Saints as intercessors between the wealthy and the divine : art and hagiography among the medieval merchant classes

Offering snapshots of mercantile devotion to saints in different regions, this volume is the first to ask explicitly how merchants invoked saints, and why. Despite medieval and modern stereotypes of merchants as godless and avaricious, medieval traders were highly devout - and rightly so. Overseas trade was dangerous, and merchants' commercial activities were seen as jeopardizing their souls. Merchants turned to saints for protection and succor, identifying those most likely to preserve their goods, families, reputations, and souls. The essays in this collection, written from diverse angles, range across later medieval western Europe, from Spain to Italy to England and the Hanseatic League. They offer a multi-disciplinary examination of the ways that medieval merchants, from petty traders to influential overseas wholesalers, deployed the cults of saints. Three primary themes are addressed: danger, community, and the unity of spiritual and cultural capital. Each of these themes allows the international panel of contributors to demonstrate the significant role of saints in mercantile life. This book is unique in its exploration of saints and commerce, shedding light on the everyday role religion played in medieval life. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of religious history, medieval history, art history, and literature. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Contributors 10 Acknowledgments 14 Chapter 1: Introduction 16 Notes 27 Bibliography 33 Part I: Merchant devotion to regional saints 40 Chapter 2: Cuthbertine hermits and North Sea merchant traders 42 Notes 53 Bibliography 56 Chapter 3: The Sunday saint: Keeping a holy “merchant’s time” in the Middle English Life of Erasmus1 59 Notes 71 Bibliography 78 Chapter 4: Birgitta of Sweden and the merchant classes of Lübeck 85 Introduction: Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order 85 The reception of the Revelationes Sanctae Birgittae in Lübeck 86 The adaptation of the Revelationes into Middle Low German 87 Lübeck: Queen of the Hanse and Imperial Free City 88 Devotional literature in Lübeck: The Mohnkopf Press 91 The readership of the Mohnkopf Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe 93 Conclusion 96 Notes 96 Bibliography 99 Part II: Merchant patronage and individualized piety 102 Chapter 5: For the hope of salvation and the honor of family: Merchant devotional concerns in early sixteenth-century Burgos1 104 Burgos and its merchants 105 The carved altarpiece in Burgos 106 The funerary altarpiece of Fernando Castro de la Hoz 107 The funerary altarpiece of García de Salamanca 109 The funerary altarpiece of Gonzalo López de Polanco 111 Salvation and apostolic devotion 112 Female piety 113 Conclusion 115 Notes 116 Bibliography 121 Unprinted sources 121 Chapter 6: For salvation or reputation?: The representation of saints in a Jouvenel des Ursins book of hours 125 The social and political ambitions of the Jouvenel des Ursins family 127 Material culture as a basis for legitimate nobility 129 Devotional manuscripts as markers of social status 130 Sacred or secular intercession in the Suffrages? 134 Conclusion 140 Notes 141 Bibliography 145 Chapter 7: Spaces and times for worship: Merchant devotion to the saints in late medieval Barcelona 149 Scenes of a private devotion 150 The public spiritual sphere 150 Danger at sea27 153 Merchants’ role in the importation of relics 158 Drawing conclusions 158 Notes 159 Bibliography 165 Chapter 8: The Fisher Miscellany: Reconstructing a late medieval merchant family’s book and its fashionable hagiography 171 Reconstructing a late medieval merchant family’s book and its fashionable hagiography 171 Notes 184 Bibliography 188 Part III: Holy protectors for merchant corporations 192 Chapter 9: London’s goldsmiths and the cult of St. Dunstan, ca. 1430–15301 194 Notes 210 Bibliography 215 Chapter 10: Success, salvation, and servitude: Tallinn’s Brotherhood of the Black Heads and its relationship with local and regional saint cults1 219 St. Mauritius and the heraldic crest of the Brotherhood 220 Corporate identity and the Saint Nicholas Altarpiece: Sts. Nicholas, Victor, and George 222 Divine intervention and the Mary Altarpiece: A double intercession 233 Conclusion 239 Notes 239 Bibliography 248 Chapter 11: Reanimating the power of holy protectors: Merchants and their saints in the visual culture of medieval and early modern Venice 253 Introduction 253 Trade, crusade, and Venetian merchant endeavors 253 St. Mark and Venetian belonging in the eastern Mediterranean 255 St. Isidore and triumph over Venice’s Christian rivals 262 St. George as holy warrior in the eastern Mediterranean 267 Conclusion 273 Notes 274 Bibliography 280 Part IV: Patterns of saintly intercession in the late medieval world 286 Chapter 12: The service of merchants: Politics, wealth, and intercessional devotion in later medieval Italy 288 Intercessory models in comparison 289 Political instability and local devotion 294 The effect of wealth and status on forms of intercession 298 Notes 301 Bibliography 303 Index 306 Offering snapshots of mercantile devotion to saints in different regions, this volume is the first to explicitly ask how merchants invoked saints, and why. The essays in this collection, written from diverse angles, range across later medieval western Europe, from Spain to Italy to England and the Hanseatic League.