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The fifteenth century was a period of cultural change and religious dynamism, during which European laypeople participated actively in religious life and contributed to the creation of a lively religious reading culture in the vernacular. 1 In this essay we will investigate how a specific group of laypeople, individuals and groups of literate artisans in late medieval French and Italian towns, participated in distinctive ways in contemporary devotional reading culture. Exposed to biblical translations and new vernacular spiritual guides, artisans were stimulated to combine the vita activa with religious activities and to find religious significance in their public and private lives. A distinct artisanal devotional culture is visible in the ways that artisans integrated their social, vocational, and religious identities. This is also testified by the artisans' appropriation of religious texts and their scribal and reading activities as expressions of devotion.Our analysis of colophons and ownership marks in manuscripts, combined with the study of wills and inventories, shows that vernacular religious books were common features in the houses and workshops of late medieval artisans, from members of the less powerful guilds, such as butchers and secondhand retailers, to the highest-ranking artisans, such as wool workers and goldsmiths. Moreover, we show that the agency of artisans went far beyond writing marks of ownership: many artisanal book owners evolved into collectors of texts and manuscripts for their domestic libraries. In some cases, artisans copied texts for themselves and for kindred spirits within family and professional circles. They collaborated with preachers to disseminate reportationes of sermons. Some even authored religious texts that expand upon religious knowledge acquired through their reading and participation in religious activities organized by confraternities and other associations (e.g., parishes, schools, and hospitals).As collectors, scribes, and authors, artisans became agents in the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern StudiesPublished by Duke University Press

Introducing a thematic section, this article presents an overview and some of the theoretical considerations resulting from COST Action IS1301, an international research network devoted to the study of lay religious culture during the long fifteenth century. A particular aim of this network was to discuss new European narratives framing the important transformations of lay religious culture during the period c. 1350–1550—a complex historical process that is still often obscured by the competing older narratives of Reformation, humanism, and Renaissance which shape the historiographical heritage. To get beyond the “methodological nationalism” and “methodological modernism” inherent in older paradigms, the article suggests viewing the transformation of lay religious culture as a long-term process of cultural evolution. It closes with an overview of the most important aspects of this evolutionary process during the long fifteenth century.

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