«You have been given the light of the scriptures...» Girolamo Savonarola’s instructions to the flock in understanding the Bible

The Florentine prophet and reformer Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), at the end of the 15th century preached to his flock the necessity and inevitability of the renewal of the Church, which, according to him, had entered a state of «the indifferent» (tiepidi). The Dominican argued that the unified mystical body of the Church could be transformed if its members, the believers themselves, change. In his sermons, the monk repeatedly revealed to his listeners the signs of a «good Christian»: faith, adoration of God and neighbourly charity, inner and outer simplicity. Since Christ and his early followers were the ideal role models for cultivating these qualities, the natural condition for reforming the Christians of the day was their turn to the study of the Bible. At the same time, the desire of Savonarola’s contemporaries to read the Holy Scriptures on their own is evidenced by the fact that in 1471 its full translations into Italian (volgare) appeared in print and then were repeatedly republished. The preaching of the Christian life «simplicity» led Savonarola to assert that ordinary parishioners («simple in heart») were destined to renew the Church. Moreover, the two ways in comprehending the Bible discovered in the speeches of the Dominican – reading it and attending sermons, raise the question of what was the degree of independence of the flock allowed by Savonarola in the study of sacred texts. To answer this question, we analyzed the monk’s sermons on the Old Testament Book of Ruth, giving in concentrated form instructions on how to study the Bible, including reasoning about the place and role of preachers and the specifics of the believer’s own efforts in mastering its meanings. The advantage of «ordinary» people, according to the monk, lies in their ability to feel the Scripture and make it an imperative of everyday existence. However, since, firstly, not all the believers of the day were capable of this, and secondly, they were limited in understanding the finer meanings of biblical texts, they needed the help of more knowledgeable people – «good shepherds». Thus, Savonarola’s sermons contain both an encouragement to comprehend the Scriptures, and a rather restrained attitude towards the aspirations for its independent development, accompanied by a number of reservations and fears.

1. Prepodobnyj Antonij Velikij. Zhitie i poslanija (St. Antony the Great. Life and Epistles). Moscow: OOO «Sintagma», 2010. 256 p. (In Russian).

2. Alle suore del Terz’Ordine di S. Domenico dette di Annalena [Firenze, 17 ottobre 1497] // Le lettere di Girolamo Savonarola: ora per la prima volta raccolte e a miglior lezione ridotte / da Roberto Ridolfi. Firenze: L. S. Olschki, 1933. P. 182 – 187.

3. Barbieri E. Malerbi (Malermi, Manermi), Nicolò // Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2007. Vol. 68: Malatacca-Mangelli. URL: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nicolo-malerbi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ (Accessed: 15.05.2021)

4. Cerretani B. Storia fiorentina / a cura di Giuliana Berti. Firenze: L.S. Olschki, 1994. XIX, 474 pp.

5. Garavaglia G. Traduzioni bibliche a stampa fra Quattrocento e Settecento // Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Moyen-Age. 1993. T. 105. No. 2. Р. 857–862. URL: https://www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_1123-9883_1993_num_105_2_3327 (Accessed: 15.05.2021).

6. La Bibbia in italiano / a cura di Norman Gobetti // Tradurre – Pratiche, teorie, strumenti. 2016. № 11. URL: La Bibbia in italiano – tradurre (rivistatradurre.it) (Accessed: 15.05.2021).

7. La Vita del beato Ieronimo Savonarola, scritta da un anonimo del sec. XVI e gia attribuita a fra Pacifico Burlamacchi. Pubbl. secondo il codice Ginoriano a cura del principe Piero Ginori Conti. Firenze: Olschki, 1937. XXIII, 284 pp.

8. Savonarola G. Prediche sopra i salmi / a cura di Vincenzo Romano. Roma: Belardetti, 1969. Vol. 1. 305 p.

9. Savonarola G. Prediche sopra Ruth e Michea / a cura di Vincenzo Romano. Roma: A. Belardetti, 1962. Vol. 1. 470 p.

10. Savonarola G. Prediche sopra Ruth e Michea / a cura di Vincenzo Romano. Roma: A. Belardetti, 1962. Vol. 2. 525 p.

11. Valerio A. La predica sopra Ruth, la donna, la riforma dei semplici // Una città e il suo profeta: Firenze di fronte al Savonarola / a cura di Gian Carlo Garfagnini. Firenze: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2001. P. 249 – 261.