OU Photo Collage
@ the university of oklahoma
  
 
455 West Lindsey Street, Room 403A
Norman, Oklahoma 73019-2004  
phone:
405.325.6002
fax:
405.325.4503



 



 
 
Jane Wickersham

Associate Professor
Early Modern European History

Professor Wickersham's book, "Rituals of Prosecution: The Roman Inquisition's Prosecution of Protestants in Sixteenth-Century Italy," will be published by University of Toronto Press in Spring of 2012. It is an examination of the Inquisition’s characterization of heresy and how the Catholic Church’s understanding of the Protestant message evolved in the decades after 1520. This undertaking involves a knowledge of error as defined by the Roman Catholic Church historically, the varieties of Protestantism that had emerged by the mid-sixteenth century, and the circulation of Protestant ideas in Italy. To get at these questions, Professor Wickersham’s study offers a detailed analysis of inquisitorial manuals, works that explained the theoretical underpinnings of prosecution, as well as an examination of the practical realities of inquisitorial trials, as revealed by inquisitorial trials conducted in different Italian settings. The work will demonstrate that inquisitors developed a prosecutorial culture capable of identifying and punishing an elusive crime by joining a well-established intellectual tradition of anti-heretical writings to a newly developed focus on heterodox acts, the kinds of acts that might be observed within the community by neighbors, friends, even relatives. Professor Wickersham’s recent classes include a new course on Modern Italy, as well as courses concerning the Reformation, the Renaissance, Inquisitions, and religious violence in early modern Europe. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University, and was Assistant Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

         

 

 
 

Jane Wickersham

jwickersham@ou.edu