The Anointment of Dionisio

In 1566 a Frenchman calling himself Dionisio Gallo preached in the courtyard of the ducal palace in Venice, urging reform of church and society and convinced the Virgin herself had anointed him. He spoke elegant Latin, knew the prophetic tradition thoroughly and dressed so finely that onlookers took him for a great prelate. The king of France, reform-minded princes and Venetian senators listened. The Inquisition hesitated, then arrested, tried and banished him, though its interrogators struggled to pin him down.

Marion Leathers Kuntz follows this strange, still partly mysterious figure to open up the tangled politics and religion of the Counter-Reformation during the decade of the Council of Trent, showing how prophecy could still hold the educated elites of France and Italy. A rich, scholarly study for anyone drawn to the stranger corners of Renaissance history.