Emotions and Architecture: Forging Mediterranean Cities Between the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time

Emotions and Architecture: Forging Mediterranean Cities Between the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time explores architecture as a medium to arouse or conceal emotions, to build consensus through shared values, or to reconnect the urban community to its alleged ancestry. The essays in this edited collection outline how architectonic symbols, images and structures were codified – and sometimes recast – to match or to arouse emotions awakened by wars, political dominance, pandemic challenges and religion. As signs of spiritual and political power, these elements were embraced and modulated locally, providing an endorsement to authorities and rituals for the community. This volume provides an overview of the phenomenon across the Italian region, stressing the transnationality of selected symbols and their various declination in local contexts. It deepens the issue of refitting symbols, artworks and structures to arouse emotions by carefully analysing specific cases, such as the Septizodium in Rome, The Holy House of Loreto in Venice and the reconstruction of L’Aquila. The collection, through its variegated contributions, offers a comprehensive view of the phenomenon: exploring the issue from political, social, religious and public health perspectives, and seeks to propose a new definition of architecture as a visual emotional language. Together, the essays show how the representation of virtues and emotions through architecture was part of a symbolic practice shared by many across the Italian context. This book will be of interest to researchers and students studying architectural history, the history of emotions, and the history of art.