The Politics of Ritual Kinship: Confraternities and Social Order in Early Modern Italy (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture)

Between the twelfth and the eighteenth centuries Italians frequently joined "confraternities" that made them symbolic brothers and sisters to one another. These kin groups launched extensive charitable programs, directed civic and religious rituals, and socialized members in class and gender roles. These essays examine how medieval religious and political values shaped early ritual kinship, how sixteenth-century social change and religious reform transformed confraternities, and how these altered groups became key agents in achieving the more rigid social order of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

"...this valuable collection introduces scholars to important historiographical and methodological questions, expands the geographic and chronological boundaries that have traditionally defined Italian studies, and test the applicability of innovative interpretations of political and social change." Sixteenth Century Journal