Paula C. Clarke
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229926
- eISBN:
- 9780191678943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229926.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Sacramoro Mengozzi remained aware that Piero's death might cause any of them to try to unseat the young Lorenzo de' Medici. Sacramoro dismissed the idea that Tommaso would turn against Lorenzo, for ...
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Sacramoro Mengozzi remained aware that Piero's death might cause any of them to try to unseat the young Lorenzo de' Medici. Sacramoro dismissed the idea that Tommaso would turn against Lorenzo, for although he possessed the intelligence to aspire to Piero's place, Tommaso lacked the popularity. Piero's death offered him the opportunity to make himself Lorenzo's mentor and thereby indirectly to exercise effective political power. The challenge to Lorenzo originated in issues of foreign policy, in particular in the serious and permanent antagonism that had developed between Florence's political allies, the Duke of Milan and King Ferrante of Naples.Less
Sacramoro Mengozzi remained aware that Piero's death might cause any of them to try to unseat the young Lorenzo de' Medici. Sacramoro dismissed the idea that Tommaso would turn against Lorenzo, for although he possessed the intelligence to aspire to Piero's place, Tommaso lacked the popularity. Piero's death offered him the opportunity to make himself Lorenzo's mentor and thereby indirectly to exercise effective political power. The challenge to Lorenzo originated in issues of foreign policy, in particular in the serious and permanent antagonism that had developed between Florence's political allies, the Duke of Milan and King Ferrante of Naples.
Paula C. Clarke
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229926
- eISBN:
- 9780191678943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229926.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Although Galeazzo Maria Sforza was wary of Tommaso Soderini, he fulfilled his promise to Sacramoro to do his best to confirm Tommaso in his commitment to the Sforza house. While Tommaso did his best ...
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Although Galeazzo Maria Sforza was wary of Tommaso Soderini, he fulfilled his promise to Sacramoro to do his best to confirm Tommaso in his commitment to the Sforza house. While Tommaso did his best to satisfy the Duke's expectations, he was not prepared to subordinate either Florence's interests to Milan's or his own to Lorenzo's. These factors contributed to moments of tension during his embassy, in which the Duke's and Lorenzo's suspicion regarding his reliability were revived. By serving Florence's interests independently, he could shore up his authority without having to rely on the Medici. Despite Lorenzo's and Tommaso's disagreements on policy, they collaborated effectively in the interests of the city and of the regime, since Lorenzo continued to satisfy Tommaso's ambition for the most powerful positions at home and abroad.Less
Although Galeazzo Maria Sforza was wary of Tommaso Soderini, he fulfilled his promise to Sacramoro to do his best to confirm Tommaso in his commitment to the Sforza house. While Tommaso did his best to satisfy the Duke's expectations, he was not prepared to subordinate either Florence's interests to Milan's or his own to Lorenzo's. These factors contributed to moments of tension during his embassy, in which the Duke's and Lorenzo's suspicion regarding his reliability were revived. By serving Florence's interests independently, he could shore up his authority without having to rely on the Medici. Despite Lorenzo's and Tommaso's disagreements on policy, they collaborated effectively in the interests of the city and of the regime, since Lorenzo continued to satisfy Tommaso's ambition for the most powerful positions at home and abroad.
Jane Black
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199565290
- eISBN:
- 9780191721861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199565290.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This volume charts the rise and decline of absolutism in Milan from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. The study shows how authority above the law, once the preserve of pope and ...
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This volume charts the rise and decline of absolutism in Milan from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. The study shows how authority above the law, once the preserve of pope and emperor, was claimed by the ruling Milanese dynasties, the Visconti and the Sforza, and why this privilege was finally abandoned by Francesco II Sforza (d. 1535), the last duke. As new rulers, the Visconti and the Sforza had had to impose their regime by rewarding supporters at the expense of opponents. That process required absolute power (also known as plenitude of power), meaning the capacity to laws and the rights of subjects, including titles to property. The basis for such power reflected the changing status of Milanese rulers, first as signori and then as dukes. Contemporary lawyers were at first prepared to overturn established doctrines in support of the free use of absolute power: even Baldo degli Ubaldi accepted the latest teaching. But eventually lawyers regretted the new approach, reasserting the traditional principle that laws could not be set aside without compelling justification. The Visconti and the Sforza also saw the dangers of absolute power: as legitimate princes they were meant to champion law and justice, not condone arbitrary acts that disregarded basic rights. Black traces the application of plenitude of power in day‐to‐day government, and demonstrates how the rulers of Milan kept pace with the initial acceptance and subsequent rejection by lawyers of the concept of absolute power.Less
This volume charts the rise and decline of absolutism in Milan from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. The study shows how authority above the law, once the preserve of pope and emperor, was claimed by the ruling Milanese dynasties, the Visconti and the Sforza, and why this privilege was finally abandoned by Francesco II Sforza (d. 1535), the last duke. As new rulers, the Visconti and the Sforza had had to impose their regime by rewarding supporters at the expense of opponents. That process required absolute power (also known as plenitude of power), meaning the capacity to laws and the rights of subjects, including titles to property. The basis for such power reflected the changing status of Milanese rulers, first as signori and then as dukes. Contemporary lawyers were at first prepared to overturn established doctrines in support of the free use of absolute power: even Baldo degli Ubaldi accepted the latest teaching. But eventually lawyers regretted the new approach, reasserting the traditional principle that laws could not be set aside without compelling justification. The Visconti and the Sforza also saw the dangers of absolute power: as legitimate princes they were meant to champion law and justice, not condone arbitrary acts that disregarded basic rights. Black traces the application of plenitude of power in day‐to‐day government, and demonstrates how the rulers of Milan kept pace with the initial acceptance and subsequent rejection by lawyers of the concept of absolute power.
Tanya Pollard
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199270835
- eISBN:
- 9780191710322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270835.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter examines the threat that female beauty posed for men. A surprising number of plays from this period dramatize the motif of death by poisoned kiss. The chapter focuses on three plays: ...
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This chapter examines the threat that female beauty posed for men. A surprising number of plays from this period dramatize the motif of death by poisoned kiss. The chapter focuses on three plays: Middleton’s The Second Maiden’s Tragedy, Massinger’s The Duke of Milan, and The Revenger’s Tragedy, in which men die from necrophilic embraces with female corpses painted with poisons. It is argued that these plays identify sexuality, particularly the desirable female body, with both remedy and poison. Furthermore, these plays identify an idolatrous attraction to painted corpses with the risks of being seduced by the artificial world of the theater.Less
This chapter examines the threat that female beauty posed for men. A surprising number of plays from this period dramatize the motif of death by poisoned kiss. The chapter focuses on three plays: Middleton’s The Second Maiden’s Tragedy, Massinger’s The Duke of Milan, and The Revenger’s Tragedy, in which men die from necrophilic embraces with female corpses painted with poisons. It is argued that these plays identify sexuality, particularly the desirable female body, with both remedy and poison. Furthermore, these plays identify an idolatrous attraction to painted corpses with the risks of being seduced by the artificial world of the theater.
Susan Zimmerman
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748621033
- eISBN:
- 9780748652198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748621033.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter investigates the repercussions of continual tension in two plays that directly address the issue of idolatry: Thomas Middleton's The Second Maiden's Tragedy, and Philip Massinger's The ...
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This chapter investigates the repercussions of continual tension in two plays that directly address the issue of idolatry: Thomas Middleton's The Second Maiden's Tragedy, and Philip Massinger's The Duke of Milan. Both plays are implicated importantly in the core concern of Protestant iconoclasm: the question of what ‘dead’ means in relation to materiality. It would seem that the ideological confusions of The Second Maiden's Tragedy foreclosed the possibility of doctrinal orthodoxy despite the play's ostensible condemnation of idolatry. The Duke of Milan renders with compelling immediacy the sensory temptations of anthropomorphic imaging, and isolates the female body as the site of violence, or more precisely, as the bridge between sexuality and the bloody waste of war. The Middleton and Massinger plays are useful in anatomizing the difficulties of staging the corpse and the slippages that inevitably proceed from any efforts to do so.Less
This chapter investigates the repercussions of continual tension in two plays that directly address the issue of idolatry: Thomas Middleton's The Second Maiden's Tragedy, and Philip Massinger's The Duke of Milan. Both plays are implicated importantly in the core concern of Protestant iconoclasm: the question of what ‘dead’ means in relation to materiality. It would seem that the ideological confusions of The Second Maiden's Tragedy foreclosed the possibility of doctrinal orthodoxy despite the play's ostensible condemnation of idolatry. The Duke of Milan renders with compelling immediacy the sensory temptations of anthropomorphic imaging, and isolates the female body as the site of violence, or more precisely, as the bridge between sexuality and the bloody waste of war. The Middleton and Massinger plays are useful in anatomizing the difficulties of staging the corpse and the slippages that inevitably proceed from any efforts to do so.
Martin Wiggins
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112280
- eISBN:
- 9780191670749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112280.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
In the period of nearly three decades between The Duchess of Malfi and the closure of the theatres in 1642, only one play made important and original use of the assassin: Thomas Middleton and William ...
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In the period of nearly three decades between The Duchess of Malfi and the closure of the theatres in 1642, only one play made important and original use of the assassin: Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling. It is a treatment very different from John Webster's. Beatrice and De Flores who are, if anything, even more central than Flamineo and Bosola: the murder of Beatrice's fiancé Piracquo is the subject of the play. But whereas Webster was interested in the human experience of being a hired murderer, this play deals with the situation of using one. There are only a few other substantial treatments of the assassin from the late Jacobean and Caroline period: Philip Massinger's The Duke of Milan and John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. A number of plays recycled aspects of the characters of Webster's assassins. The gradual exclusion of hired murderers from these plays offers a context with which to best understand the decline of the stage assassin in the 1620s and 1630s.Less
In the period of nearly three decades between The Duchess of Malfi and the closure of the theatres in 1642, only one play made important and original use of the assassin: Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling. It is a treatment very different from John Webster's. Beatrice and De Flores who are, if anything, even more central than Flamineo and Bosola: the murder of Beatrice's fiancé Piracquo is the subject of the play. But whereas Webster was interested in the human experience of being a hired murderer, this play deals with the situation of using one. There are only a few other substantial treatments of the assassin from the late Jacobean and Caroline period: Philip Massinger's The Duke of Milan and John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. A number of plays recycled aspects of the characters of Webster's assassins. The gradual exclusion of hired murderers from these plays offers a context with which to best understand the decline of the stage assassin in the 1620s and 1630s.
Marco Cesa (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- February 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199673698
- eISBN:
- 9780191803680
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199673698.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, International Relations and Politics
This chapter presents texts that express Machiavelli’s thoughts on fear. The first is an excerpt from Discourses describing a policy spawned by the popes’ constant fear that Northern and Southern ...
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This chapter presents texts that express Machiavelli’s thoughts on fear. The first is an excerpt from Discourses describing a policy spawned by the popes’ constant fear that Northern and Southern Italy might be united under a single ruler. The second text is an excerpt taken from what was probably a comprehensive report to the Florentine government written by Machiavelli after his third and fourth missions to France, in 1510 and 1511, respectively. The third text is an excerpt from letter where Machiavelli analyses the predicaments in which Spain finds itself after signing a new truce with France. The fourth text is an excerpt from Florentine Histories that detail Florence’s fears about taking Lucca. The fifth text is an excerpt from Florentine Histories which details how King of Naples was forced to give up a gain within reach under the pressure of an impending threat. The sixth text is an excerpt from Florentine Histories on Venice. The final text is another excerpt from Florentine Histories on the Duke of Milan’s decision to set Alfonso of Aragon free.Less
This chapter presents texts that express Machiavelli’s thoughts on fear. The first is an excerpt from Discourses describing a policy spawned by the popes’ constant fear that Northern and Southern Italy might be united under a single ruler. The second text is an excerpt taken from what was probably a comprehensive report to the Florentine government written by Machiavelli after his third and fourth missions to France, in 1510 and 1511, respectively. The third text is an excerpt from letter where Machiavelli analyses the predicaments in which Spain finds itself after signing a new truce with France. The fourth text is an excerpt from Florentine Histories that detail Florence’s fears about taking Lucca. The fifth text is an excerpt from Florentine Histories which details how King of Naples was forced to give up a gain within reach under the pressure of an impending threat. The sixth text is an excerpt from Florentine Histories on Venice. The final text is another excerpt from Florentine Histories on the Duke of Milan’s decision to set Alfonso of Aragon free.
Anne Borelli, Maria Pastore Passaro, Donald Beebe, Alison Brown, and Giuseppe Mazzotta
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300103267
- eISBN:
- 9780300129045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300103267.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter presents translations of the following documents: Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary (16–29 February 1496); letter from Paolo de Somenzi to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (16 February ...
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This chapter presents translations of the following documents: Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary (16–29 February 1496); letter from Paolo de Somenzi to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (16 February 1496); and La vita del Beato Ieronimo Savonarola, previously attributed to Fra Pacifico Burlamacchi, Chapter XXXVIII, Concerning the conversion of the Florentine children and their fruits and works.Less
This chapter presents translations of the following documents: Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary (16–29 February 1496); letter from Paolo de Somenzi to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (16 February 1496); and La vita del Beato Ieronimo Savonarola, previously attributed to Fra Pacifico Burlamacchi, Chapter XXXVIII, Concerning the conversion of the Florentine children and their fruits and works.
Tom Scott
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198725275
- eISBN:
- 9780191792618
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198725275.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Political History
Bern remained reluctant to offer Geneva active support, a city which, apart from its Protestantism, lay beyond Bern’s geographical orbit. It feared reprisals from the Catholic cantons, and wished to ...
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Bern remained reluctant to offer Geneva active support, a city which, apart from its Protestantism, lay beyond Bern’s geographical orbit. It feared reprisals from the Catholic cantons, and wished to remain on good terms with Fribourg. Above all, it feared France’s designs upon Savoy, including Geneva, which stretched back to the 1510s. French spies were scouting Geneva’s hinterland from early 1535. In November a small army under François Verey attempted to relieve Geneva, almost certainly under French instructions: Verey promised Geneva the French king’s protection. The most Bern did was to threaten to cancel its long-standing Burgrecht with Savoy. But there was popular support in Bern for intervention. The death of the duke of Milan in November rekindled French ambitions in Italy, imperilling Savoy.Less
Bern remained reluctant to offer Geneva active support, a city which, apart from its Protestantism, lay beyond Bern’s geographical orbit. It feared reprisals from the Catholic cantons, and wished to remain on good terms with Fribourg. Above all, it feared France’s designs upon Savoy, including Geneva, which stretched back to the 1510s. French spies were scouting Geneva’s hinterland from early 1535. In November a small army under François Verey attempted to relieve Geneva, almost certainly under French instructions: Verey promised Geneva the French king’s protection. The most Bern did was to threaten to cancel its long-standing Burgrecht with Savoy. But there was popular support in Bern for intervention. The death of the duke of Milan in November rekindled French ambitions in Italy, imperilling Savoy.
Anne Borelli, Maria Pastore Passaro, Donald Beebe, Alison Brown, and Giuseppe Mazzotta
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300103267
- eISBN:
- 9780300129045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300103267.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter presents translations of the following documents: Exodus, Sermon III: Quinquagesima Sunday (25 February 1498); Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary (27 February 1498); Piero Parenti, Storia ...
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This chapter presents translations of the following documents: Exodus, Sermon III: Quinquagesima Sunday (25 February 1498); Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary (27 February 1498); Piero Parenti, Storia fiorentina; Iacopo Nardi, Istorie della città di Firenze; letter from Paolo de Somenzi to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (27 February 1498); and La vita del Beato Ieronimo Savonarola.Less
This chapter presents translations of the following documents: Exodus, Sermon III: Quinquagesima Sunday (25 February 1498); Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary (27 February 1498); Piero Parenti, Storia fiorentina; Iacopo Nardi, Istorie della città di Firenze; letter from Paolo de Somenzi to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (27 February 1498); and La vita del Beato Ieronimo Savonarola.
