A che santo votarsi. L’influsso dei grandi terremoti del 1703 sulla cultura popolare

Abstract

Fear and its corollary, the need for reassurance and protection, are feelings as old as humankind, that every culture had to learn to cope with in its own way. There are positive ways of coping, by developing mechanisms (beliefs, behaviours, rules, rituals, myths, scientific theories, theological explanations to name a few) that help to accept/explain/set in context the fear, thus keeping it in check; and there are negative ways, by which one strives to forget, as soon and as well as possible, whatever it was that made one afraid and needing reassurance. Each way has its pros and cons, the ultimate choice being, most often, dictated by circumstances as well as by the general cultural outlook of the involved parties. This paper studies the “spiritual strategies” adopted by the communities that experienced the great Italian earthquakes of 1703, trying to determine whether they simply followed well-established patterns or whether they presented some elements of novelty.