Call for papers
Forty Hours Devotion. Arts, Music, Spirituality
Rome, 27-28 March 2025
Conference organized by Institut français Centre Saint-Louis in collaboration with the Italian Musicological Society (SIdM).
Download the call for papers in French
Download the call for papers in Italian
Call for papers:
The purpose of the conference is to explore the devotional, normative, artistic and musical aspects of the Forty Hours Devotion between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century. The idea of the conference sprouts from the recent discovery of a nineteenth-century Forty Hours Macchina in the attic of the church of S. Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. The Macchina will be restored and shown to the public during the 2025 Jubilee; a concert of the Ensemble Correspondance (dir. Sébatien Daucé) and an international conference are planned for the occasion.
- Normative aspects related to Forty Hours Devotions;
- devotional aspects;
- differences and similarities in the devotion in different centres of Catholicism;
- development of the devotion between the 16th and the 19th century;
- religious orders and the Forty Hours Devotion;
- celebrations of the devotion in specific institutions;
- aspects of musical performances;
- ephemeral apparatuses recorded in drawings, engravings, descriptions and treatises;
- the artists’ involvement in staging the ceremony;
- other aspects of Eucharistic devotion;
- the role of the client in staging and dramatising the ceremony.
Keynote speakers:
- Marcello Fagiolo (Centro di Studi sulla Cultura e l'immagine di Roma)
- Robert L. Kendrick (University of Chicago)
Proposals (an abstract of max 1500 characters, spaces included, followed by a CV of max 500 characters, spaces included) must be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 12 january 2025; acceptance will be annonced by 31 january 2025.
Official languages of the conference are Italian, English and French.
The selected communications will be published.
Scientific Commettee:
Michela Berti (Conservatorio “F. Morlacchi”, Perugia – Pieux Établissements de la France à Rome et à Lorette)
Albane Cogné (École française de Rome)
Bernard Dompnier (Université Clermont Auvergne)
Arnaldo Morelli (Università dell’Aquila)
Alessandra Rodolfo (Musei Vaticani)
Organising Committee:
Margherita Antolini (Politecnico di Torino)
Lorraine Creusot (Institut français Centre Saint-Louis)