Franco Mormando is professor of Italian at Boston College. Educated at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Gregorian University of Rome, he specializes in the cultural history of Renaissance and Baroque Rome, especially the intersection of art, religion, and popular culture. His previous publication for the University of Chicago Press, The Preacher’s Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy (1999) was awarded the Howard R. Marraro Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in Italian History. In 2005 he was inducted as “Cavaliere” (Knight) in the honorary Ordine della stella della solidarietà italiana, by the president of the Italian Republic in recognition of his achievements in the promotion of Italian language and culture.