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Carla M Bino

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart), Communication and Performing Arts, Faculty Member

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Carla Bino is Associate Professor of History of Theatre at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan. Her research interests include the theory of representation and the dramatic culture of Christian Middle Ages, with particular attention to the staging of Christ’s Passion.

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Papers by Carla M Bino

Studiare le Laude drammatiche. metodologie e problemi, in La poesia cantata tra oralità e scrittura: testo, musica, performance, a cura di A. Bee, A. Vomera, Studi e ricerce, 34, Trento 2025, pp. 31-46

This essay addresses the methodological challenges involved in the study of laude drammatiche, ar... more This essay addresses the methodological challenges involved in the study of laude drammatiche, arguing for an approach that situates these texts within the broader framework of medieval devotional performance rather than interpreting them through modern notions of theatrical representation. Focusing on the confraternity of the Disciplinati of Santo Stefano in Assisi, the article examines the Good Friday officium disciplinae as a complex dramaturgical dispositif in which text, ritual action, chant, and bodily practice converge. Through a close analysis of statutory prescriptions, ritual ordines, Latin lectiones—notably the Planctus Magistrae Doloris—and vernacular laude, the study reconstructs the performative dynamics of the rite and its affective orientation toward compassion, imitation, and communal participation in the Passion of Christ. The essay challenges purely ecdotic or literary approaches to laudistic sources, proposing instead a perspective that understands manuscripts as witnesses to fluid performative traditions and historically situated practices of memory. By redefining “dramatic” in terms of Christian repraesentatio—understood as a participatory and experiential re-enactment of salvific events—the article contributes to a rethinking of medieval confraternal devotion as a form of embodied, ritual dramaturgy rather than proto-theatre.

Bino, C. M., Ecce Homo. La fondazione dell'estetica dell'umiltà e l'immagine della pietà tra XII e XV secolo, in Aroldi, P., Mascheroni, G., Pasquali, F., Scifo, B. (ed.), "....E quanto più sapore possibile". Studi in onore di Fausto Colombo., Vita e Pensiero, Milano, Milano 2025: 324- 334 .

As the studies of Rémi Brague and Pierluigi Lia have clearly shown, the meaning of Franciscan hum... more As the studies of Rémi Brague and Pierluigi Lia have clearly shown, the meaning of Franciscan humilitas must be understood against the background of the thought of Saint Bernard, who assigns it a fundamental role both in knowledge and in affectivity. Following Bernardine speculation, between the 12th and 13th centuries, humility is regarded both as a posture of the gaze and as an attitude; as a posture, it is a mechanism of vision, and as an attitude, it is a mechanism of representation. In other words, humility is an intentio that generates an upward gaze (suspicio), which is also reflected in behavior — influencing how one appears (appearance or aspect), what one says and how one says it (speech), what one does and how one does it (actions), and finally, what one feels (affectus). Its opposite is a downward gaze (despicio) — the gaze of the proud — which translates into an opposing mechanism of representation and transforms the humble into humiliatus, and above all into despectus, the despised one. Humiliatus and despectus are two adjectives frequently found in medieval treatises on the Passion of Christ, both in their Benedictine formulation (in Bernard and the Cistercians, especially Oglerio of Lucedio) and in the Franciscan one (particularly in Bonaventure and Ubertino of Casale). At the same time, humilitas, along with patientia, is the primary attitude that Christ — in himself the model of humility (Mt 11:29) — assumes during the Passion. Drawing on examples from the aforementioned Passion meditation writings, the paper will show how in these texts humilitas functions as a narrative intention (or an affective perspectival framework) that structures a dramaturgical path made up of scenes and actions, through which the despecta and confracta image of the Man of Sorrows is depicted — the very icon of humility. Widely received in both visual art and devotional literature, this image is often central in vernacular laude of the 14th and 15th centuries, which make it into an ethical and behavioral paradigm for the late medieval laity. In particular, the paper will show how in several of these laude, the image of the vir dolorum becomes the image of the Ecce Homo, a model of penance, the purgation of sins, and simultaneously of charitable action.

Bino C (2025). La simplicitas come dispositivo drammatico e antifinzionale. In: (a cura di): Bino C;D'Acunto N, Giullare di Dio. Lo sguardo rovesciato di Francesco d’Assisi sul mondo.. p. 135-149, ROMA:Carocci Editore, ISBN: 978-88-290-3072-9

This essay explores the concept of sancta simplicitas as a central interpretive key to understand... more This essay explores the concept of sancta simplicitas as a central interpretive key to understanding Francis of Assisi’s spiritual identity and his mode of representation. Building on existing scholarship, the study examines the interrelated figures of the ioculator Domini (jester of God), the novellus pazzus (new holy fool), and the simple man (simplex), focusing particularly on simplicity as the only one of these motifs explicitly used by Francis in his own writings. Drawing from biblical sources and the Christian theological tradition, the essay traces the semantic evolution of simplicitas, emphasizing its role in transforming both the gaze and action within the Christian conception of representation. Through close readings of texts by Peter Damian, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Caesarius of Heisterbach—who first coined the term ioculator Domini—the study highlights how simplicitas functions as an anti-simulacral, performative posture. Finally, the essay compares the genesis of the Cantico di frate sole with selected sermons by William of Auvergne, where the jester of God becomes the explicit figure of the simple man who sings the praises of the Creator.

format_quoteThe Latin 'simplicitas' translates the Hebrew 'tam,' indicating completeness but also introduces semantic ambiguity between positive and negative connotations.format_quote

Bonaventura drammaturgo del "dramma della passione", in Bonaventura autore spirituale, a cura di M. Guida e D. Solvi, Sismel, Firenze, 2024, pp. 41-59.

by Carla M Bino and Marco Guida

The paper intends to verify whether in the three works Lignum Vitae (chapters 17-32, De mysterio ... more The paper intends to verify whether in the three works Lignum Vitae (chapters 17-32, De mysterio passionis), Vitis Mystica sive Tractatus de passione Domini and De perfectione vitae ad sorores (chap. VI, De passionis Christi memoria), Bonaventura da Bagnoregio assembles the passion narrative according to a precise dramaturgical scheme, based on which the material is selected and ordered by scenes. What images are used to visualise the event of Golgotha? How are they arranged? From which emotional posture should they be viewed and experienced? The aim is to understand the dramatic device used by Bonaventura to construct the memorable representation of the Passion as an ‘immersive theatre’ of mimetic identification.

Words from the Cross. The Speaking Crucifixes and the Passion of the Franciscan Friars, in Communicati ng the Passion: The Socio-Religious Function of an Emotional Narrative (1250-1530). ed. by P. Delcorno and Holly Johnson, Turnhout: Brepols, 2025, pp. 337-362.

Screen, Window, Door Three Devices to Understand Animation in the Middle Ages, in The Living Image in the Middle Ages and Beyond Theoretical and Historical Approaches, ed. by By Kamil Kopania, Henning Laugerud, and Zuzanna Sarnecka, 2025, Routledge, New York, pp. 33-52.

What holds together three cultural objects as different as the Fastentucher, the Flugelaltare, an... more What holds together three cultural objects as different as the Fastentucher, the Flugelaltare, and the Vierges Ouvrantes? Developing recent research on medieval sculpture and a genealogical reconsideration of screens, this chapter contends that these objects were 'environmental media' embedded in ephemeral and contingent situations that deeply affected their own reception and interpretation. Indeed, each of these objects was intended not so much as an 'optical device,' to be contemplated from afar, but as a located assembly of components, needs, practices, actors, and circumstances that triggered a specific set of internal operations and a corresponding set of practices that primarily depended on the 'positioning' of the objects and their beholders. Such an approach will fully restore not only the mode of working of these four objects but also their interrelated meaning, against the background of the medieval Christian thought as an 'imaginal thought'. What is at stake is a 'discipline of vision.'

Bino, C. M., Liturgia e musica nell'adorazione cistercense della croce, <<STUDI GREGORIANI>>, 2021; (ma dicembre 2024): 9-23

Blind Peer Review. -Tutti i contributi inviati a «Studi Gregoriani sono sottoposti a revisione, s... more Blind Peer Review. -Tutti i contributi inviati a «Studi Gregoriani sono sottoposti a revisione, secondo la formula del doppio anonimato, da parte di due esperti italiani o stranieri, di cui almeno uno esterno alla Direzione e al Comitato scientifico Ideazione grafica e impaginazione / Graphics Scriptorium (VI) -

Il ‘teatro’ francescano della croce. Liturgia e devozione, in La Croce nel primo secolo francescano. Scritture, immagini, modelli, a cura di Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli - Raffaele Di Muro - Massimo Vedova, Spoleto, Fondazione Cisam, 2024, pp. 309-328.

Interactive Images. Depositions of Christ in Italy, 1200–1700, in C. Chaguinian (ed.), Good Friday Ceremonies with Articulated Figures in Medieval and Modern Europe, Paris, pp. 233-308.

Good Friday Ceremonies with Articulated Figures in Medieval and Modern Europe, 2023

Italy has more than 400 articulated statues of the crucified Christ dating from the 14th to 17th ... more Italy has more than 400 articulated statues of the crucified Christ dating from the 14th to 17th century. What were they used for? Comparison with contemporary written sources shows that they were used on many different occasions such as preaching, public and private devotion, paraliturgy of the laity, and sacred drama. This essay aims to reconstruct the forms of contamination between the liturgical celebration of the death and burial of Christ and the devotional, paraliturgical and dramatic celebration promoted by the laity, in particular by confraternal associations.

Il Teatro domenicano, in Memorie domenicane. 51-52: Contemplata aliis tradere. Lo specchio letterario dei frati predicatori, 2023, pp. 417-433

To date, no monographic study has been published to account for how the Order of Preachers concei... more To date, no monographic study has been published to account for how the Order of Preachers conceived the role of the theatre over the centuries, explaining its liturgical or catechetical occasions, its function, its context, its relationship with the public. This essay outlines an introductory framework, both theoretical and historical, to a topic that is still to be explored. It is divided into two parts: in the first part it aims to investigate Thomas Aquinas's position on the function of the shows and their licitness, also in the light of the meaning of fiction and simulation. This is an important theme, since the Christian discourse on spectacle (from Tertullian to Augustine and Chrysostom) had marked not only a break with the Greek idea of representation, but also the birth of a new concept of ‘drama’, based on memory and not on mimesis, that aims to involve the audience. While in line with patristic position, Thomas makes a fundamental shift, founding the possibility of a theatre that goes in the direction of the Dominican mission, namely witnessing the Truth and preaching for Salvation. In the second part, the essay analyses some of the scenes in which what we might call the ‘Dominican drama’ was embodied: the first is the confraternal scene of devotion, which gives rise both to a ‘civic dramaturgy’ and to a ‘community theatre’ with a catechetical function; the second is the scene of the word - that is, the relations between preaching and representation -, which seem to be connected to different dramatic and performative typologies; the third, finally, is the scene of the body of Christ, where ‘dramatic thought’ is decisive for both the form and function of the ‘stage actions’ that will gradually adorn the Corpus Christi procession.

Per una misericordia pubblica. I rituali ad repellendam pestem come dispositivo di ricostruzione comunitaria (XIV-XV secolo)

Dopo l'Apocalisse. Rappresentare lo shock e progettare la rinascita (secoli X-XIV), a cura di Cariboni G; D'Acunto N; Filippini E, 2023

Davanti al continuo ritorno della peste e in una condizione di incertezza perenne, nel corso del ... more Davanti al continuo ritorno della peste e in una condizione di incertezza perenne, nel corso del Quattrocento la tradizionale drammaturgia rituale della misericordia andò ridisegnando i suoi elementi, ricomponendoli in un nuovo dispositivo devozionale che mirava a fare del soccorso una pratica condivisa, della pace un principio sociale, della misericordia l’atteggiamento e l’azione dell’intero corpo cittadino. Il saggio analizzi alcuni esempi del teatro della devozione promosso a Perugia nel corso del Quattrocento, inteso come strumento di progressiva istituzionalizzazione pubblica della misericordia .

“Imagine composta, come si crede, di umano tegumento” Manufatti polimaterici del Cristo morto in Italia

Arte Cristiana, 2023

The article focuses on three Italian poly-material crucifixes with similar features: the artifact... more The article focuses on three Italian poly-material crucifixes with similar features: the artifacts from Perugia, Mercatello sul Metauro and Orte. These sculptures of the crucified Christ can be date to the 14th century; the body is made of various materials, covered in leather over a structure of wood and wool, entirely flexible and very light. The fact that they are endowed with soft, flexible limbs as well as horsehair beard and hair, makes them look like dead bodies, with an astonishingly realistic effect. These poly-material crucifixes are great examples of the incorporation of new techniques and materials in medieval sculptural production. In addition to their appearance, the article attempts to analyse the ritual and liturgical function of these simulacra. Included in the broad chapter of ‘animated’ statues, they have been generically referred to the rites of holy week. By referring to documentary sources, an attempt will be made to show how the devotional uses of these artefacts were different and underwent changes between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era.

Presenti e co–crocifisse. La drammaturgia della passione nelle visioni di Angela da Foligno e Margherita da Cortona, in «EHUMANISTA». 56 (2023), pp. 7-22.

This essay aims to analyze the process of mystical vision of the passion, comparing the experienc... more This essay aims to analyze the process of mystical vision of the passion, comparing the experience of two mystics who have much in common: Angela of Foligno and Margaret of Cortona. We will try to understand if the experience of Christ's pain configures a specific dramaturgy of ecstasy and which are the devices of representation that come into play between contemplatio, compartecipatio and conformatio pietatis.

Il dispositivo anti–tragico e drammatico della Passione di Cristo, in Francesc Massip, (ed.), A PASSIÓ : RITU, TRAGÈDIA I REPRESENTACIÓ DE LA VIOLÈNCIA , Obrador Edèndum, Santa Coloma de Queralt 2022: 1- 17

La passione di Cristo è la storia di un’esecuzione capitale. Una feroce esecuzione capitale. Un u... more La passione di Cristo è la storia di un’esecuzione capitale. Una feroce esecuzione capitale. Un uomo, un leader, viene arrestato, giudicato, massacrato e poi condannato a morte. Infine, viene giustiziato in uno dei modi più infamanti e spettacolari. Il re è in croce. Fine del regno. Una tragedia! Questa storia, però, non era raccontata e rappresentata per suscitare paura: paura del dolore, paura delle lacrime, paura della pietà. Al contrario era raccontata e rappresentata per insegnare a sentire il dolore degli altri, a piangere le stesse lacrime, a provare pietà. In una parola per insegnare ad avere il cuore carico della miseria di chi soffre: misericordia. Il saggio cerca di mostrare come questo passaggio sia leggibile nel cambio del dispostivo drammaturgico che alla tragedia da vedere per capire, sostituisce il dramma, da vivere per sentire.

Introduction, in Performing the Sacred: Christian Representation and the Arts, ed. by C.M.Bino and C. Ricasoli, Brill, 2023, pp. 1-12.

A 'Dramatic Turn': the Revolution of Christian Representation, in Performing the Sacred. Chirstian Representation and the Arts, ed. by C.M. Bino and C. Ricasoli, Brill, 2023, pp. 32-46

Brescia laboratory of reform for a patriotic and civic theatre, in Napoleonic Milan. Laboratory of Modernity and Strategies of Representation, ed. by A. Bianchi and A. Cascetta, ETS, 2022, pp. 269-292.

As at other times in its history, Milan was also a hotbed of innovation during the Napoleonic era... more As at other times in its history, Milan was also a hotbed of innovation during the Napoleonic era, during both the phase of the revolutionary triennium and the republic and the phase of the Kingdom of Italy between 1796, when the young General Bonaparte entered the city, and 1814, when Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais gave up and fled Italy. This is the idea that inspired this Conference. Milan in these years is a laboratory of modernity in which a process of profound and fertile cultural transformation is launched; a process that would innervate subsequent national events. Napoleon arouses, catalyses and channels energies of renewal. Some of these were already simmering more or less below the surface in the fabric of the Enlightenment city. It was a fabric that was cultivated and open to the transformations which the new power of the French causes to reemerge, first through and in connection with the members of the generous democratic movement, then with the co-opted local authorities of a more moderate persuasion. A period of transition, therefore, that has the contradictory dynamics, the thrusts and counter-thrusts of every period transition. The arts were a laboratory of modernity to which the Napoleonic era devoted special attention, particularly the performing arts, which were the main focus of the second session of the Conference aimed at investigating the strategies of representation and the processes of construction of memory and public opinion.

Visibilità della fama, infamia della croce e un nuovo concetto di gloria, in Mantichora, 11 (2021), pp. 27-40.

Mantichora, 2021

This article aims to discuss the meaning of ‘fame’ as a generator of visibility against the backg... more This article aims to discuss the meaning of ‘fame’ as a generator of visibility against the background of the radical change in the dynamics of representation proposed by Christian thought. The first section shows how the concept of earthly fame or 'vainglory' is part of a broader discourse on the mechanisms of vision that refer to two opposing orders of knowledge. We will see how this contrast becomes clear when the concept of fame / glory short-circuits with its opposite, infamy, and establishes a new perspective of the gaze. The second section is focused on the paradox of the cross, throne of glory and infamous gallows. This apparently contradictory image is one of the dramaturgical pivots of the Franciscan Passion narrative. Through the story of a naked, miserable and radically humiliated glory, the Order built the script of the "theater of humility" and made it the manifesto of their idea of sequela.

Baci, lacrime e unguenti. Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo nella rappresentazione passionista cistercense, in Donne e sacro. Forme e immagini nel cristianesimo occidentale. A cura di A. Ricci, Viella, 2021, pp. 65-86

Per un'indagine dei significati di 'repraesentare' nel pensiero cristiano. Alcuni esemi tra retorica e liturgia (XI-XII secolo), in G. Cariboni, N, D'Acunto, E. Filippini (a cura di), Presenza-assenza. Meccanismi dell'istituzionalità nella 'societas Christiana' (secoli IX-XIII)

Tra documentazione ed istituzioni ecclesiastiche. Tipologie di presenza-assenza nel Mezzogiorno i... more Tra documentazione ed istituzioni ecclesiastiche. Tipologie di presenza-assenza nel Mezzogiorno italiano 441 ELENA VANELLI Alcuni esempi di capitolo generale e visita monastica in Lombardia secondo il IV concilio lateranense 451 MATILDE PACI Sovrani e ufficiali, pontefici e legati. Meccanismi transpersonali nella Nuova Cronica di Giovanni Villani (XIII secolo) 463 ELISABETTA FILIPPINI Governare una diocesi tra presenze e assenze: per una rilettura del caso cremonese 475 NICOLANGELO D'ACUNTO Conclusioni 497 Indice dei nomi di persona e di luogo a cura di Elisabetta Filippini 513