RT Journal Article T1 Wounded: Healing communal wounds: processions and plague in sixteenth-century Mantua A1 Marie-Louise Leonard YR 2019 VO IS Spring 2019 K1 confraternities K1 health offices K1 Mantua K1 Plague K1 premodern public health K1 processions K1 ritual AB In 1576 a plague epidemic inflicted physical and psychological wounds on the community of Mantua. This article examines the role of processions in healing those wounds and discusses the programme of processions organised by the city’s health office in conjunction with religious groups including Mantua’s confraternities. Processions were staged at various points during the epidemic for different purposes: to celebrate dates on the religious calendar, such as the feast of Corpus Domini, and to reintegrate those cured at the plague hospital to the city. Participation was not limited to those in the processional body; for instance, people quarantined in their homes could watch the event, hear the prayers, and join in by singing. Therefore, processions provided a link between the sick and the healthy and illustrate the collective experience of illness and healing in early modern society. Furthermore, processions with returning convalescents in Mantua illustrate complex attitudes towards the sick poor and their role in healing the city. NO This article is drawn from the author’s PhD thesis, ‘Plague Epidemics and Public Health in Mantua, 1450–1576’, University Glasgow, 2014 NO Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Assunteria di Sanità, Bandi Bolognese, carta. 216 NO Archivio di stato di Mantova (hereafter ASMn.), Archivio Gonzaga (hereafter A.G.), busta (hereafter b.) 2598, carta (hereafter c.) 14 NO ASMn, A.G., b. 2599, 22 June 1576 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 240 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 240 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 245 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2599, 22 June, 1576, Piero Catalano, ‘la più bella, la più divota, la più regolata che mai fusse vista.’ NO ASMn., b. 2597, c. 260 NO ASMn., b. 2597, c. 268 NO ASMn., b. 2597, c. 269 NO ASMn., b. 2597, c. 269 NO ASMn., b. 2599, 3 July 1576, Il Catalano NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 227 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 241 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 241 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 241 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2599, 18 June 1576, Piero Il Catelano NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 257 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 339 NO ASMn., b. 2597, c. 444 NO ASMn., A.G., b. 2597, c. 471 PB The Science Museum Group SN 2054-5770 LA eng DO 10.15180/191106 UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/healing-communal-wounds/ WT Science Museum Group Journal OL 30