Confraternal Gleanings from Post-Tridentine Piacenza: Bishop Paolo Burali d’Arezzo and the Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament

This article focuses on the situation in the diocese of Piacenza during the episcopate of Paolo Burali d’Arezzo (r. 1568–1576) by placing his work within the post-Tridentine context. One of the most important objectives of the Church after the Council of Trent was the recovery of a closer relationship between the clergy and the faithful and it was pursued through the establishment and renewal of confraternities. In Piacenza, Bishop Burali encouraged the founding of many lay associations and took care to amend and revitalize existing ones, such as the Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament. For the one in the cathedral, documentary sources give us much useful information that allows us to speculate on the decorations (no longer extant) in the chapel dedicated to the Most Holy Sacrament executed by Giulio Mazzoni (1519–ca. 1590). Archival sources and local historical-artistical guidebooks allow us to propose a comparison between what Mazzoni achieved in Piacenza and Rome