The Materiality of Salvation: Confessional Booths and Ecclesiastical Governance in Verona, c. 1750–1800

Abstract While contemporary historiography has comprehensively surveyed the doctrinal and disciplinary dimensions of sacramental penance in early modern Catholicism, the material culture of confessionals has received comparatively little attention. Focusing on the administration and regulation of confessional booths in the diocese of Verona, Northeastern Italy, during the late eighteenth century, this article argues that the administration of confessionals constituted a crucial intersection between sacred materiality and ecclesiastical governance. Through close examination of synodal constitutions, reports of pastoral visitations, and episcopal correspondence concerning the relocation, renovation, and installation of confessionals, it reconstructs the composite yet hitherto understudied social and cultural networks surrounding these objects. Besides helping us to better understand the vital role of sacred materiality in the experience and practice of early modern Catholicism, the article shows how the administration of confessionals emerged as a site of negotiation among diocesan authorities, parish clergy, and lay communities, revealing how the management of religious infrastructure served as a decisive interface between local pastoral practice and the expanding bureaucratic structures of eighteenth-century Catholic governance.