Pubblica devozione in Terra di Lavoro in età moderna: santi e madonne tra i flagelli

Every time the earth shakes, Vesuvius erupts or a new and deadly epidemic appears, the request of divine protection increases among the community. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries there was an important increase in the number of patron saints among the cities and communities of the Southern Italy and an increase in the cult of some «prodigious» Marian images. This essay describes the «devotional tendencies» in some significant places of Terra di Lavoro: the royal city of Capua and the Marian sanctuaries of Campiglione, Casaluce and Incaldana.