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Bonfire of the Vanities

 

 
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Bonfire of the Vanities
 
 
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Bonfire of the Vanities refers to the burning of objects that are deemed to be occasions of sin
Occasion of sin

In Roman Catholic teaching, an occasion of sin is an external set of circumstances—whether of things or persons—which either because of their special nature or because of the frailty common to humanity or peculiar to some individual, incite or entice one to sin....
. The most famous one took place on 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican
Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France....
 priest Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola

Girolamo Savonarola , was an Italian Dominican Order priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance....
 collected and publicly burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
, Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, on the Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday is a term used in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia for the day preceding the first day of the Christian season of fasting and prayer called Lent....
 festival.

The focus of this destruction was nominally on objects that might tempt one to sin
Sin

Sin is a term used mainly in a religion context to describe an act that violates a morality rule, or the state of having committed such a violation....
, including vanity
Vanity

In conventional parlance, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. In many religions vanity is considered a form of self-idolatry, in which one rejects God for the sake of one's own , and thereby becomes divorced from the Divine graces of God....
 items such as mirror
Mirror

A mirror is an object with one surface polished, which leads to reflection and another opaque. The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface....
s, cosmetics
Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance or protect the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care Cream , lotions, Powder , perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and gels, deodorants, baby products, bath oils, bubb...
, fine dresses, paintings, playing cards, and even musical instruments.






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Bonfire of the Vanities refers to the burning of objects that are deemed to be occasions of sin
Occasion of sin

In Roman Catholic teaching, an occasion of sin is an external set of circumstances—whether of things or persons—which either because of their special nature or because of the frailty common to humanity or peculiar to some individual, incite or entice one to sin....
. The most famous one took place on 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican
Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France....
 priest Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola

Girolamo Savonarola , was an Italian Dominican Order priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance....
 collected and publicly burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
, Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, on the Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday is a term used in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia for the day preceding the first day of the Christian season of fasting and prayer called Lent....
 festival.

The focus of this destruction was nominally on objects that might tempt one to sin
Sin

Sin is a term used mainly in a religion context to describe an act that violates a morality rule, or the state of having committed such a violation....
, including vanity
Vanity

In conventional parlance, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. In many religions vanity is considered a form of self-idolatry, in which one rejects God for the sake of one's own , and thereby becomes divorced from the Divine graces of God....
 items such as mirror
Mirror

A mirror is an object with one surface polished, which leads to reflection and another opaque. The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface....
s, cosmetics
Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance or protect the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care Cream , lotions, Powder , perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and gels, deodorants, baby products, bath oils, bubb...
, fine dresses, paintings, playing cards, and even musical instruments. Other targets included books that were deemed to be "immoral," such as works by Boccaccio and manuscripts of secular songs, as well as artworks, including paintings and sculpture.

Although it is widely reported that the Florentine artist Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello was an Italy Painting of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance ....
 burned several of his paintings based on classical mythology in the bonfire, the historical record on this is not clear. Vasari
Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italy Painting and architect, who is today famous for his biography of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art history writing....
 only reports that Botticelli was a partisan of Savonarola: "he was so ardent a partisan that he was thereby induced to desert his painting, and, having no income to live on, fell into very great distress." Brownson
Orestes Brownson

Orestes Augustus Brownson was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and finally a prolific Catholic writer. Brownson is best remembered as a publicist, a career which spanned his affiliation with the New England Transcendentalists, through his subsequent conversion to Catholicism....
, an apologist for Savonarola, only mentions artwork by Fra Bartolomeo, Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi

Lorenzo di Credi was an Italy Italian Renaissance Painting and sculpture. He first influenced Leonardo da Vinci and then was greatly influenced by him....
, and "many other painters," along with "several antique statues."

Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, however; they were a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino da Siena
Bernardino of Siena

Saint Bernardino of Siena was an Italy priest, preacher, Franciscan missionary and Christianity saint....
 in the first half of the century.

Bonfire of the Vanities in Fiction

The event has been represented or mentioned in varying degrees of detail in a number of works of historical fiction, including George Eliot
George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an England novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era....
's Romola
Romola

Romola is a historical novel by George Eliot set in the fifteenth century, and is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view"....
 (1863), Irving Stone
Irving Stone

Irving Stone was an United States writer known for his biography novels of famous historical personalities. His best known works are Lust for Life a biographical novel about the life of Vincent van Gogh and The Agony and the Ecstasy a biographical novel about Michelangelo....
's The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is an American writer....
's The Palace (1978), Timothy Findley
Timothy Findley

Timothy Irving Frederick Findley, Order of Canada , Order of Ontario was a Canada novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials....
's Pilgrim (1999), Sarah Dunant
Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant is the author of many international bestsellers, most recently The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan.She attended Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith, London and read history at Newnham College, Cambridge and has worked in theatre, radio and television....
's The Birth of Venus (2003) and Ian Caldwell's and Dustin Thomason's Rule of Four
Rule of four

The rule of four is a Supreme Court of the United States practice that permits four of the nine justices to grant a writ of certiorari. This is done specifically to prevent a majority of the court from controlling all the cases it agrees to hear....
 (2004).

As a metaphor, the ritual provided the title of Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr. , known as Tom Wolfe, is a best-selling United States author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s....
's 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City and centers on four main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish Assistant District Attorney Larry Kramer, British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow and black activist...
 and its film adaptation
The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 in film film adaptation of a novel by Tom Wolfe, also called The Bonfire of the Vanities. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy, Sherman's wife....
. Events in Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, Order of Canada is a Canada author, poet, literary criticism, feminist and activism. She is among the most-honored authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C....
's works frequently allude to the bonfire, as in her dystopian novels The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a utopian and dystopian fiction by Canadian literature Margaret Atwood, first published by McClelland and Stewart 1985 in literature....
 (1985) and Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake

Oryx and Crake is a novel with dystopian elements by Canada author Margaret Atwood. Like The Handmaid's Tale, the book is often categorized as science fiction novel, but Atwood herself prefers to label it speculative fiction and "adventure Romance " because it does not deal with 'things that have not been invented yet' and goes beyond...
 (2003).

See also

  • Book burning
    Book burning

    Book burning is the practice of destroying, often ceremony, one or more copies of a book or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such as gramophone record, Video, and Compact disc have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded....
  • Censorship
    Censorship

    Censorship is the suppression of freedom of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor....