paola francesca moretti: Misericordia: the word and its history, from the archaic times to the 4th century.

The word misericordia occurs very often in the corpus of Latin literature, since its very beginning: about 400 occurrences in pagan texts until the 4th century (starting from Roman comedy), and more than 2000 in Christian texts from the 2nd century onwards.
Firstly, I will examine the multifaceted meanings misericordia is endowed with in pagan writings: both a negative one – mostly in the context of the Stoic philosophy of passiones – and a more positive one – in less technical use –.
Secondly, I will consider the word as mentioned by Christian writers and by Ambrose, in order to point out the relationship they establish to the previous both philosophical and literary tradition.