Savonarola e il savonarolismo

Although a plethora of books and articles has been published detailing the life, works, and mission of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), surprisingly little has been written about Savonarolism, the movement he launched from his pulpit and writing desk in Florence. This imbalance was addressed slightly more than a decade ago by Lorenzo Polizzotto's magisterial The Elect Nation: The Savonarolan Movement in Florence 1494–1545 (Oxford, 1994). Stefano Dall'Aglio's current volume renews this effort by extending our gaze to the very end of the sixteenth century and by addressing a more general readership. Consequently, his contribution is both more wide-ranging and encyclopedic, though no less vital for students and scholars working on Renaissance history or on early modern reform movements. As Dall'Aglio clearly points out, his volume seeks to draw Savonarolism from the scholarly niche in which it has been confined and to make it accessible to all readers, even nonspecialists. While the examina-tion is, as the author himself admits, clearly slanted towards a historical approach, it also provides fruitful material for researchers in other disciplines, such as the history of religion or even cultural studies. This is because Savonarola's impact on Florentine — and, by extension, European — culture was both profound and long-lasting, as attested by his presence in the writings of transalpine reformers or in the periodic resurgence of Piagnone elements in the years and centuries following his execution.

Dall'Aglio organizes his examination into twelve short, clearly-defined chapters firmly anchored to a chronological approach. He thus begins with "Savonarola in Florence (1490–94)," providing the reader with a solid biographical and historical basis for the friar's presence in Florence and his subsequent impact on the city. He then follows through with "Political-Religious Action: Consensus and Polemics (1495–96)," detailing the friar's early influence on the post-Medicean Florentine political arena. After progressing through the clash between radicals and conservatives, the excommunication, and the trial and execution, Dall'Aglio examines the cult of Savonarola that developed immediately following his death and the repression the cult elicited from both ecclesiastical and government authorities during the various republican governments of 1498–1512, and then during the Medici restoration of 1512. Moving from politics to religion, Dall'Aglio dedicates his next chapter to the impact Savonarola's message had during the first ten years of the Reformation. With the last republic and the creation of the hereditary duchy, Dall'Aglio returns to the political arena and moves the volume into its final section, recounting the novel way in which the neo-Piagnoni responded to the changing political and religious climate of their day. Here Dall'Aglio charts the various efforts by Savonarola's disciples to adapt their leader's teachings and prophecies to the new ideologies of the Counter-Reformation and political absolutism. After examining an unexpected, final polemical gasp on the part of some neo-Piagnoni that elicited the involvement of the Inquisition, the volume ends with a chapter on the historical revisionism of the second half of the sixteenth century that turned Savonarola into a champion of Counter-Reformation orthodoxy. A discursive bibliography organized by chapter and an index of proper names complete the volume.

Aware that Savonarola was the most prolific Italian author of the Quattrocento, Dall'Aglio charts his course through the rocky waters of Savonarolism on the portolano of the publishing industry, carefully following the friar's excellent use of the printing press as an agent for change in the reform of morals and culture. The friar's sermons, for example, were published in record time and with high press-runs. This, plus their low price and their having been written in the vernacular, guaranteed their immediate diffusion and their success among a vast general public. Their message, however, was not always quietly embraced, but gave rise to heated controversies that engaged not only his fellow religious, but also laymen, who took pen in hand to accuse or defend the friar, as the case might be. Analyzing these debates with a keen eye firmly fixed on contemporary political events, Dall'Aglio chronicles the printing war between the Piagnoni and Arrabbiati well into the sixteenth century, providing the reader with a thorough, systematic history of the movement and its members.

Dall'Aglio's beautifully written volume is a pleasure to read for the clarity of its narrative voice and the thoroughness of its scholarly research. While the brevity of the volume (only 190 pages of text) might leave some readers hungering for more, it also ensures that the history of Savonarolism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries can be made readily available to a more general public of scholars and students. Because of this, the work will quickly find its place on the shelves of college and university libraries.