The Anxieties of a Citizen Class

Download or read book The Anxieties of a Citizen Class written by Kiril Petkov and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Anxieties of a Citizen Class: The Miracles of the True Cross of San Giovanni Evangelista, Venice 1370-1480 Kiril Petkov identifies the socio-psychological preoccupations accompanying the formation of the leading commoner group of early Renaissance Venice, the cittadini originarii, as revealed in a cycle of miracles performed by a fragment of the True Cross owned by the brotherhood of San Giovanni Evangelista. The study’s principal contention is that the miracles trace the evolution of the citizen elite from members of a large, fluid group of men of affairs to community managers to state servants. Each miracle highlights a stage of that process and the social anxieties engendered in the acquisition of a specific social identity.