Florence and the Idea of Jerusalem

Timothy Verdon, Giovanni Serafini (eds)

Pages: 338 p.
Size:216 x 280 mm
Illustrations:30 b/w, 107 col., 1 tables b/w.

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2024

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ISBN: 978-2-503-59786-7
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This collection of essays traces the development of this ‘Idea of Jerusalem’ from the Divine Comedy and medieval Holy Land pilgrimages through the 1439 Council of Florence, Savonarola’s end of the 15th-century preaching, and the astonishing project of Grand Duke Ferdinand I to transfer the Holy Sepulcher from Jerusalem to Florence.

Subject(s)

BIO

Director of the Museo dell’Opera dell Duomo, Florence, Monsignor Timothy Verdon, a Canon of the city’s cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, is also Director of the Office of Sacred Art of the Florentine Archdiocese and former Consultor of the Vatican Commission of Church Heritage. Author of numerous books and articles on Christian art, Verdon, who has a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University and has been a Fellow of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti (Florence), is Robert and Katherine Burke Instructor in Art History at Stanford University’s Bing Center in Florence, Italy. Verdon, who has organized major exhibitions at Turin, Washington, D. C., Seoul and New York City, furnished the installation project of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, enlarged and entirely renovated in 2012–2015.

Giovanni Serafini (Florence, 1983) is an art historian who lives and works in Florence. His area of specialization is sacred iconology in Tuscan art from the 13th to the 17th century, with a preference for the Florentine Quattrocento and Seicento. He is the author of monographic books, scientific articles, essays, and curator of catalogues; he has extensive experience as a lecturer, curator, and director of exhibitions. He has organized several international conferences on art history and theology and has taught courses at the University of Florence and other specialized training schools in Florence, focusing on the Renaissance and Florentine Baroque. Since 2017, he has been employed at the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Summary

From the time of Dante through the 17th century and beyond, Florence had a special relationship with the Biblical Jerusalem—with the idea, that is, of a city chosen by God to be a sign of human peace. This collection of essays traces the development of this ‘Idea of Jerusalem’ from the Divine Comedy and medieval Holy Land pilgrimages through the 1439 Council of Florence, Savonarola’s end of the 15^th-century preaching, and the astonishing project of Grand Duke Ferdinand I to transfer the Holy Sepulcher from Jerusalem to Florence. The volume also recalls the city’s 19th- and 20th-century Jerusalem image.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Timothy Verdon, Foreword
Timothy Verdon, Introduction: Earthly City and ‘Coelestis urbs’. Florence and the Idea of Jerusalem

PART I: Biblical, historical, and cultural Background
Timothy Verdon, Jerusalem in the Bible: Theology, Poetry, Identity
Andrew Frisardi, Dante and Jerusalem
Franco Cardini, Three ‘Synoptic Journeys’ to Jerusalem, 1384-1385
Shulamit Furstenberg-Levi, Solomon’s Temple in the Writings of Jewish Humanists in the Renaissance
Alexei Lidov, The Florentine Hierotopy of the Holy Land: Lo Scoppio del Carro and Re-Enactments of the Jerusalem Miracle of the Paschal Fire
Gerhard Wolf, Jerusalem(s) in Florence: A Walk

PART II: The ‘Jerusalem moment’ of the Florence Council
Davide Baldi, Florence as New Jerusalem in the Documents of the Council (1439-1442)
Marcello Garzaniti, The Council and the City of Florence as Seen by Russians in the 15th and 16th Centuries
Alessandro Diana, Florence Between Athens and Jerusalem: Myth, Image, Reality
Luca Calzetta, “That Most Holy Although Unmovable Relic”: Ferdinando I and the Holy Sepulcher

PART III: The Arts
Ben Quash, “In England’s green and pleasant land”, The New Jerusalem in London
Annette Hoffman, Wood, Water and Earth. The Legend of the Holy Cross in Santa Croce in Florence
Lorenzo Gnocchi, Man in Heaven and the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth: The St. John the Evangelist Sacristy in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence
Diane Apostolos Cappadona, “…The smell of her consecrate lily”: The Madonna and Child as Conduit between the Earthly City and the Heavenly City in Florentine Medieval and Renaissance Art
Maria Lidova, The Mosaic Icon of Maria Orans in San Marco and Byzantine Imagery in Florence
Stefano Garzonio, The Image of Florence in Russian Poetry. From the Beautiful to the Sacred

PART IV: Monastic Roots
Martin Shannon CJ, The New Jerusalem as Compelling Vision: Monasticism and the Liturgy of Hope
Giulio Conticelli, Florence and Jerusalem. Giorgio La Pira: A 20th-Century Witness for the Third Millennium
Bernardo Francesco Maria Gianni OSB, The ‘Vocation and Mystery’ of Florence. A Prophetic Look at the New Jerusalem from San Miniato al Monte

PART V: The Exhibition
Timothy Verdon, The Exhibition New Jerusalem: A Contemporary Sacred Art Exhibition by Filippo Rossi and Susan Kanaga

List of Abbreviations

Author and Contributor Biographies

Image Credits

Media

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