian slaves. The
confraternity of Cagliari assumed the Roman statutes and committed itself
to collect ransom money. Established as an archconfraternity in 1796, it still
even today provides help and funding for the celebrations for Sant’Efisio, lo-
cal martyr, co-patron of the city, and patron saint of Sardinia.30
24
Caboni, Cenni storici, 87−88; Alziator, La città, 289; Serra, L’arciconfraternita,
25−27. The origin of the confraternity is often attributed to the sermons of the Carmelite
Desiderio San Martino di Palermo, but the chronology is problematic. It seems unlikely
that Desiderio, who died in 1596, was actively preaching in 1530.
25
A will of 1572 left one thousand liras to the confraternity to free those imprisoned
for debts of less than fifteen liras. Four thousand liras were bequeathed to contribute to the
dowry of poor girls. Loi, “Le confraternite,” 73.
26
Usai, “Le confraternite,” 158. See also Alziator, La città, 289.
27
Dadea, Misterius, 168; Usai, “Le confraternite;” Usai, “L’associazionismo.” See also
Caboni, Cenni storici, and Alziator, La città.
28
Calatri, S. Efisio, 71.
29
The document cannot be found in the Bullarium, nor in Scano, Codice. On the
confraternity archive, see Calatri, S. Efisio.
30
Calatri, S. Efisio, 75; Corda, Sardae patronus insulae. The solemn feast of St. Efisio
has been held continuously since 1657, following the miraculous liberation of the island
from what is commonly known as the Great Baroque Plague, “la grande peste barocca.”
The traditional procession of 65 km, which takes place from 1–4 May, was not suspended
even during the bombardments of 1943. Due to the Covid-19 emergency, a pandemic that
rages while this essay is being written, there will be a variation on the rite of dissolution
of the vow.Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 513
The origins of the Confraternita del Santissimo Sacramento in Cagliari,
according to Giovanni Spano, date back to 1539. It subsequently was aggre-
gated to the Congregazione di San Pietro in Rome and in 1700 also ben-
efitted from papal indulgences granted to the Confraternita del Santissimo
Sacramento di Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.31 The first seat of the
confraternity was probably in the cathedral.32 Later, the brothers established
the Congregazione del Santissimo in Sant’Eulalia in the port district, where
the Confraternita di Sant’Elmo, a sailors’ confraternity, was also located.33
The brotherhood’s activity, which persisted until World War II, was not only
devotional, but also charitable and focused on the needy of the port district.34
According to a local 1890 census of confraternities, Congregazioni del Santis-
simo Sacramento also existed in the districts of Stampace and Villanova (in
the church of San Giacomo), established at “an unspecified time” with the
“exclusive purpose of devotion.”35
On 24 February 1564, the Confraternita del Crocifisso e dell’ Orazione,
or della Morte, known as the Confraternita del San Sepolcro, received the
Church of San Sepolcro as a gift from the Archbishop of Cagliari, Antonio
Parragues del Castillejo (1558–1573).36 Until that time, the brotherhood had
been hosted by the church of San Leonardo, near the harbor. Antioco Piseddu
dates the foundation of the association to 1554.37 However, from a will of
1519 we learn that a couple left a courtyard and a cave next to the hospital of
Sant’Antonio for the pious functions of the brotherhood.38 This is confirmed
by the Libre dels censales drawn up in the years 1613–1614 and kept in the
archives of the archconfraternity, which attests to the brotherhood’s burial of
the poor in the first half of the sixteenth century. Usai notes that among the
members of the association there were craftsmen from a variety of trades.39
31
Spano, Guida, 209; Caboni, Cenni storici, 93.
32
Sumario de las indulgencias dela Compannia del Santissimo Sacramento.
33
Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 202. On the association of Sant’Elmo, called confraría
in the sixteenth century and gremio only from the seventeenth, see Piras, “I lavoratori del
mare.” A document from 1789 reports 1620 as the year of foundation of the Confraternity
in Santa Eulalia. Milleddu, Gli organi, 22.
34
Agus, Della Congregazione; Alziator, La città, 290.
35
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 350.
36
An inscription inside the church reads “Fongh fundada esta S(anta) Comp(anya)
lo primer d’Abril 1564.”
37
Piseddu, L’arcivescovo, 37.
38
Saiu Deidda, “La chiesa,” 35; Maxia and Serreli, “L’attività,” 247−249.
39
Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 202514 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
The fraternity was involved in numerous charitable activities.40 The burial
of the poor and abandoned is confirmed by the agreements signed with the
hospital of Sant’Antonio and the Royal University.41 The confraternity was
declared defunct in 2008.42
The Arciconfraternita dei Santi Giorgio e Caterina, also known as the
Arciconfraternita dei Genovesi, was founded in 1588 by Ligurian merchants
living in Cagliari.43 In 1591, the association joined the Confraternita dei
Genovesi in Rome, obtaining the privilege of collecting alms throughout the
Kingdom of Sardinia for the ransom of Christians captured by the Moors.44
Until the second half of the twentieth century, the confraternity’s history
was known only thanks to a 1920 essay by Giuseppe Parodi,45 who, however,
never examined the confraternity’s archives. Recovered from the rubble of
the homonymous church, the seat of the confraternity that was destroyed
by bombing in 1943 (fig. 15.1), these documents were studied in the early
1970s by Isabella Zedda under the direction of Francesco Artizzu. Their
research led to the rediscovery of the confraternity’s constitutions of 1596,
which were considered lost. In the 1800s the confraternity manuscript was
labelled A Libro II degli inventarii.46 According to the statutes, membership
was in theory open to men and women of Ligurian and all other nationali-
ties, but in practice membership was limited to Genoese citizens and children
of Genoese patrilineal descent. Among the archconfraternity’s objectives,
the corporate and nationalistic aims of the association were not openly ex-
pressed, but the brotherhood clearly provided for the spiritual and economic
needs of Genoese prisoners in Cagliari and collected ransom for Christian
slaves (redemptio de captivi). An exchange was requested once enough money
had been collected for 20 prisoners. The relatives of those ransomed had to
commit themselves to repay the sum, so in essence the confraternity collected
twice the amount required for each freed person.47
40
Loi, “Le confraternite,” 72−73.
41
Pinna, Indice dei documenti, n. 1141; Annuario della R. Università (1892), 33.
42
Decreto del Ministero dell’Interno del 17 gennaio 2008.
43
Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 11−12. On the role of Ligurian merchants in Sardinia
and Cagliari, see Moro, Note; Saiu Deidda, Genova.
44
Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 40.
45
Parodi, Monografia.
46
Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 15; Archivio dell’Arciconfraternita, 5 (1/1).
47
Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 53−54.Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 515
Interestingly, the archival documentation reveals large donations made
during the seventeenth century for the foundation of a hospital.48 In 1651, the
confraternity appointed a spiritual rector, workers, nurses, a surgeon, and an
apothecary for the new hospital. Five months later, however, the brothers, with-
out nurses, assisted the sick Genoese in a temporary facility.49 In the middle
of the seventeenth century Cagliari, like all of Sardinia, was decimated by the
plague. The confraternity helped many, but the hospital project came to a halt.50
According to tradition, Cagliari’s Confraternita di Nostra Signora d’Itria
was established by a group of Christians enslaved by the Berbers. Once free,
they were welcomed by the Augustinians of the port district and established the
confraternity, recognized by Paul V on 2 June 1607.51 The archbishop approved
the statutes on 3 March 1608, when the confraternity already numbered 72
brothers. The brotherhood provided critical social and medical services to the
most impoverished population of the area.52 It helped the poor, orphans, and
widows; it offered dowries to needy young girls; it hosted pilgrims; it cared for
the sick; it guaranteed burial and aid to the dying poor; it even intervened to
bring peace to feuding enemies.53 In 1625, Urban VII granted it the indulgences
and privileges enjoyed by the Arciconfraternita della cintura di Sant’Agostino
e Santa Monica in Rome.54 Housed in the church of Sant’Agostino for its first
couple of centuries, the brothers moved in 1881 to the church of Sant’Antonio
Abate, where they still have their seat (fig. 15.2).
The origin of the Arciconfraternita della Vergine della Solitudine dates
to 1603. Giovanni Spano suggests 1608, but attributes its foundation to a bull
48
Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 83−85.
49
Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 116−117.
50
Parodi, Monografia, 30; Zedda, L’Arciconfraternita, 134.
51
Cau, L’arciconfraternita, 9–10; Masala, L’arciconfraternita. The cult of the Madonna
d’Itria allegedly came to Sardinia in the Byzantine era (533–900), thanks to the Basilian
monks. The theory, lacking documentation, has recently been questioned. Some historians
have postulated a southern Italian origin, following the fall of Constantinople (Porcella,
“Iconografia,” 690 and related bibliography). A recent study (Masala, Il culto) identifies
various moments of the spread of the cult. Possibly introduced by Basilian monks, it was
maintained (and moderated) by the Benedictine congregations that arrived in Sardinia in
the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. The first physical evidence dates to the late fifteenth
century, but the period of greatest expansion was in the seventeenth century, thanks
mainly to the promotion by the Augustinians.
52
Caboni, Cenni storici, 87−88.
53
Cau, L’arciconfraternita, 17−18.
54
Cau, L’arciconfraternita, 10.516 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
of Clement VIII, who died in 1605.55 The confraternity was established in the
ancient Trinitarian church of San Bardilio (formerly Santa Maria del Porto),
with obligations of communal prayer, the ransom of slaves, the redemption
of prisoners, and the burial and consolation of those condemned to death, as
outlined in the 1616 bull of aggregation with the Arciconfraternita della San-
tissima Trinità in Rome. Subsequently moving to the church of San Giovanni
Battista, the brothers gained recognition for their role assisting the sick dur-
ing the great seventeenth-century plague, which arrived in Cagliari in 1655.
The statutes prior to the eighteenth century are preserved, but the manuscript
is damaged. Still active today, brothers, sisters, and singers maintain the tradi-
tional devotional practices during Holy Week, leading their processions with
detailed reproductions of their ancient banners (fig. 15.3).
The first attestation of the Confraternita del San Cristo, or Santissimo
Crocifisso, located in the parish of San Giacomo, dates back to 1616. The con-
fraternity was known for its care and assistance of the poor, the sick, and the
dying, especially during the great plague that struck the city in 1655–1656.56
Concerning the ancient ecclesiastical province of Cagliari, Antonio Vir-
dis’ study of the ad limina visits show a strong predominance of associations
dedicated to the Rosary (sixty-three out of eighty-five, present in Cagliari
from 1578). These confraternities spread thanks to the Dominicans, who were
present throughout the Campidano area. The task of these confraternities was
the diffusion of the practice of the Rosary and the celebration of the Virgin.
Among the confraternities in the small towns, the most widespread after that
of the Rosary were those dedicated to the Vergine d’Itria (four), the Anime
purganti (four), and the Santissimo Sacramento (three). Unfortunately, the
reports of the bishops of Cagliari only briefly discussed confraternities.57
In the ancient diocese of Suelli, suppressed in 1420 and annexed to
Cagliari, there was a Confraternita di Santa Maria di Gixi. In 1483, the con-
fraternity obtained permission to collect donations to restructure its dilapi-
dated church.58 The documents analyzed by Virdis date back to the end of the
sixteenth century and do not indicate any confraternity in the area; evidently,
by that time it no longer existed.
55
Serra, L’Arciconfraternita, 67−68.
56
Serra, L’Arciconfraternita, 36−37.
57
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 351.
58
Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 197. On Suelli, see Cannas, La Chiesa; Zedda, “La di-
ocesi.”Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 517
Table 15. 1: Confraternities de habit in Cagliari (14th –17th centuries).
Date Dedication Location Member- Purpose
(Church) ship
pre- Nostro Signore City Cathedral Wealthy RD, MA
1378 Gesù Cristo e and well-
Vergine Maria known
citizens
1481 Anime purganti City Cathedral RD
c. Crocifisso e San Leonardo, Artisans RD, W, BP
1519 dell’Orazione o then Santo Se-
della Morte o del polcro
Santo Sepolcro
1530 Santo Monte di Santa Maria del Knights RD, W, BD
Pietà Monte and nobles
c. Sant’Efisio o del Sant’Efisio RD, CC,
1539 Gonfalone sotto RCS
l’invocazione di
Sant’Efisio
c. Santissimo Sacra- City Cathedral, RD, W
1539 mento then Sant’Eulalia
1578 Nostra Signora del San Domenico RD
Rosario
1586 Artieri sotto Santa Croce, Artisans RD, G
l’invocazione then San Michele
della Natività della
Santissima Vergine
1588 Santi Giorgio e Santi Giorgio e Ligurians MA, G
Caterina o dei Caterina
Genovesi
1603 Vergine della San Bardilio, Knights RD, RSA,
Solitudine then San Gio- and nobles Ch
vanni Battista518 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
pre- Nostra Signora Sant’Agostino, RD, W
1607 d’Itria then
Sant’Antonio
Abate
1616 Santo Cristo o San- San Giacomo RD, W
tissimo Crocifisso
pre- Santa Maria degli Santa Maria del RD
1618 Angeli Gesù
pre- Santa Restituta Santa Restituta RD
1618
pre- Santissime Piaghe San Francesco RD
1618 di Gesù Cristo
pre- Prezioso Sangue di Santa Lucia di La RD
1618 Gesù Pola
Legend: BP = Burial of the poor; BD = Burial of those sentenced to death; Ch
= Charity; CC = Custody of the Church of Sant’Efisio; G = Guild; MA = Mu-
tual assistance among affiliates or compatriots; RCS = Ransom of Christian
slaves; RD = Religious devotion; W = Welfare.
2.2 Iglesias and Oristano
Villa Ecclesiae (map 15.1) was the first town conquered by Alfonso IV’s troops
in 1324. In the previous decades, the city had been under the direct control
of Pisa. According to an eighteenth-century memoir, repeated by Roberto
Poletti in his study of the confraternities of Iglesias, when the Pisans arrived
in 1257 there were no confraternities in the city. Within a few years, however,
the citizens founded a flagellant confraternity of Disciplinati, according to
Italian custom (“á la moda de Italia”). With the Aragonese conquest, says the
chronicler Ignacio Delamatta y Despinoza, the members of this association
began to be called Batuts. They went barefoot, did not wear the pointed hat
(capirote) typical of the Iberian brotherhoods and, above all, were not canoni-
cally recognized as a confraternity.59 In 1990, Antonio Virdis found that the
59
Poletti, Le confraternite, 41−42.Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 519
presence of flagellant confraternities in the territory of Iglesias was due to the
influence of the Pisans and the Conventual Franciscans.60
Virdis’ findings were confirmed by Poletti’s later research that identi-
fied three brotherhoods of Disciplinati, which arose between the late Middle
Ages and the early modern period but were only recognized at the end of
the sixteenth century. The brotherhoods were the Confraternite del Santis-
simo Sacramento (Batuts de la Seu), Santa Lucia e San Giuseppe (Batuts di
Santa Lucia), and San Marcello (Batuts di San Francesco). These flagellant
brotherhoods gradually abandoned penitential practices, turning instead to
more typical worship in alignment with other sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century congregations, like the Confraternita della Vergine del Rosario and
the Arciconfraternita della Vergine della Pietà del Santo Monte.61
The Arciconfraternita della Vergine della Pietà del Santo Monte is
still active today and continues the Holy Week rites it once shared with the
other brotherhoods. It is also one of the most documented and well-studied
confraternities.62 Operating since at least 1572, perhaps inspired by Cagliari’s
Arciconfraternita del Monte, the Arciconfraternita della Vergine della Pietà
del Santo Monte was founded in a civic and episcopal initiative in order to
take over the financial and organizational management of the existing hos-
pital next to the church of San Michele. According to Poletti, the confrater-
nity represents the displacement of medieval penitential devotion and the
affirmation of a new corporate model derived from Tridentine reform, which
strengthened charitable and social activities in lieu of penitential practices.63
Studies on the confraternities of the city of Oristano (map 15.1) deal
only with post-Tridentine brotherhoods, male associations active until World
War II. A 1640 census enumerated seven confraternities, with the following
dedications: Spirito Santo, Santissimo Rosario, Santo Nome di Gesù, Im-
macolata Concezione, San Pietro Apostolo, Santa Maria Maddalena, and
60
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 351.
61
Poletti, Le confraternite. The scholar excludes from this work two confraternities
of the same period: the Confraria de Sant Cosma, which was the gremio of the doctors,
surgeons, and apothecaries of Iglesias, and the Congregazione dell’Annunziata, founded
within the Society of Jesus and linked to it, but lacking all the typical characteristics of the
confraternities.
62
Poletti, La chiesa; Poletti, Lo spital; Poletti, “Confraternite”; Poletti, Le confraternite.
The archconfraternity keeps in its archive, recently reorganized, the documents of the last
centuries of activity. See Meloni, “Guida.”
63
Poletti, Le confraternite, 115−116.520 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
Misericordia.64 Subsequently, the number fell to five, rising again to seven
during the eighteenth century. Local confraternities carried out many devo-
tional and para-liturgical services and charitable activities. They also partici-
pated in burials and other devotions that strengthened their group identity.65
A robust Marian devotion characterized the district of Oristano, “but
not to the (massive) extent of the Cagliari diocese.”66 Virdis’ research revealed
that confraternities were already present in small towns at the end of the
sixteenth century, though the local bishops paid little attention to them.67 Be-
yond the confraternities evidenced in Oristano, it was only in 1640 that there
was reference to “many confraternities of men and women with different
names” in the Arborense diocese (which included, from 1500, Santa Giusta
and Ales-Terralba).68 In 1688 the ad limina visit reported that confraterni-
ties (confratriae) were engaged in works of charity (opera pietatis) but did
not specify what type.69 A later source indicates that many of those confra-
ternities were dedicated to the Rosary,70 but there were also confraternities
dedicated to the Holy Cross, for example in Ardauli, where a transcription of
the sixteenth-century rules is preserved.71 A recent study of the statutes of the
Confraternita del Santissimo Sacramento in Samugheo (1675) highlighted its
fundamental role in assisting sick brothers and accompanying the deceased,
activities practiced by all the other local confraternities and probably the
same works of charity vaguely mentioned in episcopal documents.72
2.3 Bosa e Alghero
The research conducted by Antonio Virdis on the triennial reports of the
bishops of Alghero and Bosa (consolidated into a single diocese since 1986;
see map 15.1) have revealed the presence of twenty-nine confraternities be-
tween the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a strong predominance of
associations dedicated to the Holy Cross (seventeen), present in all the local
64
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 351; Virdis, “Rapporto,” 554−555; Zucca, “Le confraternite,” 8−9.
65
Luperi, “Le confraternite,” 26−28.
66
“ma non nella misura (massiccia) della diocesi cagliaritana,” Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 352.
67
Virdis, “Rapporto,” 554.
68
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 351.
69
Virdis, “Rapporto,” 543.
70
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 352.
71
Urru, Le confraternite.
72
Deidda, “Il culto.”Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 521
towns thanks to relentless promotion by the Franciscans. In the diocese there
were also seven confraternities dedicated to the Rosary, two Confraternite
dell’Orazione or della Morte (Alghero and Bosa), and another three dedi-
cated to the Servi di Maria (Cuglieri), Monte del Carmelo (Santu Lussurgiu)
and the Vergine d’Itria (Pozzomaggiore).73
There have been a number of studies of Alghero, Santu Lussurgiu, and
Cuglieri. Antonio Serra conducted most of the studies on the confraternities
in Alghero.74 As noted before, the lack of medieval documentation makes
it impossible to date the origin of the oldest Sardinian sodalities; however,
the strong Ligurian and Catalan influences in the area might have played
a significant role in their foundation. The first evidence dates to 1557, and
by the seventeenth century, the confraternities were leading most religious
celebrations in Alghero.75 The more significant confraternities also took an
active role in the community. The Misericordia (germans blancs), a confra-
ternity of Disciplinati affiliated with the Arciconfraternita del Gonfalone in
Rome since 1568, was committed to gathering the ransom of Christian slaves
from at least 1581. After 1594, the brotherhood contributed to the dowries of
poor girls. Active even today, the brothers still perform the rite of deposition
(desclavament, iscravamentu) during Holy Week.76 The Confraternita della
Santa Croce or dell’Orazione e Morte (germans negres) was responsible for
collecting the corpses of the poor, prisoners, and the executed, and taking
care of their funerals and burial.77
The development of religious associations in Santu Lussurgiu, accord-
ing to Angelo Manca, can be linked to the local presence of Franciscans and
Dominicans, a hypothesis that supports Virdis’ theories. The town’s first con-
fraternities appeared at the latest in the fifteenth century, with the fraternity
of Santa Croce. The confraternities del Rosario and Madonna del Carmine,
73
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 354−356. The Confraternita del Rosario in Alghero, established
in 1568, was mainly composed of brothers from Liguria. See Serra, “Appunti,” 214−215;
Serra, “Contributo.”
74
Serra, “L’Arxiconfraria”; Serra, “Contributo”; Serra, Los Germans; Serra, “Appunti.”
75
Serra, “Appunti,” 206−209. The essay mentions some minor, but equally impor-
tant, female confraternities: the Raccomandate, Corpo prezioso di Gesù Cristo, Mercede,
Sant’Agostino, Nostra Signora della Neve, Carmine, and San Filippo Neri.
76
Serra, Los Germans.
77
Serra, “Appunti,” 212−213; Serra, “L’Arxiconfraria.”522 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
on the other hand, date to the seventeenth century.78 The devotional activities
of these brotherhoods have been maintained until today.79
The town of Cuglieri saw the birth of the Arciconfraternita della
Santa Croce in 1550. The fraternity went on to affiliate itself with the Roman
brotherhood of the Gonfalone in 1558. The origin of the Arciconfraternita
della Madonna delle Grazie, according to scholars, could be linked to the
presence of the Servites beginning in 1540. Even though the foundation
of the fraternity might have preceded them, the Servites were almost cer-
tainly responsible for local devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows (l’Addolorata).
The seventeenth century saw the rise of the Confraternita della Santissima
Vergine del Rosario, mostly thanks to the Dominicans.80 Even in Cuglieri, the
devotional practices of these confraternities survived into modernity. Over
time, the ranks of these original brotherhoods grew to include the sodalities
of the Carmelo (1702), Madonna della Misericordia (late eighteenth century,
now disbanded), and San Giovanni Battista (before 1861).81
2.4 Sassari
The history of the Sassari (map 15.1) confraternities, and more generally those
of the Logudorese region, has been the subject of various studies based on the
statutes and confraternal books of the Disciplinati (sos Battúdos). Most of the
research on this subject comes from Antonio Virdis, but the examination of
these sources, begun with Damiano Filia, was also carried out by Raimondo
Turtas and Giovanni Strinna.82 It is assumed that the movement spread in
Logudoro at the beginning of the fifteenth century, but it is not clear how this
diffusion occurred. The oldest reference, dating back to 1427, concerns the
Confraternita della Santa Croce in Sassari. The archives of the confraternity,
which still exist today, have not preserved the first statutes. We know of the
78
Manca, “Storia,” 175−176.
79
The municipality of Santu Lussurgiu is leading the Hymnos Foundation project,
a regional network established for the study and valorization of ancient musical sources
and multi-voice hymns of the oral tradition through the parallel study of written sources
and practices transmitted orally by the confraternities; see Hymnos. See also Macchiarella,
“Pratiche,” 134.
80
Sotgiu and Scanu, Cuglieri, 82.
81
See Hymnos, Cuglieri.
82
Virdis, Sos Battúdos; Filia, Il laudario; Turtas, “Due diversi”; Strinna, “Una testi-
monianza.”Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 523
statutes indirectly through the confraternal statutes of Logudoro that used
the Sassari confraternities as a model. A comparison, therefore, does not offer
much certainty regarding the establishment of the first brotherhood of Battú-
dos in Sassari. The study of laude books, however, provides insight regarding
the origins of the confraternities. After a detailed study of Logudurese and
Italian texts, Giovanni Strinna hypothesizes a Genoese influence mediated
by the Liguro-Corsican community living in Sassari in the fifteenth century.83
After Sassari, the Disciplinati spread in the surrounding area until they cov-
ered the whole territory,84 and traces of this rapid expansion can be found in
local paintings (fig. 15.4).
From 1445, the Disciplinati of Sassari maintained the old hospital of
Santa Croce.85 The absence of primary sources, however, makes it challenging
to understand how the brotherhood was involved. As far as other charitable
activities are concerned, the Sassari and Logudoro confraternities also pro-
vided funeral rites, visited their sick members, and collected dowries for poor
young women.86 In the mid-sixteenth century, the other urban confraternities
also began contributing to the maintenance of the hospital of Santa Croce.87 It
is possible that among these fraternities was the Confraternita dell’Orazione
e della Morte (Battúdos nieddos), an association of noblemen (by birth or
acquisition) and noblewomen (by birth or marriage) whose activity began in
the middle of the sixteenth century. In 1568 it affiliated with the Venerabile
Compagnia dell’Orazione e della Morte in Rome. Its main task was to ac-
company those condemned to death, provide for their burial, and help their
families economically. The members of the confraternity also buried the poor,
a duty that intensified during the city’s plague outbreak of 1652.88
In the seventeenth century, in addition to the Battúdos della Santa
Croce and the Battúdos nieddos, there were also the confraternities of the
Santissimo Rosario (fig. 15.5), Nostra Signora d’Itria, Santa Monica, San
Carlo, San Gavino (a local martyr), San Filippo, Santissima Vergine dei
83
Strinna, “Una testimonianza,” 623−625.
84
Virdis, Sos Battúdos, 41−52. The Royo report of 1663 states that the Confraternities
of the Disiplinati were everywhere, “ovunque è la Confraternita dei Disciplinati,” but other
confraternities were also present in a few instances; Virdis, Sos Battúdos, 67.
85
Filia, Il laudario, 20; Costa, Sassari, vol. 3; Ruiu, La Chiesa, 175.
86
Virdis, Sos Battúdos, 66.
87
Ruzzu, La chiesa, 214−215.
88
Usai, “Le confraternite,” 158.524 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
dolori, and Santissimo Sacramento.89 In 1938 and 1940, Fr. Antonio Marcel-
lino published histories of the latter two confraternities. Santissima Vergine
dei dolori, also called Santa Maria dei Serviti, dates back to 1614 and had
its headquarters in the church of Sant’Antonio, with an oratory dedicated
to the burial of brothers and sisters; Santissimo Sacramento, with its seat in
the church of Sant’Andrea, was built around 1640 and gathered members of
Genoese or Corsican origin.90
2.5 Castelsardo, Tempio, Ozieri, and Nuoro
Early modern Castel Aragonese (today Castelsardo, a royal city since 1448)
and Tempio (today Tempio Pausania) were part of the diocese of Ampurias
and Civita (today Tempio-Ampurias; see map 15.1). Antonio Virdis’ study of
the episcopal triennial reports between 1617 and 1690 found a confraternity
of the Holy Cross in every inhabited centre of the diocese. Many of these
were aggregated to the Roman Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone and had
probably been founded in the sixteenth century. In the first half of the seven-
teenth century, some Confraternite del Rosario were erected. In Castelsardo,
in 1676, we find the confraternities of Santa Croce, Santissimo Sacramento,
and San Filippo, while in Tempio, the active brotherhoods were Santa Croce,
Santissimo Sacramento, and Rosario. In 1690, the fourteen Disciplinati con-
fraternities in the diocese provided support for religious processions and fu-
nerals. Some confraternities were noted for their charitable activities.91 Local
confraternities still carry on this devotional and para-liturgical tradition.92 In
Ozieri, in the early seventeenth century, we find the confraternities of Santa
Croce and Rosario. In the same diocese we find traces of several confraterni-
ties of the Santa Croce, but from the seventeenth-century episcopal reports it
seems that some towns had no confraternities.93
After the Council of Trent, in imitation of the main coastal cities, local
confraternities began to flourish even in the most inaccessible areas of the
Nuorese. In 1580, sources on the ancient diocese of Galtellì (then Galtellì-
Nuoro, today Nuoro) indicate the presence of the first brotherhood in the
city of Nuoro, noted in the episcopal visitation of Bishop Andrea Bacallar
89
Virdis, Sos Battúdos, 66.
90
Marcellino, La Venerable; Marcellino, La cofradia.
91
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 353−354. On Castelsardo, see Atzori, Lunissanti.
92
On Aggius, Castelsardo, and Nughedu San Nicolò, see Hymnos, Rete.
93
Virdis, “Ipotesi,” 354−355.Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities 525
(1578–1604). In 1628, the same brotherhood became affiliated with the Arci-
confraternita del Santissimo Crocifisso di San Marcello in Rome.94 This Dis-
ciplinati confraternity dedicated to Santa Croce was one of many established
in the rest of the diocese during the sixteenth century.
At the end of the sixteenth century, the Bianchi (confrares biancos) were
established in Bitti, Gorofai, and Oliena. In the following century, nine other
confraternities flourished, some of which have handed down their rites and
songs.95 Local iconography reveals that the Disciplinati might have already
been present in this area in the fifteenth century. Preserved in the church of
Santa Barbara in Olzai is the so-called Retablo della peste, painted at the end of
the fifteenth century. It depicts the hooded brethren, dressed in white, hold-
ing whips and kneeling in prayer at the feet of the Virgin Mary (fig. 15.6).96
The seventeenth century also saw the birth of confraternities dedicated to the
Blessed Sacrament in the Nuorese, at least eight Rosary confraternities, and at
least three dedicated to the Virgin of Itria (in Oliena, Oniferi, and Orotelli).97
The confraternal statutes published by Michele Carta in 1991 and Giovanni
Lupinu in 2002 show that even in the Nuoro area the most common task
was to serve sick brothers and accompany the dead, in line with the typical
practices of Christian brotherhoods.98
3. Archives and Historical Sources for Confraternities in Sardinia
A survey of Sardinian confraternal studies reveals the variety of sources avail-
able to scholars. Some of the most-used resources for the study of Sardinian
confraternities, as seen in Antonio Virdis’ work, are the episcopal ad limina
visits. These documents provide a useful overall picture, but the amount of
information varies from one diocese to another, and sometimes the docu-
ments are not complete. Statutes are documents of considerable importance
and have been analyzed by various scholars, but they have only been studied
comparatively for the Disciplinati of Logudoro and Nuorese. More generally,
94
Carta, Biglietto, 9−10. The diocese preserves the oldest confraternal book in Sar-
dinian vernacular, dated 1580–1599, published in Lupinu, Il libro.
95
Carta, Biglietto, 14−24. See also Galtellì, Irgoli, and Orosei in Hymnos, Rete.
96
King, Sardinian, 92; Delogu, “Il Maestro,” 5; Serra, Pittura, n. 78; Carta, Biglietto,
14−15.
97
Carta, Biglietto, 27−36; Virdis “Ipotesi,” 355.
98
Lupinu, Il libro; Carta, Biglietto. Concerning the local statutes, Turtas (“Due di-
versi”) highlighted how the confraternities of Nuoro and Nule, compared to those of Sas-
sari, “adapted” their rules to the rural communities where they resided.526 Confraternities in Southern Italy: Art, Politics, and Religion (1100–1800)
statutes and confraternal record books have been examined for in-depth
study of the foundation and development of individual brotherhoods.
Completely absent from the current panorama of comparative studies
on confraternities are the archives themselves. The confraternal archives, a
useful source of evidence for micro-history inquiries, could also be exam-
ined as a “product” of a confraternity in its effort to preserve its history and
memory. Examining who drafted the documents and the rules (original or
borrowed? If borrowed, from whom?) as well as changing membership re-
quirements would allow a greater understanding of the inner workings of the
brotherhood and provide a wider vision of the dynamics between confrater-
nities. In 2009 Marina Gazzini echoed the words of Antonio Panella, who,
speaking of religious and lay confraternities, noted that the whereabouts of
specific archives is often unknown, or the archives are scattered like pieces
of a shipwreck.99 In the case of Sardinia, as Giuseppina Usai wrote, the
confraternal archives have suffered along with the ups and downs of their
confraternities.100 That said, the large number of organizations spurred by the
Counter-Reformation has led to the preservation of a fair number of con-
fraternal archives, although confraternal documents and registers have been
dispersed for various reasons in other archives and private collections. Since
it is not possible here to give a precise account of all the documents that are
presently dispersed, we will mention only the early modern archives created
by “corporate bodies” recognized as confraternities and archconfraternities
and surveyed by the Archival Superintendency of Sardinia.101
The electronic database of the Soprintendenze archivistiche italiane
lists fifty-eight confraternities and seven archconfraternities with archives on
the island. If one considers only the local confraternity archives active before
1700, that number drops to seventeen.102 Among the archives of Cagliari, only
99
Gazzini, “Gli archivi”; Panella, “Per una ‘Guida storica’,” 375.
100
Usai, “L’associazionismo,” 193.
101
For a definition of “corporate body,” see ISAAR (CPF), International Standard
Archival Authority Records for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, ed. 2004, 10, which
defines it as an organization or group of persons identified by a name that governs itself in-
dependently and is the creator because it has produced, used, accumulated, and conserved
the documentation in the carrying out of its activities.
102
Santissimo Crocifisso of Quartucciu (Città metropolitana di Cagliari); Rosario,
Beata Vergine della Pietà, and San Giovanni Battista of Barumini (Sud Sardegna); Rosario
of Guspini (Sud Sardegna); Rosario of Masullas (Oristano); Rosario and Spirito Santo of
Cabras (Oristano); Rosario of Tramatza (Oristano); Santa Croce of Ulà Tirso (Oristano);
Santa Croce of Aidomaggiore (Oristano); Santa Croce of Cuglieri (Oristano); Rosario ofYou can also read
