Immagini di salvezza: retorica ed emozione nella predicazione missionaria gesuitica

Abstract

This article examines the manuscript Opp. Nn. 211 of the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, attributed to Antonio Baldinucci (1665-1717), as an exemplary case of Jesuit missionary preaching in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The thirteen “ragionamenti” it contains reflect the Ignatian tradition of the Spiritual Exercises and the Tridentine doctrine of penance, but above all they reveal a homiletic strategy centered on the stirring of the emotions. The rhetorical-stylistic analysis highlights the systematic use of biblical and patristic quotations, of similes drawn from everyday experience, of exempla and vivid imagery, as well as figures such as hypotyposis, apostrophe, and dialogismus, all aimed at intensifying the dramatic and performative dimension of the sermon. Conceived for oral delivery rather than for print, these sermons demonstrate how Jesuit rhetoric deliberately selected techniques of strong emotional impact, adapting them to a rural and uneducated audience in accordance with the principle of accommodatio . Far from being improvised discourses, the “ragionamenti” of the manuscript show a solid and purposeful rhetorical culture, which made visuality and emotion the cornerstones of missionary persuasion.