Vernacular Theology: Dominican Sermons and Audience in Late Medieval Italy by Eliana Corbari (review)

Eliana Corbari’s book analyses “vernacular theology” as a product of preaching to the laity in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Florence, seeking to understand the way lay audience received, recorded, and distributed Dominican sermons. By focusing on “vernacular theology” as a purposely ambiguous category, generally considered to be a theological tradition distinct from monastic and scholastic theologies, Corbari contributes to direction of scholarship influenced by the works of Bernard McGinn and Nicholas Watson. Both scholars have argued that vernacular theological tradition is distinct not only in its use of vernacular languages—in an attempt to reach its lay, non-Latin speaking audience—but also in the kinds of concepts and ideas emphasized. Above all, “vernacular theology,” even when it was composed in Latin (as the vita of Villana de’ Botti, analyzed by Corbari in chapter 4), represented the concerns of lay audience and was influenced by vernacular linguistic and cultural milieu. (7) In Florentine context in particular, literacy in Latin and vulgare often coexisted, especially among the urban elites, although Latin literacy should not be presumed.

Drawing on a variety of genres, Corbari focuses in particular on sermon collections (both Latin and vernacular), vernacular reportationes (sermons recorded by the audience) and treatises, and hagiographies, but also employs visual sources, where necessary. The book provides an important addition to the field of sermon studies and especially, as she points out, to the study of medieval Italian vernacular sermons, an area that lacked sufficient scholarly attention until now. Corbari corrects this by looking at the recorded sermons by Jacopo da Varazze and Giordano da Pisa, and a vernacular treatise on penitence by Jacopo Passavanti. Vernacular Theology, however, sets out to do more than just fill an academic lacuna; the book demonstrates crucial role of vernacular sermons and of their audiences in framing a particular theological discourse, distinct in many ways from the discourses one could meet in Latin sermons intended for monastic or university audiences. Moreover, by the later medieval period vernacular theology was “a more varied tradition which … was probably more widespread than the other two [kinds].” (64) Crucially, because vernacular preaching sought to deliver sermons in an accessible way and formed a dialogue between the preacher and his lay audience, it was a venue for the expression popular spirituality, especially of those who could not preach themselves.

Corbari focuses on the influence of women on vernacular theology, in particular as “influential readers and disseminators” (64) of sermons. In chapter 2 she provides the results of her study of vernacular sermon collections in Florentine public libraries and observes that although the majority of Latin manuscripts of Jacopo da Varazze can be traced to male monastic institutions, vernacular manuscripts of Passavanti and Giordano are not only more numerous, but are “great indicators of female readership.” (104) According to Corbari, Florentine women not only attended sermons or contributed to their circulation; they also influenced the formation of vernacular theology by engaging in conversations with the Dominican preachers or by leading religiously active lives. As Corbari demonstrates in chapter 4, one such woman, Villana de’ Botti (1332–1361) had demonstrable ties to both the mendicant preachers at Santa Maria Novella and the Florentine laity. Villana’s vita reports that she used to fast, claiming to have lost her bodily appetites while reading the Scripture; to Corbari, fasting and learning represent penitential practices, which along with her regular confessions, were particularly important for female spirituality. Shortly after her death, Villana’s memory became a focal point of lay devotion in Florence, especially among the lay-women and confraternities; her memory also inspired other women to engage more actively in sponsoring and disseminating vernacular theology.

Corbari’s book is an ambitious project that not only contributes to our understanding of the role of vernacular theology and vernacular preaching in shaping popular religious culture (and vice versa), but clarifies the crucial role of women in this process. Supported by impressive codicological and textual...