Una devozione condivisa: Santa Corona, i domenicani e le Grazie tra Quattro e Cinquecento

The analysis of an original or until now under evaluated documentation (such as the record of an apostolic visitation by Girolamo Ragazzoni on the 3th of February 1576; or the Descrizione storica delle chiese, de’ monasteri, delle confraternite e de’ luoghi pii di Milano [Historical description of the churches, the monasteries, the brotherhoods and the sacred places of Milan], also called Antichità di Milano [Antiquities of Milan], a manuscript of the last decade of the ‘500; the Devote orationi in memoria del Nostro Signore Iesu Christo [Devout prayers in memory of Our Lord Jesus Christ], in use in the worships of the brotherhood) allows to focus the evolution of the laical company of S. Corona, risen in connection with the Dominicans of Maria delle Grazie in the 1497 and settled in the complex of S. Sepulchre, really close to the hospice of S. Maria della Rosa. This brotherhood, characterized by an high-level social status, specialized from the beginning in the charitable activity consisting in the medical assistance towards the poor, but kept also an intense devotional and edifying mark for a long time, testified by the subjects of the iconography that the members commissioned, by their wide access to the products of the written culture (a list of owned books is conserved about the 1522) and by the biographical memories collected into the most antique archives of the institution.