L’attesa e la paura. La fine dei tempi nella predicazione fiorentina del tardo medioevo (XIV‑XVI secolo)

Created by Jean Delumeau in the 1970s, the expression “pastoral of fear” has been very popular among historians. The article aims to verify this model from the concrete perspective of the history of texts and of their reception, and from a geographically and culturally defined point of view: the Florentine preaching on the last judgement between the half of the 14th and the beginnings of the 16th century. Following a chronological order, the three sections of the essay intend to test as many historiographical stereotypes, which cannot be taken too literally: the individual eschatology replacement of collective eschatology; the 15th century transition, after the end of the Schism and until the last years of the century, from the waiting of the end to the end of waiting; Savonarola’s influence on the many penitential preachers who, after him, crowded the squares and churches of Florence.