Synopses & Reviews
In 1566 a flamboyant Frenchman who called himself Dionisio Gallo mesmerized crowds of onlookers as he preached in the courtyard of the ducal palace in Venice. Believing he had been anointed by the Virgin, he delivered a message of reform of church and society. Soon he was arrested, tried before the Inquisition, and banished. In
The Anointment of Dionisio, Marion Leathers Kuntz tells the bizarre tale of this itinerant preacher, using his story to illuminate the checkered political and religious landscape of Counter-Reformation Europe.
No ragged John the Baptist, Dionisio preached in an elegant Latin, demonstrated a command of the intellectual tradition of prophetic writings, dressed so splendidly that many thought him a great prelate, and attracted the devotion of the king of France and a cluster of reform-minded princes and Venetian senators. So powerful was his call for reform that ecclesiastical authorities hesitated to arrest him and seemed confounded when they attempted to interrogate him. Kuntz recounts Dionisio's career with considerable aplomb, making a man who still remains mysterious in many ways come to life. In the end Kuntz gives us a richly layered depiction of the relationship between politics and religious reform during the decade of the Council of Trent. We learn how much prophecy and eschatology, especially when delivered by someone as persuasive, literate, and commanding as Dionisio, could still attract the intelligentsia of France and Italy.
Review
“There is a wealth of erudition behind this book. A lot of connections have been made.”
—Thomas Kuehn, Journal of Modern History
Review
“One could ask no more of any biography.”
—Matthew Treherne, Times Literary Supplement
Review
“This exciting book explodes several widely held myths about the spiritual climate of Italy during the late sixteenth century. . . . This well-crafted history brings the reader into the pleasures and challenges of historical detective work at its best.”
—Giustificativo
Review
“We may never know whether Dionisio postponed the consummation of the age to a much later date and made the transition from ‘rooster’ to ‘owl,’ but Kuntz has shown how Dionisio’s prophecies appealed to many people in early modern Europe and she effectively contributes to recent work on the importance of prophetic discourses in the political, social, and religious history of the period.”
—Stephen Bowd, American Historical Review
Review
“Frequent drawing of parallels between Dionisio and W. Postel, subject of Kuntz’s earlier work, illuminates corners of the development of apocalyptic reform movements and thinking in the middle of the sixteenth century. A significant contribution.”
—Robert Kolb, Religious Studies Review
Synopsis
Kuntz tells the tale of the itinerant preacher Dionisio Gallo, using his story to depict the political and religious landscape of Counter-Reformation Europe and the relationship between politics and religious reform during the decade of the Council of Trent. We see how much prophecy and eschatology still attracts the intellects of France and Italy.
About the Author
Marion Leathers Kuntz is Fuller Callaway Professor of Classics at Georgia State University. She translated and edited Jean Bodin's Colloquium of the Seven About Secrets of the Sublime (1975) and is the author of Guillaume Postel, Prophet of the Restitution of All Things: His Life and Thought (1981).