The last of the new Ambroise : Milan, weapon of the Counter-Reformation

The lecture describes the three aims of Ambrosian remembrance in the time of Charles Borromeo. Firstly, the reactivation of the legendary topography of Ambrosian memories through a circuit of remembrance that turned Milan into a penitential city; secondly, the reform and conservation of the mysterium ambrosianum in the context of liturgical pluralism; thirdly, textual canonization through the publication of the Opera omnia from 1572 onwards. Giovanni Pietro Giussani's Vita de Charles Borromée (1610) is examined through the sieve of Michel de Certeau's analyses of Charles Borromée's "historiated name", but also his "Ambrosian mimetics" studied by Marie Lezowski: "But you, Milan, listen to what your pastor Ambrose says" (Charles Borromée, Jubilee 1576). This mimetic can be seen in the stalls of the major chapter of the Duomo of Milan, where the narrative amplification of the Theodosian ordeal can be observed, but also perhaps in the restorations of the mosaic of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro : are we before Ambrose or Charles Borromeo?

Contents

• Ambrosian counter-memory: Dario Fo at Milan's Piccolo Teatro in 2009, Ambrogio e l'invenzione di Milano
• Memory versus Tradition
• Umberto Eco's secular funeral at Castello Sforzesco
• "The imaginary force materialized in the fortress signals the absence of the Subject, not only the exclusion of the people from power, but the destitution of the prince under the apparatus of coercion" (Claude Lefort)
• 1499, 1500, 1525: three sieges
• Milan, the French monarchy, the temptation of empire
• Let's take another look: the three stumbling blocks to Ambrosian remembrance in Charles Borromeo's time
• First, the reactivation of the legendary topography of Ambrosian memories through a circuit of remembrance that turned Milan into a penitential city
• Secondly, the reform and preservation of the mysterium ambrosianum in the context of liturgical pluralism
• Finally, textual canonization with the publication of the Opera omnia from 1572 onwards
• But this was a Roman undertaking: Felice Peretti, Pietro Galesini and the Milanese resources of the textual tradition
• The image of Rome. A weapon for the Counter-Reformation: "For the image is not merely the presentation of the city to the world, but the representation of the mimed or real desire that men have for the city" (Gérard Labrot)
• Charles Borromeo's "historiated name" according to Michel de Certeau
• Borromean theater of conversion: "Episcopal consecration has placed us on an elevated throne" (1569)
• The Vita of Charles Borromeo by Giovanni Pietro Giussani (1610)
• "The essential principle that inspires not just an ars concionandi, but an existence, is that the text should take shape. The meticulous, relentless spirituality of the archbishop, slowly transformed into the painting that in Rome we are already satisfied to have finally traced, is to make what has already been said come to life" (Michel de Certeau)
• The archbishop's seal and "Ambrosian mimetics" (Marie Lezowski)
• "But you, Milan, listen to what your pastor Ambrose says" (Charles Borromeo, Jubilee 1576)
• The stalls of the major chapter of the Duomo of Milan: the Theodosian ordeal and its narrative amplification
• "The emperor is in the Church, not above it" (Ambrose, Apologie de David)
• Why did Ambrose have to become hairless? The stakes of De barba radenda (1576)
• Renouncing the vainglory of secular powers: Borromean's impossible crusade against manly hairiness
• Images in spite of everything: the cavalier heroes of the Counter-Reformation
• San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro mosaic: Ambrose or Charles Borromeo?