CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Ivic, Ines |
|---|---|
| Title | The Birth of a National Saint: The Cult of Saint Jerome in Late Medieval Dalmatia |
| Summary | This dissertation studies the cult of Saint Jerome (c. 345–420), a Church Father, in the Eastern Adriatic Coast during the Late Middle Ages, focusing on the Dalmatian communes. The saint gained great prominence there around the middle of the fifteenth century, when he started to be celebrated as a patron saint of Dalmatia. His image became ubiquitous in the main urban centers of the region. Artistic productions that represent the image of Saint Jerome form the main body of evidence for this thesis. By analyzing these primary sources, observing the correlation of St. Jerome’s artistic representation together with devotional literature and archival sources, and placing the commissions in historical context, this work redresses a significant omission in historical and art historical scholarship which has previously failed to adequately present the significance of his cult. This thesis questions the hitherto established historiographical conclusions regarding the veneration of the saint in the region considered to be his patria and by the people who saw themselves as his compatriots, and offers a fresh perspective on the formation of the regional peculiarities of the cult. The dynamics of adopting the popular and widespread humanist cult that bloomed in the Apennine peninsula at the period is presented. However, the emphasis is placed on its subsequent adaptation and the development of the cult’s regional characteristics, which resulted in Jerome’s image as a national saint within the early proto-national narratives emerging among the Dalmatian and Croatian intellectual elites. While the general focus is placed on the contextualization of the regional and national aspects of veneration, the thesis also analyzes the saint’s cult in Dalmatia as a reflection of different cultural, intellectual, devotional, and political changes during—politically unstable but culturally advanced—the fifteenth century. Such an approach underlines the advanced humanist circles in the communes as the main factor in cultural progress. Jerome’s image is rooted in numerous aspects of Croatian culture and spirituality during the late Middle Ages and through all subsequent centuries: this determines his position as a Croatian saint. Due to the ramifications of the cult, the reach of the cultural environment in which it takes place, the number of the peculiar expressions of the cult, and the involvement of the bearers of regional Renaissance culture and intellectual development, the veneration of the saint is observed as a mirror of Croatian Renaissance production. |
| Supervisor | Klaniczay, Gábor |
| Department | Medieval Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/ivic_ines.pdf |
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