Sacrifice and Sacred Violence

History, Comparisons, and the Early Modern World
14-15 December, 2023 Department of History and Cultures, Bologna

Thursday, 14 December 2023

Aula Prodi

Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2 Bologna

14.00-14.15

Institutional Greetings

14.15-14.30

Vincenzo Lavenia, University of Bologna

Opening Remarks

14.30-16.00

Session 1. Comparisons and theoretical perspectives

Jan Bremmer, University of Groningen

The Beginning and End of Greek Animal Sacrifice, and Something in Between

Federico Dal Bo, University of Heidelberg

Sacrifice Blood, and Intention in Early Rabbinic Literature: from the Mishnah to the Babylonian Talmud

Caterina Bori, University of Bologna

“Every little boy is taken as a pledge against his sacrifice at birth”. ’Aqīqa and its Functioning in Late Medieval Muslim Tradition.

Chair: Guido Bartolucci, University of Bologna

16.00-16.30 - Coffee Break

16.30-18.30

Maria Berbara, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Sacrifice and Anthropophagy in Early Modern Brazil

Chiara Ghidini, University of Naples-L’Orientale

Not Only to Heaven and Earth: Logics of Sacrifice in Japanese Cultural History

Cristiana Facchini, University of Bologna

Comparing Sacrifice, XVII-XIX centuries

Chair: Davide Scotto, University of Pavia



Friday, 15 December 2023

Aula Specola

Piazza San Giovanni in Monte, 2 Bologna

09.00-11.00

Session 2. Sacrifice in Early Modern Christianity: Religion and Politics

Daniel Barbu, CNRS

Sacrifice and Idolatry

Robert Yelle, University of Munich

Thomas Hobbes’s Views on Sacrifice: Reading Between the Lines

Francesco Quatrini, University of Naples-L’Orientale

Sacrifice, Magistracy, and Just War: A Controversy Between Hugo Grotius and the Polish Brethren

Freya Sierhuis, University of York

Sacrifice and Tragic Form in Vondel’s Jephthah (1659)

Chair: Girolamo Imbruglia, University of Naples-L’Orientale

11.00-11.15 - Coffee Break

11.15-13.15

Session 3. Sacrifice through the Lens of Missionaries and Travelers

Pierre-Antonie Fabre, EHESS Paris

Sacrifice, Sanctity, and Martyrdom

Sabina Pavone, University of Naples-L’Orientale

Interpreting the Satī: Missionary Sources in the Early Modern Era

Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, Penn State University

Sacrifice and Martyrdom in 17th and 18th Century China

Joan-Pau Rubiés, ICREA / Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Discourses of Religion and Sacrifice in Sub-Saharan Africa

Chair: Franco Motta, University of Turin

13.15-14.30 - Lunch

14.30-16.30

Session 4. Sacrifice, Sacred Violence, and Crusade

Irene Bueno, University of Bologna

Reframing Holy War and Sacrifice at the Close of the Middle Ages

Olivier Christin, University of Neuchâtel

Religious Wars and Figures of Self-Sacrifice (Empire, France, England, 16th Century)

Marisa Linton, Kingston University

Sacrifice, Violence, and Revolution

Lucia Ceci, University of Rome2

Mystique of Sacrifice, Violence, and Hunger Strike in 20th Century Ireland: From the Easter Rising to Bobby Sands

Chair: Chiara Petrolini, University of Bologna

16.30-17.00 - Coffee Break

17.00-18.15

Round Table:

Paola von Wyss-Giacosa, University of Zurich

Emanuele Colombo, DePaul University Chicago

Fabio Dei, University of Pisa

Silvia Romani, University of Milan-Statale

Roberto Tottoli, University of Naples-L’Orientale

Roberta Denaro, University of Naples-L’Orientale

Chair: Fernanda Alfieri, University of Bologna

18.15-18.30

Conclusions