3. An Amphibious Identity: Apollonio Bianchi between Observance and Humanism

Pietro Delcorno

doi:10.54195/XFRB6134

3. An Amphibious Identity: Apollonio Bianchi between Observance and Humanism

Authors

Pietro Delcorno

Università di Bologna

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54195/XFRB6134_CH03

Synopsis

This chapter discusses the homiletic activities and the oratorical style of the Franciscan Observant friar Apollonio Bianchi (d. 1450). The focus on this as yet understudied preacher and author sheds light on the Franciscan Observance in crucial years of its development and emancipation within the wider Franciscan order, and also shows how such a preacher embraced a consciously hybrid rhetorical persona, a phenomenon that help to understand the complex relationship between Observance and Humanism in fifteenth-century Italy.

Author Biography

Pietro Delcorno, Università di Bologna

Pietro Delcorno studied theology and medieval history in Bologna and Nijmegen, and completed his PhD on late medieval exegesis and preaching in 2016 at Radboud University. Since 2021, he works as senior assistant professor at the University of Bologna and is visiting researcher at Radboud University Nijmegen. He is leading the project ‘Lenten Sermon Bestsellers: Shaping Society through Religious Communication in Late Medieval Europe (1470-1520)’, founded by a Veni Grant of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). His main research interests include medieval and early modern preaching, religious drama, and late medieval social history. His academic publications in the field include two monographs: Lazzaro e il ricco epulone: Metamorfosi di una parabola fra Quattro e Cinquecento (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2014) and In the Mirror of the Prodigal Son: The Pastoral Uses of a Biblical Narrative (1200-1550) (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2018), as well as many articles on the Observant preachers, Italian confraternities, and Monti di Pietà.