Reperti profetici. La rivelazione dell’abate di Otranto tra medioevo ed età moderna

Towards the end of the 16th century, throughout Italy and Europe news spread of the discovery, in an ancient tomb in Calabria, of the revelation of the mysterious abbot Ubertino of Otranto. The text prophesied the future upheavals of the papacy and the European monarchies, and the catastrophes that threatened Italy. After examining the communication strategies that made plausible the discovery and newsworthy the revelation, this article will show how the text was received by a large number of readers at different times and in different contexts. Between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 20th century, new meanings were attributed to the prophecy, but the text of the prophecy itself was the result of the rewriting of at least three medieval prophecies. This invites us to reflect on some relevant historiographical problems, such as the possibility of defining belief in prophecies, the stratification of prophetic texts, and their persistence between the Middle Ages and the modern era.