"Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts Series"

“The quality of these books, including numerous full-color images, demonstrates that          Saint Joseph’s University Press is an excellent bookmaker, but, more importantly, is deeply committed to the study of the Jesuits.”
Sixteenth Century Journal

In the early modern period, Catholicism witnessed an extraordinary flowering of the visual arts. The primacy of the visual during this period was based on the Catholic time-honored belief that the eye was the strongest sense organ, and consequently that images have a deeper and longer-lasting effect on memory than words. The indispensability of the visual was further bolstered by the Council of Trent's affirmation of the efficacy of sacred images to counter Protestant disdain and even iconoclasm. Consequently, during the early modern period the visual arts played a pivotal role in the renewal of Catholicism, in stemming the tide of the Reformation, in the Church's work of evangelization in both Europe and missionary lands, and in the intellectual, spiritual, and moral formation of Catholics of all social classes.

The series "Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts" understands the visual arts in the broadest sense and invites book proposals focusing on painting, sculpture, architecture, illustrated religious literature, emblematics, ekphrasis, and visual writing and preaching, as well as on the theoretical treatises of the period that underpin these various genres (translations of these treatises are also welcome). Proposals are encouraged from scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines, including art history, architecture, history, literature, religious studies, and theology.

Guidelines for Book Proposals

The "Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts" series understands "early modern" as the period from 1500 to the French Revolution. Proposals should be for manuscripts that are completed or near completion.

Prospective authors are asked to submit the following materials electronically, via e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word: (1) an up-to-date curriculum vitae; (2) a detailed proposal of 6 to 8 pages (including chapter outlines) that specifies the sources and methodology used, as well as the contribution that the proposed book makes to scholarship; (3) a bibliography of up to 20 entries of titles most pertinent to the proposal; (4) a sample chapter.

Prospective authors are invited to submit book proposals to jchorpen@sju.edu.

Editorial Board

John W. O'Malley, S.J. (Georgetown University), Series Editor
Gauvin Alexander Bailey (Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario)
Jodi Bilinkoff (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)
Frederick A. De Armas (University of Chicago)
Jeffery Chipps Smith (University of Texas, Austin)