The History of Purgatory

Gašper Jakovac is working on a project entitled 'Catholic Performance Culture in Early Modern England’ (CaPer)'. The project investigates how Catholics used theatre, dance, music, sports, and ceremonies to form communal bonds, negotiate their place in a hostile society, and advance Catholic Reformation in the period between Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne in 1558 and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. 

As part of CaPer, Gašper is currently preparing a scholarly edition of Robert Owen’s manuscript play The History of Purgatory (BL, Add. MS 11427), a unique example of Catholic vernacular drama from the early seventeenth century, which is to be published by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (University of Toronto). The play draws on Guillaume de Deguileville, and carries over features of medieval drama to the embattled context of post-Reformation English Catholicism.

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Image credit: Detail from the Santiago Altarpiece. Vallespinosa. Attributed to Joan Mates. XV century. Tempera on wood. Tarragona Cathedral Museum. ermell, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons