Name: Savonarola's Writings

Date: 1000 - 1499

Location: Europe

SubjectReligious

MediumLiterature


Artist: Savonarola, Girolamo (1452-1498)

Confronting Bodies: The Church

Date of Action: 1497-98

Specific Location: Italy, Rome

Description of Artwork: Writings by Savonarola Dominican, a monk and spiritual reformer, who demanded church reforms and denounced papal corruption.

Description of Incident: 1497 Italy-Florence: Savonarola attempted to turn the pleasure loving Florentines from their "pagan" ways and turned the annual carnival into a "burning of the vanities", including works by Ovid, Propertius and Boccaccio.

Results of Incident: 1498 Italy: He was forced by tortures on the rack to confess his heresy in demanding church reforms and in denouncing papal corruptions. After the ceremonial of degradation, he was hung on a cross and burned with all his writings, sermons, essays, and pamphlets.

Source: Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., by Anne Lyon Haight, and Chandler B. Grannis, R.R. Bowker Co, 1978.

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