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A Fake Saint and the True Church: The Story of a Forgery in Seventeenth-Century Naples

by Stefania Tutino (professor Of History, Professor Of History, Unversity Of California, Los Angeles)

  • Hardback
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • 14 x 21 x 2.2 cm

£31.23

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A Fake Saint and the True Church uncovers the remarkable story of a fake saint to tell a tale about truth. It begins at the end of the 1650s, when a large quantity of forged documents suddenly appeared throughout the Kingdom of Naples. Narrating the life and deeds of a previously unknown medieval saint named Giovanni Calà, the trove generated much excitement around the kingdom. No one was more delighted by the news than Carlo Calà, Giovanni's wealthy and politically influential seventeenth-century descendant. Attracted by the prospect of adding a saint to the family tree, Carlo presented Giovanni's case to the Roman Curia. The Catholic authorities, however, immediately realized that the sources were forged, and that Giovanni was not real (let alone holy). Yet, it took more than two decades before the forgery was exposed: why? Vividly reconstructing the intricate case of the supposed saint, Stefania Tutino explores the tensions between historical and theological truth. How much could the truth of doctrine depend on the truth of the facts before religion lost its connection with the supernatural? To what extent could the truth of doctrine ignore the truth of the facts without ending up engulfed in falsity and deceit? How could the absolute truth of theology relate to the far less absolute certainty of human affairs? This story of a fake saint illuminates early modern tensions. But the struggles to distinguish between facts, opinions, and beliefs remain with us. Examining, as this book does, how our predecessors dealt with the relationship between truth and authenticity guides us too in thinking through what is true and what is not.
A Fake Saint and the True Church: The Story of a Forgery in Seventeenth-Century Naples and The Many Faces of Credulitas: Credibility, Credulity, and Belief in Post-Reformation Catholicism
The Many Faces of Credulitas: Credibility, Credulity, and Belief in Post-Reformation CatholicismA Fake Saint and the True Church: The Story of a Forgery in Seventeenth-Century Naples

  • Author

    Stefania Tutino (professor Of History, Professor Of History, Unversity Of California, Los Angeles)

  • Book Format

    Hardcover

  • Publisher

    Oxford University Press

  • Published

    September 2021

  • Weight

    346g

  • Dimensions

    14 x 21 x 2.2 cm

  • ISBN

    9780197578803

  • ISBN-10

    0197578802

  • Eden Code

    5566155

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