Renaissance Fun

Renaissance Fun PDF Author: Philip Steadman
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1787359158
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Renaissance Fun is about the technology of Renaissance entertainments in stage machinery and theatrical special effects; in gardens and fountains; and in the automata and self-playing musical instruments that were installed in garden grottoes. How did the machines behind these shows work? How exactly were chariots filled with singers let down onto the stage? How were flaming dragons made to fly across the sky? How were seas created on stage? How did mechanical birds imitate real birdsong? What was ‘artificial music’, three centuries before Edison and the phonograph? How could pipe organs be driven and made to play themselves by waterpower alone? And who were the architects, engineers, and craftsmen who created these wonders? All these questions are answered. At the end of the book we visit the lost ‘garden of marvels’ at Pratolino with its many grottoes, automata and water jokes; and we attend the performance of Mercury and Mars in Parma in 1628, with its spectacular stage effects and its music by Claudio Monteverdi – one of the places where opera was born. Renaissance Fun is offered as an entertainment in itself. But behind the show is a more serious scholarly argument, centred on the enormous influence of two ancient writers on these subjects, Vitruvius and Hero. Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture were widely studied by Renaissance theatre designers. Hero of Alexandria wrote the Pneumatics, a collection of designs for surprising and entertaining devices that were the models for sixteenth and seventeenth century automata. A second book by Hero On Automata-Making – much less well known, then and now – describes two miniature theatres that presented plays without human intervention. One of these, it is argued, provided the model for the type of proscenium theatre introduced from the mid-sixteenth century, the generic design which is still built today. As the influence of Vitruvius waned, the influence of Hero grew.

Renaissance Fun

Renaissance Fun PDF Author: Philip Steadman
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1787359158
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Renaissance Fun is about the technology of Renaissance entertainments in stage machinery and theatrical special effects; in gardens and fountains; and in the automata and self-playing musical instruments that were installed in garden grottoes. How did the machines behind these shows work? How exactly were chariots filled with singers let down onto the stage? How were flaming dragons made to fly across the sky? How were seas created on stage? How did mechanical birds imitate real birdsong? What was ‘artificial music’, three centuries before Edison and the phonograph? How could pipe organs be driven and made to play themselves by waterpower alone? And who were the architects, engineers, and craftsmen who created these wonders? All these questions are answered. At the end of the book we visit the lost ‘garden of marvels’ at Pratolino with its many grottoes, automata and water jokes; and we attend the performance of Mercury and Mars in Parma in 1628, with its spectacular stage effects and its music by Claudio Monteverdi – one of the places where opera was born. Renaissance Fun is offered as an entertainment in itself. But behind the show is a more serious scholarly argument, centred on the enormous influence of two ancient writers on these subjects, Vitruvius and Hero. Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture were widely studied by Renaissance theatre designers. Hero of Alexandria wrote the Pneumatics, a collection of designs for surprising and entertaining devices that were the models for sixteenth and seventeenth century automata. A second book by Hero On Automata-Making – much less well known, then and now – describes two miniature theatres that presented plays without human intervention. One of these, it is argued, provided the model for the type of proscenium theatre introduced from the mid-sixteenth century, the generic design which is still built today. As the influence of Vitruvius waned, the influence of Hero grew.

Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West

Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West PDF Author: Burton D. Fisher
Publisher: Opera Journeys Publishing
ISBN: 097714559X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
A comprehensive guide to Puccini's GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST, featuring insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis, a complete, newly translated Libretto with Italian/English side-by side, and over 20 music highlight examples.

Discourse on the State of the Jews

Discourse on the State of the Jews PDF Author: Simone Luzzatto
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110528231
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
In 1638, a small book of no more than 92 pages in octavo was published “appresso Gioanne Calleoni” under the title “Discourse on the State of the Jews and in particular those dwelling in the illustrious city of Venice.” It was dedicated to the Doge of Venice and his counsellors, who are labelled “lovers of Truth.” The author of the book was a certain Simone (Simḥa) Luzzatto, a native of Venice, where he lived and died, serving as rabbi for over fifty years during the course of the seventeenth century. Luzzatto’s political thesis is simple and, at the same time, temerarious, if not revolutionary: Venice can put an end to its political decline, he argues, by offering the Jews a monopoly on overseas commercial activity. This plan is highly recommendable because the Jews are “wellsuited for trade,” much more so than others (such as “foreigners,” for example). The rabbi opens his argument by recalling that trade and usury are the only occupations permitted to Jews. Within the confines of their historical situation, the Venetian Jews became particularly skilled at trade with partners from the Eastern Mediterranean countries. Luzzatto’s argument is that this talent could be put at the service of the Venetian government in order to maintain – or, more accurately, recover – its political importance as an intermediary between East and West. He was the first to define the role of the Jews on the basis of their economic and social functions, disregarding the classic categorisation of Judaism’s alleged privileged religious status in world history. Nonetheless, going beyond the socio-economic arguments of the book, it is essential to point out Luzzatto’s resort to sceptical strategies in order to plead in defence of the Venetian Jews. It is precisely his philosophical and political scepticism that makes Luzzatto’s texts so unique. This edition aims to grant access to his works and thought to English-speaking readers and scholars. By approaching his texts from this point of view, the editors hope to open a new path in research into Jewish culture and philosophy that will enable other scholars to develop new directions and new perspectives, stressing the interpenetration between Jews and the surrounding Christian and secular cultures.

Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing

Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing PDF Author: Roger Crittenden
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 113605409X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
Roger Crittenden reveals the experiences of many of the greatest living European film editors through his warm and perceptive interviews which offer a unique insight into the art of editing - direct from masters of the craft. In their interviews the editors relate their experience to the directors they have worked with, including: Agnes Guillemot- (Godard, Truffaut, Catherine Breillat) Roberto Perpignani- (Welles, Bertolucci, Tavianni Brothers) Sylvia Ingemarsson- (Ingmar Bergman) Michal Leszczylowski- (Andrei Tarkovsky, Lukas Moodysson) Tony Lawson (Nic Roeg, Stanley Kubrick, Neil Jordan) and many more. Foreword by Walter Murch - three-time Oscar-winning Editor of 'Apocalypse Now', 'The English Patient', 'American Graffiti', 'The Conversation' and 'The Godfather Part II and III'.

Rambles in Rome

Rambles in Rome PDF Author: Samuel Russell Forbes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description


A Wanderer in Venice

A Wanderer in Venice PDF Author: Edward Verrall Lucas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description


Early film theories in Italy, 1896-1922

Early film theories in Italy, 1896-1922 PDF Author: Silvio Alovisio
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9048527104
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
How did Italian writers, scholars, clergymen, psychologists, members of parliament, and philosophers react to the advent of cinema? How did they establish a common language to discuss an invention that exceeded habits and expectations, and that transcended existing forms and categories of thought? This anthology gathers for the first time a large number of social discourses that in Italy tried to define and contextualize cinema from the 1890s to 1920s. What results is an impressive picture of a culture in distress at a 'scandalous' event and eager to appropriate it for the sake of modernization.

Italian Fantasies

Italian Fantasies PDF Author: Israel Zangwill
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Italian Fantasies" by Israel Zangwill. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Early Baroque Era

The Early Baroque Era PDF Author: Curtis Price
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349112941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description


The Renaissance Stage

The Renaissance Stage PDF Author: Barnard Hewitt
Publisher: Literary Licensing, LLC
ISBN: 9781258153434
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Additional Translator Is George R. Kernodle.