A clear, concise and detailed analysis of the eclectic and beautiful visual and material culture of Catholicism. Focusing on a carefully curated selection of Catholic art and artefacts, this book explains the meaning of the iconography and the mystic power of the faith's ritual objects. A wealth of often hidden symbols are identified and examined close up, building into a catalogue of key visual symbols for readers to use to interpret all Catholic visual and material culture. The book is organized into three parts - Tenet, Locus and Spiritus - each containing three themed chapters. The first part introduces the centrepieces of the faith, explaining the symbolism in the artistic representation of the holy family, apostles and saints, and in stories from scripture. The second part examines places of worship, identifying the constituent parts of the cathedral and presenting evocative images of roadside shrines. The third part explores celebrations and traditions, including personal devotional tools and jewelry. For each of the nine themed chapters, illustrated introductory text is followed by a spread-by-spread presentation of the key figures, the key stories and the key iconography relevant to each theme. Paintings and artefacts are examined in detail, identifying and explaining the symbolism and the stories depicted in each. As the book progresses, readers will build up knowledge of the entire Catholic visual code - the symbols that define Catholic practice, the attributes of the saints, the parts of the cathedral - allowing them to interpret Catholic imagery and objects wherever they find them and to understand the tenets, sites and rituals of the faith.

Prague in the seventeenth century is known as home to a scintillating imperial court crammed with exotic goods, scientists, and artisans, receiving ambassadors from Persia, and also as a city suffering plagues, riots, and devastating military attacks. But Prague was also the setting for a complex and shifting spiritual world. At the beginning of the century it was a multiconfessional city, but by 1700 it represented one of the most archetypical Catholic cities in Europe. Through a material approach, Cosmos and Materiality pieces together how early modern men and women experienced this transformation on a daily basis. Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague presents a bold alternative understanding of the history of early modern religion in Central Europe. The history of religion in the early modern period has overwhelmingly been analysed through a confessional lens, but this book shows how Prague's spiritual worlds were embedded in their natural environment and social relations as much if not more than in confessional identity in the seventeenth century. While texts in this period trace emerging discourses around notions of religion, superstition, magic, and what it was to be Catholic or Protestant, a material approach avoids these category mistakes being applied to everyday practice. It is through a rich seam of material evidence in Prague - spoons, glass beakers, and amulets as much as traditional devotional objects like rosaries and garnet encrusted crucifixes - that everyday beliefs, practices, and identities can be recovered.

This collection of essays offers a comparative perspective on religious materiality across the early modern world. Setting out from the premise that artefacts can provide material evidence of the nature of early modern religious practices and beliefs, the volume tests and challenges conventional narratives of change based on textual sources. Religious Materiality in the Early Modern World brings together scholars of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist practices from a range of fields, including history, art history, museum curatorship and social anthropology. The result is an unprecedented account of the wealth and diversity of devotional objects and environments, with a strong emphasis on cultural encounters, connections and exchanges.