In this book, twelve scholars of early modern history analyse various categories and cases of deception and false identity in the age of geographical discoveries and of forced conversions: from two-faced conversos to serial converts, from demoniacs to stigmatics, and from self-appointed ambassadors to lying cosmographer.

Autorentext

Professor (Emerita) Miriam Eliav-Feldon taught early modern history at Tel Aviv University, Israel, for several decades and served as Chairperson of its history department in the years 1996-2000. Her publications include several books and many articles in Hebrew, English and French, on Renaissance utopias, pacifism and peace plans, origins of racism and invented identities.

Tamar Herzig is Associate Professor of early modern history at Tel Aviv University, Israel, where she also serves as Director of the Morris E. Curiel Institute for European Studies. Her publications include Savonarola's Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy (2008; published in Italian 2014) and 'Christ Transformed into a Virgin Woman': Lucia Brocadelli, Heinrich Institoris, and the Defense of the Faith (2013), as well as numerous articles.

Inhalt

1. Introduction; Miriam Eliav-Feldon 2. Superstition and Dissimulation: Discerning False Religion in the Fifteenth Century; Michael D. Bailey 3. 'Mendacium officiosum': Alberico Gentili's Ways of Lying; Vincenzo Lavenia 4. Dissimulation and Conversion: Francesco Pucci's Return to Catholicism; Giorgio Caravale 5. The Identity Game: Ambiguous Religious Attachments in Seventeenth- Century Lyon; Monica Martinat 6. From 'Marranos' to 'Unbelievers': The Spanish Peccadillo in Sixteenth Century Italy; Stefania Pastore 7. Recidivist Converts in Early Modern Europe; Moshe Sluhovsky 8. A Hybrid Identity: Jewish Convert, Christian Mystic and Demoniac; Adelisa Malena 9. Beyond Simulation: An Enquiry Concerning Demonic Possession; Guido Dall'Olio 10. Genuine and Fraudulent Stigmatics in the Sixteenth Century; Tamar Herzig 11. Real, Fake or Megalomaniacs? Three Suspicious Ambassadors, 1450-1600; Giorgio Rota 12. Between Madrid and Ophir: Erédia, a Deceitful Discoverer; Jorge Flores