In the company of demons : unnatural beings, love, and identity in the Italian Renaissance / Armando Maggi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maggi, Armando.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Devil--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Devil.

Renaissance.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Who are the familiar spirits of classical culture and what is their relationship to Christian demons? In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, semi-gods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of the household, the lares and penates.But with In the Company of Demons, the world's leading demonologist Armando Maggi argues that the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance had a more nuanced and perhaps less sinister interpretation of these creatures or spiritual bodies. Maggi leads us straight to the heart of what Italian Renaissance culture thought familiar spirits were. Through close readings of Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Strozzi Cigogna, Pompeo della Barba, Ludovico Sinistrari, and others, we find that these spirits or demons speak through their sudden and striking appearances-their very bodies seen as metaphors to be interpreted. The form of the body, Maggi explains, relies on the spirits' knowledge of their human interlocutors' pasts. But their core trait is compassion, and sometimes their odd, eerie arrivals are seen as harbingers or warnings to protect us. It comes as no surprise then that when spiritual beings distort the natural world to communicate, it is vital that we begin to listen.

Contents:

To read the body of a monster

To recall the spirits past

The shadows and their beloved bodies

What does human mean?

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-230) and index.

ISBN:

9786612537547

9781282537545

1282537547

9780226501291

0226501299

OCLC:

609634774