Abstract
The Madonna of the Fire of Forlì is an early woodcut that miraculously survived a fire in 1428, and still resides in the cathedral of Forlì, a city southeast of Bologna. This miracle removed the woodcut from the traffic in images crossing geographic and chronological boundaries in which other early modern prints participated. Since 1428 it has acted instead as a functional site, bound to a single place and able to galvanize disparate local elements into a communal sense of emplacement. This essay explores both that ability to generate a local identity, as well as the Madonna of the Fire's status as a miraculous object. For the transformation of the Madonna of the Fire from quotidian devotional print to miraculous cult icon also activated its ability to work as a functional site by charging overlapping material, geographic and discursive loci with communal significance.
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