Lucio Biasiori (Padua): "The daily prophet: the Letter of the Grand Master of the Hospitallers and its audiences (1319-1793)"

In my talk I examine the remarkable longevity of the Letter of the Grand Master of the Hospitallers of Rhodes, an apocalyptic text narrating the birth of a monstrous child identified as the Antichrist in a city of the East. One of the many short prophecies that flooded Europe between the Middle Ages and the early modern period, this text aroused diverse reactions - mostly fear but also expectation and hope in some quarters. What makes the Letter of the Grand Master exceptional, however, is its endurance from the early 14th century all the way to the end of the 18th century, taking on new meanings and interpretations as it circulated through different media like manuscripts, printed books, broadsheets, chronicles, sermons, avvisi, woodcut images and son on. By investigating the reasons behind such a protracted life span, this talk sheds light on how the monstrous child adapted to speak to very different audiences across the centuries, making the text a true cultural chameleon. The talk ultimately aims to understand what allowed this false report to remain so compelling for almost five centuries, despite many attempts to refute it.

Lucio Biasiori is Associate Professor of early modern history at the University of Padova. His main interests encompass the religious and cultural history of the sixteenth century.