Courts and Courtiers in Renaissance Northern Italy

Courts and Courtiers in Renaissance Northern Italy PDF Author: Stephen Kolsky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
The extraordinary cultural Renaissance in the northern Italian courts of the late 15th and early 16th centuries is the subject of this volume. It starts with Baldessar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (1528) which encapsulates this sense of renewal: his experiences at court and their subsequent rewriting form the backbone of the work. The author then addresses questions of biography, gender, genre, and the varied roles of the courtier, expanding the perspective of Castiglione's text to include the lives and writings of other courtiers and patrons. What was it like to be a courtier? What were the problems associated with such a lifestyle? The importance of women in court circles is also highlighted in studies of one of the most notable of female patrons Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) and of the theoretical developments in writing about gender, stimulated by such women. Stephen Kolsky's analysis of both well-known and comparatively obscure texts brings out the diversity of practices that constituted court society and their centrality to our understanding of the Renaissance.

Courts and Courtiers in Renaissance Northern Italy

Courts and Courtiers in Renaissance Northern Italy PDF Author: Stephen Kolsky
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
The extraordinary cultural Renaissance in the northern Italian courts of the late 15th and early 16th centuries is the subject of this volume. It starts with Baldessar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (1528) which encapsulates this sense of renewal: his experiences at court and their subsequent rewriting form the backbone of the work. The author then addresses questions of biography, gender, genre, and the varied roles of the courtier, expanding the perspective of Castiglione's text to include the lives and writings of other courtiers and patrons. What was it like to be a courtier? What were the problems associated with such a lifestyle? The importance of women in court circles is also highlighted in studies of one of the most notable of female patrons Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) and of the theoretical developments in writing about gender, stimulated by such women. Stephen Kolsky's analysis of both well-known and comparatively obscure texts brings out the diversity of practices that constituted court society and their centrality to our understanding of the Renaissance.

Courts and Courtiers in Renaissance Northern Italy

Courts and Courtiers in Renaissance Northern Italy PDF Author: Stephen Kolsky
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000938409
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The extraordinary cultural Renaissance in the northern Italian courts of the late 15th and early 16th centuries is the subject of this volume. It starts with Baldessar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (1528) which encapsulates this sense of renewal: his experiences at court and their subsequent rewriting form the backbone of the work. The author then addresses questions of biography, gender, genre, and the varied roles of the courtier, expanding the perspective of Castiglione's text to include the lives and writings of other courtiers and patrons. What was it like to be a courtier? What were the problems associated with such a lifestyle? The importance of women in court circles is also highlighted in studies of one of the most notable of female patrons Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) and of the theoretical developments in writing about gender, stimulated by such women. Stephen Kolsky's analysis of both well-known and comparatively obscure texts brings out the diversity of practices that constituted court society and their centrality to our understanding of the Renaissance.

Castiglione's Allegory

Castiglione's Allegory PDF Author: W.R. Albury
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317169476
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano, 1528), a dialogue in which the interlocutors attempt to describe the perfect courtier, was one of the most influential books of the Renaissance. In recent decades a number of postmodern readings of this work have appeared, emphasizing what is often characterized as the playful indeterminacy of the text, and seeking to detect inconsistencies which are interpreted as signs of anxiety or bad faith in its presentation. In contrast to these postmodern readings, the present study conducts an experiment. What understanding does one gain of Castiglione’s book if one attempts an early modern reading? The author approaches The Book of the Courtier as a text in which some of its most important aspects are intentionally concealed and veiled in allegory. W.R. Albury argues that this early modern reading of The Book of the Courtier enables us to recover a serious political message which has a great deal of contemporary relevance and which is lost from sight when the work is approached primarily as a courtly etiquette book, or as a lament for the lost influence of the aristocracy in an age when autocratic nation-states were coming into being, or as an impersonal textual field upon which a free play of transformations and deconstructions may be performed.

Court and Its Critics

Court and Its Critics PDF Author: Paola Ugolini
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487505442
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
The Court and Its Critics focuses on the disillusionment with courtliness, the derision of those who live at court, and the open hostility toward the court, themes common to Renaissance culture.

Collecting Art in the Italian Renaissance Court

Collecting Art in the Italian Renaissance Court PDF Author: Leah R. Clark
Publisher:
ISBN: 1108427723
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This book presents a new perspective on the Italian Renaissance court by examining the circulation, collection and exchange of art objects.

Ingratiation from the Renaissance to the Present

Ingratiation from the Renaissance to the Present PDF Author: Jeff Diamond
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498548903
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Ingratiation from the Renaissance to the Present explores a common ethical problem for intellectuals of the Renaissance: How does one win the favor and patronage of the wealthy and powerful and yet maintain one’s dignity, independence, or principles? This study examines this and similar ethical dilemmas and how they were reflected in the lives and writings of intellectuals of the period—particularly Niccolò Machiavelli, Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, and Michel de Montaigne. It also places the issues within their larger social and cultural context and provides comparisons to the contemporary world.

Early Modern Court Culture

Early Modern Court Culture PDF Author: Erin Griffey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000480321
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
Through a thematic overview of court culture that connects the cultural with the political, confessional, spatial, material and performative, this volume introduces the dynamics of power and culture in the early modern European court. Exploring the period from 1500 to 1750, Early Modern Court Culture is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, providing insights into aspects of both community and continuity at courts as well as individual identity, change and difference. Culture is presented as not merely a vehicle for court propaganda in promoting the monarch and the dynasty, but as a site for a complex range of meanings that conferred status and virtue on the patron, maker, court and the wider community of elites. The essays show that the court provided an arena for virtue and virtuosity, intellectual and social play, demonstration of moral authority and performance of social, gendered, confessional and dynastic identity. Early Modern Court Culture moves from political structures and political players to architectural forms and spatial geographies; ceremonial and ritual observances; visual and material culture; entertainment and knowledge. With 35 contributions on subjects including gardens, dress, scent, dance and tapestries, this volume is a necessary resource for all students and scholars interested in the court in early modern Europe.

Giuliano de' Medici

Giuliano de' Medici PDF Author: Josephine Jungić
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 077355369X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Most modern historians perpetuate the myth that Giuliano de' Medici (1479–1516), son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was nothing more than an inconsequential, womanizing hedonist with little inclination or ability for politics. In the first sustained biography of this misrepresented figure, Josephine Jungic re-evaluates Giuliano’s life and shows that his infamous reputation was exaggerated by Medici partisans who feared his popularity and respect for republican self-rule. Rejecting the autocratic rule imposed by his nephew, Lorenzo (Duke of Urbino), and brother, Giovanni (Pope Leo X), Giuliano advocated restraint and retention of republican traditions, believing his family should be “first among equals” and not more. As a result, the family and those closest to them wrote him out of the political scene, and historians – relying too heavily upon the accounts of supporters of Cardinal Giovanni and the Medici regime – followed suit. Interpreting works of art, books, and letters as testimony, Jungic constructs a new narrative to demonstrate that Giuliano was loved and admired by some of the most talented and famous men of his day, including Cesare Borgia, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Niccolò Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael. More than a political biography, this volume offers a refreshing look at a man who was a significant patron and ally of intellectuals, artists, and religious reformers, revealing Giuliano to be at the heart of the period’s most significant cultural accomplishments.

A Day in a Working Life [3 volumes]

A Day in a Working Life [3 volumes] PDF Author: Gary Westfahl
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 2543

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Book Description
Ideal for high school and college students studying history through the everyday lives of men and women, this book offers intriguing information about the jobs that people have held, from ancient times to the 21st century. This unique book provides detailed studies of more than 300 occupations as they were practiced in 21 historical time periods, ranging from prehistory to the present day. Each profession is examined in a compelling essay that is specifically written to inform readers about career choices in different times and cultures, and is accompanied by a bibliography of additional sources of information, sidebars that relate historical issues to present-day concerns, as well as related historical documents. Readers of this work will learn what each profession entailed or entails on a daily basis, how one gained entry to the vocation, training methods, and typical compensation levels for the job. The book provides sufficient specific detail to convey a comprehensive understanding of the experiences, benefits, and downsides of a given profession. Selected accompanying documents further bring history to life by offering honest testimonies from people who actually worked in these occupations or interacted with those in that field.

Nature in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times

Nature in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times PDF Author: Albrecht Classen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111387828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
The study of pre-modern anthropology requires the close examination of the relationship between nature and human society, which has been both precarious and threatening as well as productive, soothing, inviting, and pleasurable. Much depends on the specific circumstances, as the works by philosophers, theologians, poets, artists, and medical practitioners have regularly demonstrated. It would not be good enough, as previous scholarship has commonly done, to examine simply what the various writers or artists had to say about nature. While modern scientists consider just the hard-core data of the objective world, cultural historians and literary scholars endeavor to comprehend the deeper meaning of the concept of nature presented by countless writers and artists. Only when we have a good grasp of the interactions between people and their natural environment, are we in a position to identify and interpret mental structures, social and economic relationships, medical and scientific concepts of human health, and the messages about all existence as depicted in major art works. In light of the current conditions threatening to bring upon us a global crisis, it matters centrally to take into consideration pre-modern discourses on nature and its enormous powers to understand the topoi and tropes determining the concepts through which we perceive nature. Nature thus proves to be a force far beyond all human comprehensibility, being both material and spiritual depending on our critical approaches.