- Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- 617-552-6346
Franco Mormando
Boston College, Romance Languages and Literatures, Faculty Member
- Gianlorenzo Bernini, Bubonic Plague in Europe from 750 to 1347, Italian Studies, Italian Renaissance Art, Italian Baroque art, Early Modern Catholicism, and 23 moreSermon Studies, Bernardino da Siena, Baroque art and architecture, Teresa of Avila, Religious art and architecture, Mystical experience, Religious studies and Art history in religion, Council of Trent, Jesuits, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Collecting (Art), Baroque Art and Literature, Early modern Rome, Caravaggio, Mysticism, Italian (European History), Renaissance Studies, Bubonic Plague In Europe, Preaching, Antisemitism (Prejudice), Franciscan Studies, Early Modern European Witchcraft, and Baroque Sculptureedit
- FRANCO MORMANDO is Professor of Italian, Affiliate Faculty in the Dept. of History, and chairperson of the Dept. of R... moreFRANCO MORMANDO is Professor of Italian, Affiliate Faculty in the Dept. of History, and chairperson of the Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures at Boston College, where he has taught since 1994. Born and raised in Manhattan, he did his undergraduate degree (B.A.) at Columbia University. His two graduate degrees in Italian (M.A. and Ph.D.) are from Harvard University. He holds as well a licentiate (Master's degree) in church history from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, having also completed the Biennio di Filosofia program at the Gregorian University in Rome.
In 1999 he was principal curator and catalogue editor of the Boston Caravaggio exhibition, "Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image." He was also originator and co-curator of the 2005 exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum entitled "Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800" and edited a companion volume entitled, "Piety and Plague in Europe: From Byzantium to the Baroque," published in 2007. He has also served on the organizing committee of (and catalog contributor to) the exhibition, "The Holy Name. The Art of the Gesù: Bernini and His Age," at the Fairfield University Art Museum, featuring treasures from the Jesuit mother church of Rome, including Bernini's marble portrait of Roberto Bellarmino, in its first appearance outside of Rome (Feb-May 2018).
His book, "The Preacher's Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy," was published in 1999 by the University of Chicago Press and awarded the Howard Marraro Prize for Excellence in Italian historical scholarship by the American Catholic Historical Association.
Author of various interdisciplinary articles on Italian literature and history, popular religion and sermons, he has lectured extensively on the religious art and culture of early modern Italy at various universities and museums including the Metropolitan Museum; the Frick Museum, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.; and the Galleria Borghese, Rome.
The focus of his current research and writing is the Italian Baroque artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. His extensively annotated English translation and critical edition of Domenico Bernini’s "Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini" was published in Spring 2011 by Penn State University Press. Published in October 2011 by the University of Chicago Press was his own biography of Bernini entitled, "Bernini: His Life and His Rome," and representing the first English-language account of the artist’s private life and public career. He is currently at work on another Bernini volume entitled, "Bernini on Stage: The Artist as Playwright, Director, Actor and Scenographer."
He has given many presentations for the general public on his "Bernini: His Life and His Rome," in various venues, including the Kimbell Museum of Art (Ft. Worth, TX), the Phoenix Art Museum, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (San Francisco), the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC., Harvard and Yale Universities.
In September 2005, in recognition of his achievements in the promotion of the Italian language and culture, he was inducted by the Republic of Italy into its honorary Ordine della Stella Italiana with the title of "Cavaliere."
www.francomormando.comedit
This is the much expanded and final version of the conference paper that I have previously posted to academia.edu. Those wishing to cite my thoughts on the issue should please quote this published version. The attached pdf gives only the... more
This is the much expanded and final version of the conference paper that I have previously posted to academia.edu. Those wishing to cite my thoughts on the issue should please quote this published version. The attached pdf gives only the first two pages of text.
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entry on Silvestro Prierias in the "Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition" (Santa Barbara, Denver and Oxford: ABC-Clio, 2006), ed. Richard Golden, vol. 3, pp.932-33.
entry on Bernardino of Siena in the "Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition," ed. Richard Golden (Santa Barbara, Denver and Oxford: ABC-Clio, 2006), vol. 1, pp. 112-13.
encyclopedia entry on "Preachers and Preaching," in "Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia," ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, et al. (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), vol. 2 (L to Z), pp. 931-933.
This exhibition at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art (February-May 1999) takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the style, subject matter and functions of religious art in Italy between 1580-1680. The catalogue reproduces... more
This exhibition at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art (February-May 1999) takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the style, subject matter and functions of religious art in Italy between 1580-1680. The catalogue reproduces in color all of the paintings in the exhibition and includes a collection of essays that analyze how some of the period's most important artistic, religious and social concerns are encapsulated within the various images.
The entire catalogue is available free and online:
https://archive.org/details/saintssinnerscar00morm
The entire catalogue is available free and online:
https://archive.org/details/saintssinnerscar00morm
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Here presented is the first comprehensive inventory of the paintings on display in Gian Lorenzo Bernini's home by artists other than himself at the time of his death in November 1680. Although Bernini household inventories dating from... more
Here presented is the first comprehensive inventory of the paintings on display in Gian Lorenzo Bernini's home by artists other than himself at the time of his death in November 1680. Although Bernini household inventories dating from 1681-1771 have previously been published, none by itself is sufficient to arrive at a complete catalogue of the artist’s collection. By collating the family inventories with what is known of Bernini's career, personal and professional relationships, the oeuvre of the artists identified in the inventories, and data from art market records and provenance databases, the author has compiled the most detailed description of Bernini's collection available thus far, including, wherever possible, proposed new attributions, more accurate subject descriptions, and the present whereabouts of the works.
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published in Burlington Magazine, vol. 142, n. 1171, October 2000, pp. 624-29
published in "Fifteenth Century Studies," v. 24 (1998): 84-118
published in "Medievalia et Humanistica," n.s. 24, 1997, pp.95-122.
Regarding the Caravaggio exhibition, "Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image," which I organized in 1999
published in the volume, "The Holy Name. The Art of the Gesù: Bernini and His Age" (Philadelphia: St. Joseph's University Press, 2018), catalogue to the exhibition of the same name at the Fairfield University Art Museum (Feb-May 2018).... more
published in the volume, "The Holy Name. The Art of the Gesù: Bernini and His Age" (Philadelphia: St. Joseph's University Press, 2018), catalogue to the exhibition of the same name at the Fairfield University Art Museum (Feb-May 2018).
This is the first comprehensive survey of the career and publications of Oliva, Superior General of the Society of Jesus during a period of great expansion of the Order. It especially focuses on his role in changing the public face of the Jesuit Order through his decision to adopt the lavish Baroque style in the building and/or ornamentation of the Jesuit churches in Rome, and on his relationship with Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
This is the first comprehensive survey of the career and publications of Oliva, Superior General of the Society of Jesus during a period of great expansion of the Order. It especially focuses on his role in changing the public face of the Jesuit Order through his decision to adopt the lavish Baroque style in the building and/or ornamentation of the Jesuit churches in Rome, and on his relationship with Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
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presents for the first time a newly identified presentation drawing by the Bernini workshop (clearly executed under the guidance of the master) which recently entered the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum (Burlington, Nov... more
presents for the first time a newly identified presentation drawing by the Bernini workshop (clearly executed under the guidance of the master) which recently entered the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum (Burlington, Nov 2017, v. CLIX, n. 1376)
This book examines in great depth the sermons and other texts of Franciscan Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444), one of the most popular preachers of Renaissance Italy, second only to Savonarola, relating to the figure of the witch, the... more
This book examines in great depth the sermons and other texts of Franciscan Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444), one of the most popular preachers of Renaissance Italy, second only to Savonarola, relating to the figure of the witch, the sodomite, and the Jew. Bernardino's portrait of the three figures is described and analyzed in detail, and placed in the larger context of discourse about them in circulation at the time. It concludes by considering the direct impact of the friar's fiery rhetoric on contemporary society and beyond.
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review of Girolamo Mercuriale, On Pestilence, translated with introduction and notes by Craig Martin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), in "Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme," 45.2 (Spring 2022):... more
review of Girolamo Mercuriale, On Pestilence, translated with introduction and notes by Craig Martin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), in "Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme," 45.2 (Spring 2022): 227-29.
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published in "Italian Culture," v. 21, 2003, pp. 185-87
review published in "Religion and the Arts" 22.3 (2018): 362-364; book published by Reaktion Books (London, 2016).
published in The Sixteenth Century Journal, v. 34, n. 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 181-83
Review of "The Arts and Jesuit Influence in the Era of Catholic Reform," ed. Audrey Nicholls, 2016, published in "The Journal of Jesuit Studies" 3.4 (2016): 722-24
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published in caa.reviews online, December 27, 2013
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A MUCH EXPANDED, FINAL VERSION OF MY RESEARCH ON THE ISSUE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN WORD AND IMAGE (39:4, DECEMBER, 2023): PLEASE NOW REFER TO THE PUBLISHED VERSION (SEE ABOVE)