IX Catalan Modern History Conference
IX Conference of Early Modern History of Catalonia
“Ignatius of Loyola’s world. Religion, culture and society in the 16th and 17th centuries”
Barcelona and Manresa, 19th-22nd December 2022
Since 1984, the Early Modern History Area, University of Barcelona, has organised an uninterrupted series of conferences on Early Modern History. The 5-year interval between conferences, established after the third congress, held in 1993, will be exceptionally broken in 2022, four years after the celebration of the eighth conference, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) to the city of Manresa, and the first draft, in Cueva de Manresa, of Loyola’s The Spiritual Exercises. In this way, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of Manresa wish to celebrated the occasion with this conference, which will be held on 19-23 December 2022 in Barcelona and Manresa.
The arrival of Ignatius of Loyola in 1522, and his visit to Monserrat, Manresa and Barcelona, are key milestones for the future organisation of the Society of Jesus, and, therefore, for the evolution of modern Europe. The conference takes this occasion as a timely pretext to reflect and debate about religious, social and cultural conditions in Catalonia and Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, a period in which religiosity was marked by rupture, triggered by the 16th-century reforms; the emergence of new individual and collective religious forms of expression; a redefinition of the relationship between political and religious power; and cultural and artistic expressions that are generally framed within the broad label “Barroque culture”.
In addition to the opening and closing lectures, the conference will be organised around seven topics, each of which will be introduced by an opening lecture: “Towards new forms of spirituality”; “Women and female religiosity in Ignatius’ world”; “Thought and teaching in the period of reform”; “Religion in the urban and rural worlds”; “The Society of Jesus and the religious orders (16th-18th centuries)”; “Cultural and artistic exchange”; and “Politics and religion”.
The Secretary of the organising committee
Contact: congreshmc@ub.edu
Schedule: 19th-22nd December 2022