Angelo 1563. City of the Council. A Public History Project in Sixteenth-Century Trento

Abstract

This article describes the walking tours realized for the app Hidden Trento within the project Public Renaissance: Urban Cultures of Public Space between Early Modern Europe and the Present (PURE, 2019-2022). The app, free of charge and available at www.hiddencities.eu, offers four different urban walks through the lesser-known places of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Trento. One of these is set in December 1563 during the final days of the Council of Trent and is narrated by Angelo Massarelli, bishop and secretary of the assembly. The storyboard and thematic insights are based on what Massarelli wrote in his Diari during his almost 20-year stay in Trento. In addition to personal comments on the political situation and the work of the Council, this source offers much information on the city's social and cultural life. Through the app tour, Angelo provides the main elements of the Council's institutional and doctrinal history while drawing the user's attention to aspects of everyday urban life, such as street fighting and public order, hospitality and supplies, public factions, festivals, the production and selling of press prints and the repression of unorthodox religious ideals. The paper discusses the realization of this digital itinerary, presenting its methods of dissemination, highlighting its educational and didactic applications, and describing its uses in a museum context.