The Lexicon of Religion in the ‘Lauda della Resurectione de Christo’ by Caterina da Bologna

Abstract

The essay provides the first results derived from the study of the biblical lexicon of the Laudi attributed to Saint Catherine of Bologna, born Caterina Vigri. The perspective of the research extends to the entire collection, which is of considerable interest being the poetic production of a learned religious woman of the Fifteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the religious lexicon of Lauda IV, which is transmitted in three codices now in the General Archiepiscopal Archive of Bologna. The Lauda is attributed to the Bolognese saint by Illuminata Bembo, Catherine’s sister at the Corpus Domini Monastery in Bologna and her first biographer, who reports it in the Specchio di illuminazione. The conclusions of the analysis will be exemplary of the richer and more systematic ones that will arise from the analysis of the other lauds, with the aim of contributing to the possible preparation of a glossary of the lexicon of biblical origin in Caterina Vigri’s poetic work.