Nicholas of Myra, a bishop who lived between the third and fourth centuries AD, is considered to be the historical character on which the legendary figure of Santa Claus is based. His bones, which were brought to Bari in the Italian region of Apulia in 1087, are known in the Christian world for a particular trait: they exude a substance, considered miraculous by some, called manna. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the debate that was conducted on natural philosophical grounds during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on the origins and nature of this liquid.
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Nicola Pende, “Discorso del Rettore Magnifico,” in Cerimonia inaugurale della R. Università di Bari (Noicattaro: Fiorentino, 1925), p. 9. On the controversial figure of Nicola Pende, traditionally considered to be the first signatory of the Manifesto of Racist Scientists (1938), see Francesco Cassata, La difesa della razza: Politica, ideologia e immagini del razzismo fascista (Turin: Einaudi, 2008), passim.
Robin A. Donkin, Manna: An Historical Geography (The Hague: Junk, 1980).
Gian Luigi Beccaria, I nomi del mondo: Santi, demoni, folletti e le parole perdute (Turin: Einaudi, 2000), 2nd ed., p. 43.
Penne L. Restad, Christmas in America: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 45-56.
Michele Bacci, San Nicola: Il grande taumaturgo (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2009), pp. 4-31, 61-98.
Giuseppe Bonafede, Atti di San Nicolao il grande (Ferrara: Pomatelli, 1727), 4th ed., pp. 51-52.
Richard Krautheimer, “Mensa-Coemeterium-Martyrium,” Cahiers archéologiques, 1960, 11: 15-40; Beat Brenk, “Der Kultort, seine Zugänglichkeit und seine Besucher,” in Akten des XII. Internationalen Kongresses für christliche Archäologie, eds. Ernst Dassmann and Josef Engemann (Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1995), part 1, pp. 69-122.
Jules Pargoire, “Apomyrisma,” in Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, eds. Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclercq (Paris: Letozey et Ané, 1907-1953), vol. 1., cc. 2603-2604.
John Duffy, “Byzantine Medicine in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries,” in Symposium on Byzantine Medicine, ed. John Scarborough (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1984), pp. 21-27.
Pierre Maraval, Lieux saints et pèlerinages d’Orient. Histoire et géographie des origines à la conquête arabe (Paris: Cerf, 1985), pp. 189-90; Canetti, Olea sanctorum (cit. note 20), pp. 1344-1346.
Gerardo Cioffari, “La manna di S. Nicola: Testimonianze storiche di una devozione,” Nicolaus, 2004, 1: 209-248.
Pietro Giannone, Istoria civile del Regno di Napoli (Naples: Naso, 1723), t. 1, p. 525; Putignani, Vindiciae (cit. note 12), p. 76.
Piero Camporesi, La carne impassibile: Salvezza e salute tra Medioevo e Controriforma (Milan: Garzanti, 1994), p. 22.
Grégoire de Tours, De Gloria martyrum (Cologne: Cholin, 1583), p. 37.
Niccolò Putignani, Istoria della vita, de’ miracoli e della traslazione del gran taumaturgo S. Niccolò … (Naples: Raimondi, 1776), pp. 22-35. A modern anthology may be found in Umberto Cordier, Guida ai luoghi miracolosi d’Italia (Casale Monferrato: Piemme, 1999), passim.
Marino Niola, Sui palchi delle stelle: Napoli, il sacro, la scena (Rome: Meltemi, 1995), pp. 53-86. On this subject, also see the classic studies: Romeo De Maio, Società e vita religiosa a Napoli nell’età moderna. 1656-1799 (Naples: Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1971); Jean-Michel Sallmann, Naples et ses saints à l'âge baroque: 1540-1750 (Paris: PUF, 1994).
David Gentilcore, From Bishop to Witch: The System of the Sacred in Early Modern Terra d’Otranto (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), pp. 187-193; id., Healers and Healing in Early Modern Italy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), pp. 1-28.
Anonymous, Vita della Beata Beatrice seconda d’Este (Ferrara: Rinaldi, 1777), p. 95.
Richard Sugg, Mummies, Cannibals, and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians (London: Routledge, 2011).
Johann Schröder, Pharmacopoeia medico-chymica … (Ulm: Gerlin, 1644), p. 270. This division of the materials, as well as many of Schröder’s preparations, can be found copied word for word in numerous later publications. Often these pharmaceutical texts were mere compilations, which makes it quite difficult to understand which of the medicines were actually used.
Mabel Peacock, “Executed Criminals and Folk-Medicine,” Folk-Lore, 7: 268-283; Sara Tarlow, Ritual, Belief and the Dead in Early Modern Britain and Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 156-190.
Alessandro Venturini, Secretario degli animali cioè secreti medicinali, che dalle parti d’ogni uno d’essi si cava (Milan: Ghisolfi, 1649). On this subject, see Piero Camporesi, Il pane selvaggio (Milan: Garzanti, 1983), pp. 39-61. The issue is obviously much more complex. In Italy, for example, popular medicine and magical practices continued for a long period to make use of the bodies of the executed (and of the hanged, as well as of the soil on which their blood fell), to which were attributed quasi-thaumaturgic powers. However, the physicians to whom, together with Fortunio, reference is being made did not generally attribute greater efficacy to cadaverous substances taken from victims of the gallows than to body parts obtained from the corpses of those who died from other causes. What mattered was that they derived from young subjects who had met with a violent death. In short, in the modern age learned medicine – alongside and under the influence of the Catholic Church – tried to semanticize prior traditions anew, exerting pressure to remove the magical dimension from the cadaver which, stripped of all autonomous operative power, could definitively become the intermediary for actions desired and managed directly by God. G. Baronti, La morte in piazza: Opacità della giustizia, ambiguità del boia e trasparenza del patibolo in età moderna (Lecce: Argo, 2000), pp. 143-193; 345-393.
Christian Friedrich Garmann, De miraculis mortuorum (Dresden and Leipzig: Zimmermann, 1709), p. 458.
Mario Rosa, Settecento religioso: Politica della ragione e religione del cuore (Venice: Marsilio, 1999), pp. 47-73, 149-184.
Nicolò Carmine Falcone, L’intera istoria … del glorioso martire San Gennaro (Naples: Mosca, 1713). On this subject, see Giulio Sodano, “Il falso turpissimo di Nicolò Carminio Falcone tra agiografia e storiografia napoletana,” Campania sacra, 2007, 38: 131-148.
Fernando Vidal, “Miracles, Science, and Testimony in Post-Tridentine Saint-Making,” Science in Context, 2007, 20: 481-508.
Annick Le Guérer, Les pouvoirs de l’odeur (Paris: Jacob, 1998), pp. 140-146.
Suzanne Evans, “The Scent of a Martyr,” Numen, 2002, 49: 193-211; Rvka Nir, “The Aromatic Fragrances of Paradise in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve and the Christian Origin of Composition,” Novum Testamentum, 2004, 46: 20-45.
Paolo Segneri, Panegirici sacri (Venice: Valvasense, 1692), 2nd ed., p. 404. Nicholas, appearing in an apparition before Bridget of Sweden, is said to have told her: “Verily, you know that as the rose emanates its odor and its sweetness, so God gave my body the singular blessing of emanating oil.” Bridget of Sweden, Revelations, 6, 103.
Girolamo Cardano, De rerum varietate (Basel: n.p., 1557), book 8, chap. 44, pp. 577-578.
Johann Christoph Sturm, Physica electiva (Nuremberg: Endter, 1697), vol. 1, chap. 5, p. 202.
In 1755, when a corner of the basilica was excavated, water surfaced and continued to flow for about one month. However, it is said that this water was salty. Ibid., p. 6.
Fortunato of Brescia, Philosophia sensuum mechanica (Venice: Remondini, 1756), vol. 4, part 2, § 3974, p. 50; Domenico Guglielmini, De salibus (Venice: Pavino, 1705), § 60, p. 81.
Luigi Martino, Le reliquie di S. Nicola … (Bari: Centro Studi Nicolaiani, 1987), p. 10.
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Nicholas of Myra, a bishop who lived between the third and fourth centuries AD, is considered to be the historical character on which the legendary figure of Santa Claus is based. His bones, which were brought to Bari in the Italian region of Apulia in 1087, are known in the Christian world for a particular trait: they exude a substance, considered miraculous by some, called manna. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the debate that was conducted on natural philosophical grounds during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on the origins and nature of this liquid.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 967 | 111 | 6 |
Full Text Views | 179 | 5 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 73 | 21 | 0 |