Yaacob Dweck
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145082
- eISBN:
- 9781400840007
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145082.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the ...
More
This is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as this book argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a range of previously unexamined sources, this book tells the story of the first criticism of Kabbalah, Ari Nohem, written by Leon Modena in Venice in 1639. In this scathing indictment of Venetian Jews who had embraced Kabbalah as an authentic form of ancient esotericism, Modena proved the recent origins of Kabbalah and sought to convince his readers to return to the spiritualized rationalism of Maimonides. This book examines the hallmarks of Jewish modernity displayed by Modena's attack—a critical analysis of sacred texts, skepticism about religious truths, and self-consciousness about the past—and shows how these qualities and the later history of his polemic challenge conventional understandings of the relationship between Kabbalah and modernity. The book argues that Kabbalah was the subject of critical inquiry in the very period it came to dominate Jewish life rather than centuries later as most scholars have thought.Less
This is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as this book argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. Drawing on a range of previously unexamined sources, this book tells the story of the first criticism of Kabbalah, Ari Nohem, written by Leon Modena in Venice in 1639. In this scathing indictment of Venetian Jews who had embraced Kabbalah as an authentic form of ancient esotericism, Modena proved the recent origins of Kabbalah and sought to convince his readers to return to the spiritualized rationalism of Maimonides. This book examines the hallmarks of Jewish modernity displayed by Modena's attack—a critical analysis of sacred texts, skepticism about religious truths, and self-consciousness about the past—and shows how these qualities and the later history of his polemic challenge conventional understandings of the relationship between Kabbalah and modernity. The book argues that Kabbalah was the subject of critical inquiry in the very period it came to dominate Jewish life rather than centuries later as most scholars have thought.
GIOVANNI ZANOVELLO
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265055
- eISBN:
- 9780191754166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265055.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
How did the frottola inhabit Renaissance palazzi? One almost recoils from placing this unsophisticated music within the system of austere symbols that aristocratic interiors had to convey. This ...
More
How did the frottola inhabit Renaissance palazzi? One almost recoils from placing this unsophisticated music within the system of austere symbols that aristocratic interiors had to convey. This apparent contradiction, however, may offer precious insights on the status of music at the turn of the sixteenth century. This chapter describes the layout and content of a Paduan frottola source, MS Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Alpha.F.9.9, and the context in which it originated. The contrast between the highly learned framework and the more vernacular content of this manuscript arguably reflects the tension between humanistic standards required of music and a secular repertory just beginning to adjust to a new role. Only later would music be able to develop the vocabulary for a fruitful dialogue with literary and artistic humanism.Less
How did the frottola inhabit Renaissance palazzi? One almost recoils from placing this unsophisticated music within the system of austere symbols that aristocratic interiors had to convey. This apparent contradiction, however, may offer precious insights on the status of music at the turn of the sixteenth century. This chapter describes the layout and content of a Paduan frottola source, MS Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Alpha.F.9.9, and the context in which it originated. The contrast between the highly learned framework and the more vernacular content of this manuscript arguably reflects the tension between humanistic standards required of music and a secular repertory just beginning to adjust to a new role. Only later would music be able to develop the vocabulary for a fruitful dialogue with literary and artistic humanism.
Yaacob Dweck
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145082
- eISBN:
- 9781400840007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145082.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter posits Leon Modena's writing practices within the context of early modern Venice, capital of Hebrew printing and center of manuscript production. The circumstances of Modena's life as ...
More
This chapter posits Leon Modena's writing practices within the context of early modern Venice, capital of Hebrew printing and center of manuscript production. The circumstances of Modena's life as well as the cultural world of early modern Venice offer some context for why Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion, 1840) did not appear in print in the seventeenth century. As a work of criticism, Ari Nohem reflected upon the transmission of Jewish tradition, particularly the transmission of esoteric information and the principles of Jewish law. Modena argued that the printing of legal and kabbalistic books had effected a radical change in the transmission of Jewish tradition, a change that he decried in no uncertain terms at several points. Ari Nohem polemicized against one medium, print, in the form of another, manuscript.Less
This chapter posits Leon Modena's writing practices within the context of early modern Venice, capital of Hebrew printing and center of manuscript production. The circumstances of Modena's life as well as the cultural world of early modern Venice offer some context for why Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion, 1840) did not appear in print in the seventeenth century. As a work of criticism, Ari Nohem reflected upon the transmission of Jewish tradition, particularly the transmission of esoteric information and the principles of Jewish law. Modena argued that the printing of legal and kabbalistic books had effected a radical change in the transmission of Jewish tradition, a change that he decried in no uncertain terms at several points. Ari Nohem polemicized against one medium, print, in the form of another, manuscript.
Yaacob Dweck
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145082
- eISBN:
- 9781400840007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145082.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This epilogue argues that the failure of Ari Nohem was manifold. Modena failed to convince his immediate audience, and by extension the Jewish community of Venice, and by further extension Jewish ...
More
This epilogue argues that the failure of Ari Nohem was manifold. Modena failed to convince his immediate audience, and by extension the Jewish community of Venice, and by further extension Jewish communities throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, to abandon their embrace of a new Jewish theology that masqueraded under the guise of tradition. This was hardly surprising: no critic, no matter how stinging or how subtle, can convince people to change their beliefs or to abandon their practices. Modena had also failed to convince other scholars and other critics—the very people who might have been most receptive to his argument. To describe Ari Nohem as a failure is neither to indict the book nor to celebrate it. It is an attempt to understand it as a work written by an author constrained by the limits of his own particular moment in history.Less
This epilogue argues that the failure of Ari Nohem was manifold. Modena failed to convince his immediate audience, and by extension the Jewish community of Venice, and by further extension Jewish communities throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, to abandon their embrace of a new Jewish theology that masqueraded under the guise of tradition. This was hardly surprising: no critic, no matter how stinging or how subtle, can convince people to change their beliefs or to abandon their practices. Modena had also failed to convince other scholars and other critics—the very people who might have been most receptive to his argument. To describe Ari Nohem as a failure is neither to indict the book nor to celebrate it. It is an attempt to understand it as a work written by an author constrained by the limits of his own particular moment in history.
Carol Barash
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186861
- eISBN:
- 9780191674587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186861.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter discusses the writings of Anne Killigrew and Jane Barker. For Killigrew, the world of ritual around Mary of Modena provided a complicated but powerful model of female authority for a ...
More
This chapter discusses the writings of Anne Killigrew and Jane Barker. For Killigrew, the world of ritual around Mary of Modena provided a complicated but powerful model of female authority for a woman who was not herself Catholic. For Jane Barker — who did convert to Catholicism and followed Mary of Modena into exile in France in 1688 — the queen's symbolic presence was crucial in justifying her creative endeavours.Less
This chapter discusses the writings of Anne Killigrew and Jane Barker. For Killigrew, the world of ritual around Mary of Modena provided a complicated but powerful model of female authority for a woman who was not herself Catholic. For Jane Barker — who did convert to Catholicism and followed Mary of Modena into exile in France in 1688 — the queen's symbolic presence was crucial in justifying her creative endeavours.
Carol Barash
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186861
- eISBN:
- 9780191674587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186861.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter, working back and forth between published and manuscript versions of Anne Finch's poems, begins with the political poems, particularly her elegies on the deaths of James II in 1701 and ...
More
This chapter, working back and forth between published and manuscript versions of Anne Finch's poems, begins with the political poems, particularly her elegies on the deaths of James II in 1701 and Mary of Modena in 1718. It goes on to suggest a shifting relationship in the position of the subject between public and private in ‘The Introduction’ and ‘The Spleen’. It then discusses the ways in which the manuscript poems, with overlapping personal, political, and religious referents, were shaped into essentially lyric works for inclusion in Miscellany Poems. The chapter concludes by describing the ways in which Finch's debt to a range of earlier women writers is sculpted into the first genealogy of women's writing in ‘The Circuit of Apollo’ and other poems.Less
This chapter, working back and forth between published and manuscript versions of Anne Finch's poems, begins with the political poems, particularly her elegies on the deaths of James II in 1701 and Mary of Modena in 1718. It goes on to suggest a shifting relationship in the position of the subject between public and private in ‘The Introduction’ and ‘The Spleen’. It then discusses the ways in which the manuscript poems, with overlapping personal, political, and religious referents, were shaped into essentially lyric works for inclusion in Miscellany Poems. The chapter concludes by describing the ways in which Finch's debt to a range of earlier women writers is sculpted into the first genealogy of women's writing in ‘The Circuit of Apollo’ and other poems.
Michael Caesar and Nick Havely
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199584628
- eISBN:
- 9780191739095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584628.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, Poetry
This chapter attempts to reconstruct, as far as possible, the dantate performed in London and in Italy by the celebrated actor and patriot, Gustavo Modena. These were a distinctive form of ...
More
This chapter attempts to reconstruct, as far as possible, the dantate performed in London and in Italy by the celebrated actor and patriot, Gustavo Modena. These were a distinctive form of declamation of passages from the Divine Comedy which met with considerable acclaim between the 1830s and the 1850s, and enjoyed a long afterlife in the memory of witnesses and fellow professionals for at least half a century after Modena's death in 1861. The chapter contributes to the study of Dante in the nineteenth century by exploring the possibilities and limitations of oral performance of the text at a time when Dante was rapidly filling the role of national poet amidst the heightened political tensions of the Risorgimento. The concluding sections place Modena's further reflections on and performance of Dante in the context of his growing disillusionment with the likely and actual outcomes of the struggle for nationhood.Less
This chapter attempts to reconstruct, as far as possible, the dantate performed in London and in Italy by the celebrated actor and patriot, Gustavo Modena. These were a distinctive form of declamation of passages from the Divine Comedy which met with considerable acclaim between the 1830s and the 1850s, and enjoyed a long afterlife in the memory of witnesses and fellow professionals for at least half a century after Modena's death in 1861. The chapter contributes to the study of Dante in the nineteenth century by exploring the possibilities and limitations of oral performance of the text at a time when Dante was rapidly filling the role of national poet amidst the heightened political tensions of the Risorgimento. The concluding sections place Modena's further reflections on and performance of Dante in the context of his growing disillusionment with the likely and actual outcomes of the struggle for nationhood.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226779881
- eISBN:
- 9780226779874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226779874.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This part includes sonnets by Gabriele Zinano and Sarra Copia Sulam's response to one of them. Leon Modena, the rabbi closely involved in Sulam's biography, was privy to the content of the letters ...
More
This part includes sonnets by Gabriele Zinano and Sarra Copia Sulam's response to one of them. Leon Modena, the rabbi closely involved in Sulam's biography, was privy to the content of the letters she wrote to Ansaldo Cebà and received from him, and to her problems with her adversaries. Also included in this part are a dedication to Copia from Modena's play Ester (1619) and Modena's epitaph for her tombstone (1641).Less
This part includes sonnets by Gabriele Zinano and Sarra Copia Sulam's response to one of them. Leon Modena, the rabbi closely involved in Sulam's biography, was privy to the content of the letters she wrote to Ansaldo Cebà and received from him, and to her problems with her adversaries. Also included in this part are a dedication to Copia from Modena's play Ester (1619) and Modena's epitaph for her tombstone (1641).
Margaret J. M. Ezell
- Published in print:
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- eISBN:
- 9780191849572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780191849572.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
The birth of an heir to King James and Mary of Modena led to a crisis, with allegations that the child was not legitimate. Whig politicians were alarmed by the promotion of openly practicing ...
More
The birth of an heir to King James and Mary of Modena led to a crisis, with allegations that the child was not legitimate. Whig politicians were alarmed by the promotion of openly practicing Catholics in the army and at the court. Upon the invasion by William, the court fled into exile in France, establishing a rival court at St. Germain. While in exile, Jacobite poets including Jane Barker created manuscript volumes of verse and fiction to be published later. In England, supporters of King James including Heneage and Anne Finch retreated from London into a quiet exile in the countryside, and John Dryden was removed from his post as Poet Laureate.Less
The birth of an heir to King James and Mary of Modena led to a crisis, with allegations that the child was not legitimate. Whig politicians were alarmed by the promotion of openly practicing Catholics in the army and at the court. Upon the invasion by William, the court fled into exile in France, establishing a rival court at St. Germain. While in exile, Jacobite poets including Jane Barker created manuscript volumes of verse and fiction to be published later. In England, supporters of King James including Heneage and Anne Finch retreated from London into a quiet exile in the countryside, and John Dryden was removed from his post as Poet Laureate.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804770071
- eISBN:
- 9780804777254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804770071.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
Meir Wiener developed an interest in historical fiction for practical and theoretical reasons. His concept of the historical novel can be seen within the theoretical framework of socialist-realist ...
More
Meir Wiener developed an interest in historical fiction for practical and theoretical reasons. His concept of the historical novel can be seen within the theoretical framework of socialist-realist discourse. Wiener argued that historical progress is driven primarily by the plebeian underclass, and that the vagabond intellectual and artist is the voice behind this underclass. This theory can be interpreted as a response to Georg Lukács's concept of the historical novel, in which he dismissed the masses as a historical force. Both Wiener and Lukács are critical of “psychological modernization,” but Wiener proposes a different kind of artistic modernization known as “metaphorical modernization.” This chapter discusses Wiener's historical fiction and his ideas on Jewish history, along with his historical concept of the Yiddish literature. It looks at Wiener's historical novella Valenty Gulviets, which he revised and expanded after arriving in the Soviet Union, turning it a short novel entitled Kolev Ashkenazi. The chapter also examines another Wiener novel, Baym mitllendishn yam (At the Mediterranean Sea), which focuses on the seventeenth-century Venetian rabbi Leon Modena.Less
Meir Wiener developed an interest in historical fiction for practical and theoretical reasons. His concept of the historical novel can be seen within the theoretical framework of socialist-realist discourse. Wiener argued that historical progress is driven primarily by the plebeian underclass, and that the vagabond intellectual and artist is the voice behind this underclass. This theory can be interpreted as a response to Georg Lukács's concept of the historical novel, in which he dismissed the masses as a historical force. Both Wiener and Lukács are critical of “psychological modernization,” but Wiener proposes a different kind of artistic modernization known as “metaphorical modernization.” This chapter discusses Wiener's historical fiction and his ideas on Jewish history, along with his historical concept of the Yiddish literature. It looks at Wiener's historical novella Valenty Gulviets, which he revised and expanded after arriving in the Soviet Union, turning it a short novel entitled Kolev Ashkenazi. The chapter also examines another Wiener novel, Baym mitllendishn yam (At the Mediterranean Sea), which focuses on the seventeenth-century Venetian rabbi Leon Modena.
R. J. Walsh
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853238386
- eISBN:
- 9781846312809
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846312809
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This is a study of Charles the Bold's diplomatic and military relations with the Italian states, taking full account of economic policy. The book makes extensive use not only of the great mass of ...
More
This is a study of Charles the Bold's diplomatic and military relations with the Italian states, taking full account of economic policy. The book makes extensive use not only of the great mass of diplomatic correspondence in the archives of Florence, Mantua, Milan, Modena and Venice, but also of Charles' financial records in the archives of Brussels and Lille. The book's use of these primary sources is complemented by the use of a wide range of secondary material. The book places Charles' reign in its wider European context.Less
This is a study of Charles the Bold's diplomatic and military relations with the Italian states, taking full account of economic policy. The book makes extensive use not only of the great mass of diplomatic correspondence in the archives of Florence, Mantua, Milan, Modena and Venice, but also of Charles' financial records in the archives of Brussels and Lille. The book's use of these primary sources is complemented by the use of a wide range of secondary material. The book places Charles' reign in its wider European context.
Stefano Villani
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- February 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197587737
- eISBN:
- 9780197587768
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197587737.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In 1685 the first printed edition in Italian of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer was published in London: Il Libro delle Preghiere Publiche secondo l’uso della Chiesa Anglicana. The translation’s ...
More
In 1685 the first printed edition in Italian of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer was published in London: Il Libro delle Preghiere Publiche secondo l’uso della Chiesa Anglicana. The translation’s editor was Edward Brown, an Anglican cleric, who also published a translation into English of Paolo Sarpi’s Lettere Italiane Scritte al Signor dell’Isola Groslot in 1693. While Brown was the promoter of this Italian edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the translator was a certain Giovan Battista Cappello from Valtellina. Because an Italian Protestant church in England no longer existed when this translation was published, it was apparently not meant for use in worship. The decision to translate the Book of Common Prayer aimed to demonstrate the excellence and doctrinal purity of the Church of England at a time when a Catholic king had succeeded to the throne with an Italian wife.Less
In 1685 the first printed edition in Italian of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer was published in London: Il Libro delle Preghiere Publiche secondo l’uso della Chiesa Anglicana. The translation’s editor was Edward Brown, an Anglican cleric, who also published a translation into English of Paolo Sarpi’s Lettere Italiane Scritte al Signor dell’Isola Groslot in 1693. While Brown was the promoter of this Italian edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the translator was a certain Giovan Battista Cappello from Valtellina. Because an Italian Protestant church in England no longer existed when this translation was published, it was apparently not meant for use in worship. The decision to translate the Book of Common Prayer aimed to demonstrate the excellence and doctrinal purity of the Church of England at a time when a Catholic king had succeeded to the throne with an Italian wife.
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192849472
- eISBN:
- 9780191944598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192849472.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Political History
This chapter begins by reviewing the historiography of food riots from Camille-Ernest Labrousse in the 1940s to the twenty-first century. Against much of this literature, the chapter argues that ...
More
This chapter begins by reviewing the historiography of food riots from Camille-Ernest Labrousse in the 1940s to the twenty-first century. Against much of this literature, the chapter argues that these riots of subsistence were not the principal form of revolt in ‘preindustrial times’ as has often been alleged; nor was scarcity a principal pre-condition of popular revolt. However, by the mid-1470s and through the sixteenth century, food riots became more common and a conjuncture between scarcity and revolt was no longer negatively linked as it had been during the Middle Ages. Moreover, the chapter finds two sorts of bread riots in early modern Italy, and historians have yet to recognize the differences. One form—the rarer of the two—was composed mostly of starving women and children, often accompanied by impoverished men from the countryside. Neither leaders nor targets were generally mentioned; their cries were for mercy and bread with little violence or repression ensuing. The second form was revolts of the popolo, comprised mostly of armed adult men, who elected their leaders, and chose distinct targets such as granaries or ships ready to export grain. In addition, these were enmeshed within broader revolts often with larger constitutional and political objectives.Less
This chapter begins by reviewing the historiography of food riots from Camille-Ernest Labrousse in the 1940s to the twenty-first century. Against much of this literature, the chapter argues that these riots of subsistence were not the principal form of revolt in ‘preindustrial times’ as has often been alleged; nor was scarcity a principal pre-condition of popular revolt. However, by the mid-1470s and through the sixteenth century, food riots became more common and a conjuncture between scarcity and revolt was no longer negatively linked as it had been during the Middle Ages. Moreover, the chapter finds two sorts of bread riots in early modern Italy, and historians have yet to recognize the differences. One form—the rarer of the two—was composed mostly of starving women and children, often accompanied by impoverished men from the countryside. Neither leaders nor targets were generally mentioned; their cries were for mercy and bread with little violence or repression ensuing. The second form was revolts of the popolo, comprised mostly of armed adult men, who elected their leaders, and chose distinct targets such as granaries or ships ready to export grain. In addition, these were enmeshed within broader revolts often with larger constitutional and political objectives.