San Giobbe nell’Italia del Rinascimento. Le dimensioni di una devozione

The first chronicles on the diffusion of the “french disease” in Italy date back to the summer of 1495. As it was interpreted as a divine punishment and a new and incurable illness, the disease was promptly associated to the one that had affected Job. The essay focuses on the analysis of two poems (cantari) in ottava rima: the Historia di sancto Iob propheta of Giuliano Dati, and a briefer remake, the anonymous Prego devotissimo. The two pamphlets were diffused at a low cost and it’s probable that they were publicly read in squares. In respect with the Bible, they supply a very simplified version, where the steady patience of the protagonist in suffering and tribulations is enhanced on the only basis of its prose frame context (instead, the lively poetic dialogue with his friends is almost completely wiped out). To «Saint Job», to whom people appeal so that he could intercede to God in favour of the sinners and persuade them to imitate him, was, therefore, dedicated a cult promoted by confraternities entitled to him. These confraternities founded hospitals for ‘the Incurables’, specifically for french disease-affected patients dedicated in some cases to the same Job, patron of the franciosati. In addition, a series of literary and iconographic documents (fifteen for central-northern Italy) witness the devotion.