Abstract

This article aims to explore the relationship between brotherhoods and civic dimensions in the period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries through the analysis of a local case, that of the city of L'Aquila. The research focuses on two central matters. The first concerns the high level of conflict within the ritual space deriving from dialectical tensions between confraternal associations and centers of civil and ecclesiastical power. The second regards the element of compensating state intervention, in terms of assistance, carried out by charitable networks. Confraternities in L'Aquila reproduced the relations of strength, convergence and confrontation existing within the local context in a competition to gain visibility which reflected the articulation within social hierarchies which, however, it also attempted to modify.