La lettera spirituale. Per una storia dell’epistolografia religiosa nel Cinquecento italiano

This study examines the sixteenth-century phenomenon of letters on sacred and spiritual subjects which developed in concomitance with the growth of religious publishing in the vernacular . The aim is to trace the main bibliographical stages of this sub-genre, describing the ways in which epistolary rhetoric accommodated and assimilated the various components of the religious discourse . The discussion also addresses the changes in strategies and functions related to successions to the papal throne, the Council decrees and the larger phenomenon of the thematic specialisation of the books of lettersn