In 5-6 April, 2024, Jenni participated in the conference “Rome in the Renaissance: Global Projections on Religious Identities and Dissent” at John Cabot University, Rome. The conference was organised by JCU Department of History and Humanities and Roma Tre University’s Department of Humanistic Studies. Members of the organising committee were Fabrizio Conti, Paolo Broggio, and Andrea Vanni. During the two days, participants of the conference discussed various themes related to social and cultural life of Renaissance and Catholic Reformation.
Jenni’s talk in the conference examined the ways miracles healing illnesses that were caused by malevolent magic were used by the promoters of the sainthood of Filippo Neri, the most famous Roman saint from the Catholic Reformation period, and of Carlo Borromeo, the cardinal archbishop of Milan. Her talk also addressed the paradox of such ‘witchcraft miracles’: while they clearly were an important proof of holiness in the period, responding to the everyday worries of the citizens of Rome and Milan, among the vast number of miracles recorded in this period, they are always a small minority. The talk is a part of Jenni’s on-going research project on the religious experience of ill health in Early Modern Italy.