Jane Stevenson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198185024
- eISBN:
- 9780191714238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198185024.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
Educated women, writers, poets, and orators, became a feature of the Italian cultural landscape in the 15th century, a phenomenon which was recognized Europe-wide as an aspect of the Italian ...
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Educated women, writers, poets, and orators, became a feature of the Italian cultural landscape in the 15th century, a phenomenon which was recognized Europe-wide as an aspect of the Italian Renaissance. This chapter examines the extreme variability of women's access to education between one state and another. It discusses the social context of Renaissance humanism, and the barriers it offered to women's participation. Women and scribal publication are considered. The chapter includes separate sections on women and the universities, particularly the medical school of Salerno and the law school of Bologna, particularly Novella d'Andrea; women and humanism, Latin as an aspect of demonstrating fitness to rule and woman as Latin orators; the Nogarola family and its connections among male and female Latinists in the Veneto, particularly Isotta Nogarola; Costanza Varano and educated women connected with Urbino; Veronica Gàmbara, the Gonzagas, and the Sforzas. Absence of evidence for Latin verse production in 15th-century convents is pointed out.Less
Educated women, writers, poets, and orators, became a feature of the Italian cultural landscape in the 15th century, a phenomenon which was recognized Europe-wide as an aspect of the Italian Renaissance. This chapter examines the extreme variability of women's access to education between one state and another. It discusses the social context of Renaissance humanism, and the barriers it offered to women's participation. Women and scribal publication are considered. The chapter includes separate sections on women and the universities, particularly the medical school of Salerno and the law school of Bologna, particularly Novella d'Andrea; women and humanism, Latin as an aspect of demonstrating fitness to rule and woman as Latin orators; the Nogarola family and its connections among male and female Latinists in the Veneto, particularly Isotta Nogarola; Costanza Varano and educated women connected with Urbino; Veronica Gàmbara, the Gonzagas, and the Sforzas. Absence of evidence for Latin verse production in 15th-century convents is pointed out.
Martin McLaughlin, Letizia Panizza, and Peter Hainsworth (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264133
- eISBN:
- 9780191734649
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264133.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. ...
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Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. His Italian love lyrics constituted the major influence on European love poetry for at least two centuries from 1400 to 1600, and in Britain he was imitated by Chaucer, the Elizabethans, and other lyric poets up until the end of the eighteenth century. With Romanticism Dante ousted Petrarch from his pre-eminent position, but in our post-Romantic age, attention has now started to swing back to Petrarch. This volume is a survey of Petrarch's literary legacy in Britain. Starting with his own views of those whom he called the ‘barbari Britanni’, the volume then explores a number of key topics: Petrarch's analysis of the self; his dialogue with other classical and Italian authors; Petrarchism and anti-Petrarchism in Renaissance Italy; Petrarchism in England and Scotland; and Petrarch's modern legacy in both Italy and Britain. Many important texts and poets are considered, including Giordano Bruno, Leopardi, Foscolo, Ascham, Sidney, Spenser, and Walter Savage Landor.Less
Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. His Italian love lyrics constituted the major influence on European love poetry for at least two centuries from 1400 to 1600, and in Britain he was imitated by Chaucer, the Elizabethans, and other lyric poets up until the end of the eighteenth century. With Romanticism Dante ousted Petrarch from his pre-eminent position, but in our post-Romantic age, attention has now started to swing back to Petrarch. This volume is a survey of Petrarch's literary legacy in Britain. Starting with his own views of those whom he called the ‘barbari Britanni’, the volume then explores a number of key topics: Petrarch's analysis of the self; his dialogue with other classical and Italian authors; Petrarchism and anti-Petrarchism in Renaissance Italy; Petrarchism in England and Scotland; and Petrarch's modern legacy in both Italy and Britain. Many important texts and poets are considered, including Giordano Bruno, Leopardi, Foscolo, Ascham, Sidney, Spenser, and Walter Savage Landor.
Catherine Kovesi Killerby
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199247936
- eISBN:
- 9780191714733
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247936.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter explores what clothing represented in early modern Italy, why it was that women were overwhelmingly the target of clothing laws, and why the laws were expressed, at times, with such ...
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This chapter explores what clothing represented in early modern Italy, why it was that women were overwhelmingly the target of clothing laws, and why the laws were expressed, at times, with such misogynist venom. It examines further efforts of women to mitigate these lawsthat further curtailed an already highly regulated and restricted life. Before exploring issues of gender in relation to clothing, this chapter considers clothing in general and what it signified in medieval and Renaissance Italy. It explains that the great increase in legislation against women was brought by concerns such as societal structures and theoretical underpinnings. It adds that Renaissance Italy was a patriarchal society in which women were legally, politically, economically, and socially excluded from the public sphere.Less
This chapter explores what clothing represented in early modern Italy, why it was that women were overwhelmingly the target of clothing laws, and why the laws were expressed, at times, with such misogynist venom. It examines further efforts of women to mitigate these lawsthat further curtailed an already highly regulated and restricted life. Before exploring issues of gender in relation to clothing, this chapter considers clothing in general and what it signified in medieval and Renaissance Italy. It explains that the great increase in legislation against women was brought by concerns such as societal structures and theoretical underpinnings. It adds that Renaissance Italy was a patriarchal society in which women were legally, politically, economically, and socially excluded from the public sphere.
Paula C. Clarke
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229926
- eISBN:
- 9780191678943
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229926.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This account of the careers of two brothers, Tommaso and Niccolò Soderini, and their relationship with the Medici family opens up a new perspective on the political world of Renaissance Florence. The ...
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This account of the careers of two brothers, Tommaso and Niccolò Soderini, and their relationship with the Medici family opens up a new perspective on the political world of Renaissance Florence. The Soderini were at different times supporters and adversaries of the Medici, whose rise to power remains the subject of historical debate. Based on hitherto unpublished sources, particularly from the archives of Florence and Milan, this book examines the nature of the ascendancy of the Medici and of the opposition to them, the sources of their power, the operation of their system of patronage, the bonds connecting one of the most successful political elites in Renaissance Italy, and the development of the political institutions of the Florentine state. It contributes to our understanding of the political and constitutional history of Florence.Less
This account of the careers of two brothers, Tommaso and Niccolò Soderini, and their relationship with the Medici family opens up a new perspective on the political world of Renaissance Florence. The Soderini were at different times supporters and adversaries of the Medici, whose rise to power remains the subject of historical debate. Based on hitherto unpublished sources, particularly from the archives of Florence and Milan, this book examines the nature of the ascendancy of the Medici and of the opposition to them, the sources of their power, the operation of their system of patronage, the bonds connecting one of the most successful political elites in Renaissance Italy, and the development of the political institutions of the Florentine state. It contributes to our understanding of the political and constitutional history of Florence.
Oren Margolis
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526117045
- eISBN:
- 9781526141910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526117045.003.0006
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
The foundation myths of late medieval cities and states were never simply about origins: they were above all about destiny. In the fifteenth century, the combination of humanist methods and models, ...
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The foundation myths of late medieval cities and states were never simply about origins: they were above all about destiny. In the fifteenth century, the combination of humanist methods and models, newly available source materials, and changing domestic and international political circumstances provided the impetus for the continued development of these myths as well as the creation of new ones. Yet even in Italy, not all eyes looked to Rome. The Carolingian foundation myth of Florence, in which Charlemagne’s supposed rebuilding of the city was used to explain the pro-French orientation of the commune and its Guelph elite, is perhaps the most well-known of these myths, but also an example of an Italian city defining itself in relation to a foreign power. This essay focuses on another element of Quattrocento myth-making culture: the treatment of northern Italy’s Gaulish past in the writings of some of the region’s humanists (e.g. (Antonio Cornazzano and Alberto Cattaneo), and the role of these writings in Franco-Milanese relations before and during the outbreak of the Italian Wars and the French domination of Milan.Less
The foundation myths of late medieval cities and states were never simply about origins: they were above all about destiny. In the fifteenth century, the combination of humanist methods and models, newly available source materials, and changing domestic and international political circumstances provided the impetus for the continued development of these myths as well as the creation of new ones. Yet even in Italy, not all eyes looked to Rome. The Carolingian foundation myth of Florence, in which Charlemagne’s supposed rebuilding of the city was used to explain the pro-French orientation of the commune and its Guelph elite, is perhaps the most well-known of these myths, but also an example of an Italian city defining itself in relation to a foreign power. This essay focuses on another element of Quattrocento myth-making culture: the treatment of northern Italy’s Gaulish past in the writings of some of the region’s humanists (e.g. (Antonio Cornazzano and Alberto Cattaneo), and the role of these writings in Franco-Milanese relations before and during the outbreak of the Italian Wars and the French domination of Milan.
Bianca de Divitiis
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526117045
- eISBN:
- 9781526141910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526117045.003.0005
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries some of the most conspicuous remains of antiquity in the Italian peninsula were found in the Kingdom of Naples. These included not only Roman ruins, but ...
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Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries some of the most conspicuous remains of antiquity in the Italian peninsula were found in the Kingdom of Naples. These included not only Roman ruins, but also pre-Roman ones, such as Greek and, Italic relics, which testified to the diverse and very ancient origins of many of its centres. Magnificent ruins, such as temples or tombs, marked the landscape of cities and countryside and were regarded as traces of a glorious local past. Ancient remains were, furthermore, constantly unearthed across southern Italy either through chance findings or as a result of purposeful excavation and antiquarian research. Examining literary and artistic evidence, this essay considers local antiquity as a central theme of Southern Italian antiquarianism, for example in Capua and Venosa. It will also question the nature and perception of a diverse body of Southern Italian ‘antiquities’, which could include medieval monuments, imported classical works, or forgeries.Less
Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries some of the most conspicuous remains of antiquity in the Italian peninsula were found in the Kingdom of Naples. These included not only Roman ruins, but also pre-Roman ones, such as Greek and, Italic relics, which testified to the diverse and very ancient origins of many of its centres. Magnificent ruins, such as temples or tombs, marked the landscape of cities and countryside and were regarded as traces of a glorious local past. Ancient remains were, furthermore, constantly unearthed across southern Italy either through chance findings or as a result of purposeful excavation and antiquarian research. Examining literary and artistic evidence, this essay considers local antiquity as a central theme of Southern Italian antiquarianism, for example in Capua and Venosa. It will also question the nature and perception of a diverse body of Southern Italian ‘antiquities’, which could include medieval monuments, imported classical works, or forgeries.
James R. Banker
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232549
- eISBN:
- 9780520928220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232549.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter discusses how men of the town of Borgo San Sepolcro tackle directly the question of self-fashioning by carefully describing the universe of available roles and options through which an ...
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This chapter discusses how men of the town of Borgo San Sepolcro tackle directly the question of self-fashioning by carefully describing the universe of available roles and options through which an ordinary citizen of the town might establish an identity for himself. A method is proposed that is apt for delineating the Italian Renaissance form of identity. An examination of the myths and symbols of the town of Borgo San Sepolcro is also presented. The revival of knowledge of classical culture provided a second program for life that was newly available for the men of Borgo San Sepolcro in the Quattrocento. It may be argued that most men in provincial Renaissance Italy passively accepted the family's religion, occupational traditions, and town loyalty. Men and women of the Renaissance possessed a wide variety of choices whose combinations conferred specific identities.Less
This chapter discusses how men of the town of Borgo San Sepolcro tackle directly the question of self-fashioning by carefully describing the universe of available roles and options through which an ordinary citizen of the town might establish an identity for himself. A method is proposed that is apt for delineating the Italian Renaissance form of identity. An examination of the myths and symbols of the town of Borgo San Sepolcro is also presented. The revival of knowledge of classical culture provided a second program for life that was newly available for the men of Borgo San Sepolcro in the Quattrocento. It may be argued that most men in provincial Renaissance Italy passively accepted the family's religion, occupational traditions, and town loyalty. Men and women of the Renaissance possessed a wide variety of choices whose combinations conferred specific identities.
Lauro Martines
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520232549
- eISBN:
- 9780520928220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520232549.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter explores anticlerical verse in the fifteenth century, which appears to have been written principally by Florentines. Since the great wealth of early Renaissance manuscripts reveals that ...
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This chapter explores anticlerical verse in the fifteenth century, which appears to have been written principally by Florentines. Since the great wealth of early Renaissance manuscripts reveals that Italian poetry circulated and was often anthologized, writers who took the trouble to compose anticlerical verse clearly desired to convey their views to a select public. In the course of the fifteenth century, the power of the papal monarchy expanded dramatically. The main voice of criticism on the social history of anticlericalism in Renaissance Italy belonged to well-placed, educated men. The poems cited often pivot on accusations that seem to be commonplaces; and the metaphor of prostituting the church had biblical roots, to be sure. Literary anticlericalism appears to have been Tuscan preeminently.Less
This chapter explores anticlerical verse in the fifteenth century, which appears to have been written principally by Florentines. Since the great wealth of early Renaissance manuscripts reveals that Italian poetry circulated and was often anthologized, writers who took the trouble to compose anticlerical verse clearly desired to convey their views to a select public. In the course of the fifteenth century, the power of the papal monarchy expanded dramatically. The main voice of criticism on the social history of anticlericalism in Renaissance Italy belonged to well-placed, educated men. The poems cited often pivot on accusations that seem to be commonplaces; and the metaphor of prostituting the church had biblical roots, to be sure. Literary anticlericalism appears to have been Tuscan preeminently.
Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198816553
- eISBN:
- 9780191853746
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198816553.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Early Modern History
The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy explores private devotional life in the Italian Renaissance home between 1400 and 1600, and suggests that piety was not confined to the Church and the convent but ...
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The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy explores private devotional life in the Italian Renaissance home between 1400 and 1600, and suggests that piety was not confined to the Church and the convent but infused daily life within the household. Books, buildings, objects, spaces, images, and archival sources help to cast light on the practice of religion in the home. Acts of devotion, from routine prayers to extraordinary religious experiences such as miracles and visions, frequently took place at home amid the joys and trials of domestic life—childbirth, marriage, infertility, sickness, accidents, poverty, and death. The book moves beyond traditional research on the Renaissance in important ways. First, it breaks free from the usual focus on Venice, Florence, and Rome to investigate practices of piety across the Italian peninsula. In particular, new research into the city of Naples, the Marche, and the Venetian mainland offers fresh insights into the devotional life of the laity. Moreover, it goes beyond the study of elites to include artisanal and lower-status households, and points to the role of gender and age in shaping religious experience. Drawing on a wide range of textual, material, and visual sources, this book recovers a host of lost voices and compelling narratives at the intersection between the divine and the everyday. Its multidisciplinary approach enables unprecedented glimpses through the keyhole into the spiritual lives of Renaissance Italians.Less
The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy explores private devotional life in the Italian Renaissance home between 1400 and 1600, and suggests that piety was not confined to the Church and the convent but infused daily life within the household. Books, buildings, objects, spaces, images, and archival sources help to cast light on the practice of religion in the home. Acts of devotion, from routine prayers to extraordinary religious experiences such as miracles and visions, frequently took place at home amid the joys and trials of domestic life—childbirth, marriage, infertility, sickness, accidents, poverty, and death. The book moves beyond traditional research on the Renaissance in important ways. First, it breaks free from the usual focus on Venice, Florence, and Rome to investigate practices of piety across the Italian peninsula. In particular, new research into the city of Naples, the Marche, and the Venetian mainland offers fresh insights into the devotional life of the laity. Moreover, it goes beyond the study of elites to include artisanal and lower-status households, and points to the role of gender and age in shaping religious experience. Drawing on a wide range of textual, material, and visual sources, this book recovers a host of lost voices and compelling narratives at the intersection between the divine and the everyday. Its multidisciplinary approach enables unprecedented glimpses through the keyhole into the spiritual lives of Renaissance Italians.
Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198816553
- eISBN:
- 9780191853746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198816553.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Early Modern History
The importance of the Italian Renaissance home as a fundamental unit of society and a dynamic site of cultural activity is often acknowledged. This book turns instead to consider the religious ...
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The importance of the Italian Renaissance home as a fundamental unit of society and a dynamic site of cultural activity is often acknowledged. This book turns instead to consider the religious dimensions of domestic life. The introduction discusses the pre-existing scholarship out of which The Sacred Home has grown, paying particular attention to the divergent historiographies relating to the early modern household in Protestant and Catholic Europe. Here the rationale behind the chronological and geographical framework of the book is explained, and the nature of its interdisciplinary approach is outlined. By drawing on a wide range of textual, visual, and material sources, The Sacred Home explores domestic devotion across the spectrum of Italian Renaissance society.Less
The importance of the Italian Renaissance home as a fundamental unit of society and a dynamic site of cultural activity is often acknowledged. This book turns instead to consider the religious dimensions of domestic life. The introduction discusses the pre-existing scholarship out of which The Sacred Home has grown, paying particular attention to the divergent historiographies relating to the early modern household in Protestant and Catholic Europe. Here the rationale behind the chronological and geographical framework of the book is explained, and the nature of its interdisciplinary approach is outlined. By drawing on a wide range of textual, visual, and material sources, The Sacred Home explores domestic devotion across the spectrum of Italian Renaissance society.
Bryan Magee
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198237228
- eISBN:
- 9780191706233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198237227.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Schopenhauer was the first, and to the end the greatest philosophical influence on Nietzsche, who said it was Schopenhauer who had turned him into a philosopher. For many years the young Nietzsche ...
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Schopenhauer was the first, and to the end the greatest philosophical influence on Nietzsche, who said it was Schopenhauer who had turned him into a philosopher. For many years the young Nietzsche was a thoroughgoing Schopenhauerian; but then he rebelled against this influence, attacked it and tried to overthrow it. Other substantial intellectual figures of the nineteenth century who were significantly influenced by Schopenhauer include the historian Jacob Burckhardt, author of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy; Hans Vaihinger, author of The Philosophy of ‘As If’; Edward von Hartmann, author of The Philosophy of the Unconscious; and Sigmund Freud.Less
Schopenhauer was the first, and to the end the greatest philosophical influence on Nietzsche, who said it was Schopenhauer who had turned him into a philosopher. For many years the young Nietzsche was a thoroughgoing Schopenhauerian; but then he rebelled against this influence, attacked it and tried to overthrow it. Other substantial intellectual figures of the nineteenth century who were significantly influenced by Schopenhauer include the historian Jacob Burckhardt, author of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy; Hans Vaihinger, author of The Philosophy of ‘As If’; Edward von Hartmann, author of The Philosophy of the Unconscious; and Sigmund Freud.
Thomas V. Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226112589
- eISBN:
- 9780226112602
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226112602.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
Before there was digital cable or reality television, there was Renaissance Italy and the courts in which Italian magistrates meted out justice to the vicious and the villainous, the scabrous and the ...
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Before there was digital cable or reality television, there was Renaissance Italy and the courts in which Italian magistrates meted out justice to the vicious and the villainous, the scabrous and the scandalous. This book retells six episodes from the Italian court just after 1550, as the Renaissance gave way to an era of Catholic reformation. Each of the chapters in this history chronicles a domestic drama around which the lives of ordinary Romans are suddenly and violently altered. You might read the gruesome murder that opens the book—when an Italian noble takes revenge on his wife and her bastard lover as he catches them in delicto flagrante—as straight from the pages of Boccaccio. But this tale, like the other stories the book recalls here, is true, and its recounting in this work is based on research in court proceedings kept in the state archives in Rome. The book contains stories of a forbidden love for an orphan nun, of brothers who cruelly exact a will from their dying teenage sister, and of a malicious papal prosecutor who not only rapes a band of sisters, but turns their shambling father into a pimp.Less
Before there was digital cable or reality television, there was Renaissance Italy and the courts in which Italian magistrates meted out justice to the vicious and the villainous, the scabrous and the scandalous. This book retells six episodes from the Italian court just after 1550, as the Renaissance gave way to an era of Catholic reformation. Each of the chapters in this history chronicles a domestic drama around which the lives of ordinary Romans are suddenly and violently altered. You might read the gruesome murder that opens the book—when an Italian noble takes revenge on his wife and her bastard lover as he catches them in delicto flagrante—as straight from the pages of Boccaccio. But this tale, like the other stories the book recalls here, is true, and its recounting in this work is based on research in court proceedings kept in the state archives in Rome. The book contains stories of a forbidden love for an orphan nun, of brothers who cruelly exact a will from their dying teenage sister, and of a malicious papal prosecutor who not only rapes a band of sisters, but turns their shambling father into a pimp.
Tim Shephard
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199936137
- eISBN:
- 9780199381241
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199936137.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The private studioli—study rooms—of Italian rulers are among the most revealing interior spaces of the Renaissance. In them, ideals of sober recreation met with leisured reality in the construction ...
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The private studioli—study rooms—of Italian rulers are among the most revealing interior spaces of the Renaissance. In them, ideals of sober recreation met with leisured reality in the construction of a private princely identity, performed before the eyes of a select public who enjoyed privileged access to these rooms and their owners. The decorative schemes installed in such rooms were carefully designed to prompt, facilitate, and validate the performances through which that identity was constituted. Characteristically comprising painted and intarsia elements, studiolo decorations often gave a prominent place to music—as activity, as symbol, as the attribute of classical personae, and as notation. This book aims to reconstruct, through the examination of decorations in various media, the role played by music, musicians, and musical symbolism in studiolo decorations and in the identities they helped make manifest. In particular, the book focuses on three studioli established and decorated by members of the Este family, rulers of Renaissance Ferrara: Leonello, Isabella, and Alfonso I d’Este. In the process of investigating the studioli of these rulers, the book offers a new perspective on works by the artists Tura, Pisanello, Mantegna, and Titian, and the musicians Pietrobono, Marchetto Cara, and Adrian Willaert.Less
The private studioli—study rooms—of Italian rulers are among the most revealing interior spaces of the Renaissance. In them, ideals of sober recreation met with leisured reality in the construction of a private princely identity, performed before the eyes of a select public who enjoyed privileged access to these rooms and their owners. The decorative schemes installed in such rooms were carefully designed to prompt, facilitate, and validate the performances through which that identity was constituted. Characteristically comprising painted and intarsia elements, studiolo decorations often gave a prominent place to music—as activity, as symbol, as the attribute of classical personae, and as notation. This book aims to reconstruct, through the examination of decorations in various media, the role played by music, musicians, and musical symbolism in studiolo decorations and in the identities they helped make manifest. In particular, the book focuses on three studioli established and decorated by members of the Este family, rulers of Renaissance Ferrara: Leonello, Isabella, and Alfonso I d’Este. In the process of investigating the studioli of these rulers, the book offers a new perspective on works by the artists Tura, Pisanello, Mantegna, and Titian, and the musicians Pietrobono, Marchetto Cara, and Adrian Willaert.
Alexander Murray
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198208839
- eISBN:
- 9780191799952
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208839.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, History of Religion
Sacramental confession kept a place for ‘counsel’, whereby the priest, before absolving the penitent, advised him or her on the moral aspects of the acts confessed, and might use the occasion to give ...
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Sacramental confession kept a place for ‘counsel’, whereby the priest, before absolving the penitent, advised him or her on the moral aspects of the acts confessed, and might use the occasion to give instruction in moral theology. Because the whole procedure was secret, historians cannot know much about how this part of it worked in practice. But deductions are possible, and they are confirmed by the scraps of evidence we have. A priest, after all, might have to produce at almost no notice ‘tailor-made’ advice for penitents he hardly knew. Especially in the better-educated societies of the late Middle Ages, misjudgements were possible, and may have contributed to a crescendo of unease about confession which ‘justification by faith’, as a doctrine, was well-calculated to soothe.Less
Sacramental confession kept a place for ‘counsel’, whereby the priest, before absolving the penitent, advised him or her on the moral aspects of the acts confessed, and might use the occasion to give instruction in moral theology. Because the whole procedure was secret, historians cannot know much about how this part of it worked in practice. But deductions are possible, and they are confirmed by the scraps of evidence we have. A priest, after all, might have to produce at almost no notice ‘tailor-made’ advice for penitents he hardly knew. Especially in the better-educated societies of the late Middle Ages, misjudgements were possible, and may have contributed to a crescendo of unease about confession which ‘justification by faith’, as a doctrine, was well-calculated to soothe.
