A History of Siena

A History of Siena PDF Author: Mario Ascheri
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351866788
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
A History of Siena provides a concise and up-to-date biography of the city, from its ancient and medieval development up to the present day, and makes Siena’s history, culture, and traditions accessible to anyone studying or visiting the city. Well informed by archival research and recent scholarship on medieval Siena and the Italian city-states, this book places Siena’s development in its larger context, both temporally and geographically. In the process, this book offers new interpretations of Siena’s artistic, political, and economic development, highlighting in particular the role of pilgrimage, banking, and class conflict. The second half of the book provides an important analysis of the historical development of Siena’s nobility, its unique system of neighborhood associations (contrade) and the race of the Palio, as well as an overview of the rise and fall of Siena’s troubled bank, the Monte dei Paschi. This book is accessible to undergraduates and tourists, while also offering plenty of new insights for graduate students and scholars of all periods of Sienese history.

A History of Siena

A History of Siena PDF Author: Mario Ascheri
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351866788
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
A History of Siena provides a concise and up-to-date biography of the city, from its ancient and medieval development up to the present day, and makes Siena’s history, culture, and traditions accessible to anyone studying or visiting the city. Well informed by archival research and recent scholarship on medieval Siena and the Italian city-states, this book places Siena’s development in its larger context, both temporally and geographically. In the process, this book offers new interpretations of Siena’s artistic, political, and economic development, highlighting in particular the role of pilgrimage, banking, and class conflict. The second half of the book provides an important analysis of the historical development of Siena’s nobility, its unique system of neighborhood associations (contrade) and the race of the Palio, as well as an overview of the rise and fall of Siena’s troubled bank, the Monte dei Paschi. This book is accessible to undergraduates and tourists, while also offering plenty of new insights for graduate students and scholars of all periods of Sienese history.

Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena

Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena PDF Author: Timothy B. Smith
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9781409400660
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Clearly establishing uniquely Sienese artistic agendas and vocabulary, the essays collected here broaden our understanding of the intersection of art, politics and religion in Siena by revisiting its medieval origins and exploring its continuing role in the Renaissance. Engaging issues of the politicization of art in Sienese painting, sculpture, architecture and urban design, the volume challenges the still-prevalent myth of Siena's cultural and artistic conservatism after the mid-fourteenth century.

The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena

The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena PDF Author: F. Thomas Luongo
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501728296
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) has become a defining figure in the history of medieval religion and one of the main exemplars of the "feminine turn" in late medieval religious culture. Despite a hagiographical tradition and historiography that has placed Catherine at a mystic remove from the politics of her day, Catherine's public authority was shaped by politics, both locally in Siena and broadly within late-fourteenth-century contests between the papacy and the Republic of Florence for hegemony in central Italy. In The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, F. Thomas Luongo combines literary-critical readings of Catherine's letters—she was the author of one of the largest collections of medieval letters—with political and social analysis. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Luongo investigates how Catherine's spiritual authority and sanctity were linked with contemporary political and cultural developments. He shows how the political situation of the church in Italy and a culture that privileged female spirituality and prophetic speech facilitated Catherine's emergence into a public role. The Catherine who emerges from Luongo's well-written pages is a splendid example of what can result when a historian asks fresh questions about a familiar figure's life and brings new materials and methods to bear in formulating answers. The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena offers a woman more complex and interesting than the figure portrayed in most contemporary scholarship.

Journey to the Republic of Italy

Journey to the Republic of Italy PDF Author: Kalman Dubov
Publisher: Kalman Dubov
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Italy is a wonderful country to explore and experience. Its geography, from the lower peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean to the north and into the heartland of Europe, makes it an ideal setup to travel. Each area of the country has a unique and special identity so the traveler experiences a range of styles that reflects the unification of this special country and people. Visiting Italy is a unique experience for me. Its history, culture, architecture, people, and food combine to provide an extraordinary experience. My review and description of the cities I visited represents months of travel and my examination of the different aspects of each city. As I've done with regard to each city in the world about which I wrote a review, the template I adopted offers a panoramic approach to appreciate its multi-faceted presence. The first section reflects the country’s and each city’s History, followed by Jewish History and Presence, and My Visit. In March 2016, I visited Civitavecchia, a beautiful city overshadowed by Rome, but a short train ride away. I then visited Naples and Pompeii. This visit was while I was aboard the Rotterdam, a beautiful Holland America cruise ship, while on a 91-day voyage from the city of Rotterdam to the Far East. I was aboard the ship as clergy, offering me the wondrous opportunity of meeting incredible people as we voyaged through the international waterways of exotic adventure. I returned to Italy on a personal visit in April 2017. This time, I stayed in Rome, Siena, Verona, Livorno, Florence, Padua, and finally in Vicenza, staying for about a week in each city, leisurely exploring each of these beautiful cities. I hope these descriptions and reviews offer travelers the opportunity to examine these beautiful cities.

The Story of Siena and San Gimignano

The Story of Siena and San Gimignano PDF Author: Edmund G. Gardner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description


A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena

A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004444823
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena presents chapters by prominent scholars on the powerful commune that birthed a pope, sheltered saints, built banking institutions that have thrived for nearly 1000 years, and nurtured vibrant communities of artists and intellectuals. This multi-disciplinary book, edited by Santa Casciani and Heather Richardson Hayton, redresses scholarly imbalances of the past by introducing early period Siena to a wider audience. Focusing mostly on the 12th to 16th centuries, each chapter explores how the Sienese crafted a distinctive civic identity that remains intact still. Modern readers will find Siena’s responses to plague, political factionalism, and aggression from powerful neighbours particularly relevant. Contributors are: Mario Ascheri, Saverio Luigi Battente, Elena Brizio, Santa Casciani, Konrad Eisenbichler, Bradley Franco, Fabrizio Nevola, Anna Peterson, Colleen Reardon, Sheri Shaneyfelt, Jane Tylus, Andrea Beth Wenz, Demetrio Yocum.

Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena

Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena PDF Author: William Caferro
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Armies
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description


Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy

Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy PDF Author: Lidia Luisa Zanetti Domingues
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192659332
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In medieval Italy the practice of revenge as criminal justice was still popular amongst members of all social classes, yet crime also was increasingly perceived as a public matter that needed to be dealt with by the government rather than private citizens. Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy sheds light on this contradiction through an in-depth comparison of lay and religious sources produced in Siena between 1260 and 1330 on criminal justice, conflict, and violence. Confession and Criminal Justice in Late Medieval Italy: argues that religious people were an effective pressure group with regards to criminal justice, thanks both to the literary works they produced and their direct intervention in political affairs, and that their contributions have not received the attention they deserve. It shows that the dichotomy between theories and practices of 'private' and of 'public' justice should be substituted by a framework in which three models, or discourses, of criminal justice are recognised as present in medieval Italian communes, with the addition of a specifically religious discourse based on penitential spirituality. Although the models of criminal justice were competing, they also influenced each other.

A Month in Siena

A Month in Siena PDF Author: Hisham Matar
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593129148
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Return comes a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and life. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND EVENING STANDARD After finishing his powerful memoir The Return, Hisham Matar, seeking solace and pleasure, traveled to Siena, Italy. Always finding comfort and clarity in great art, Matar immersed himself in eight significant works from the Sienese School of painting, which flourished from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Artists he had admired throughout his life, including Duccio and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, evoke earlier engagements he’d had with works by Caravaggio and Poussin, and the personal experiences that surrounded those moments. Including beautiful full-color reproductions of the artworks, A Month in Siena is about what occurred between Matar, those paintings, and the city. That month would be an extraordinary period in the writer’s life: an exploration of how art can console and disturb in equal measure, as well as an intimate encounter with a city and its inhabitants. This is a gorgeous meditation on how centuries-old art can illuminate our own inner landscape—current relationships, long-lasting love, grief, intimacy, and solitude—and shed further light on the present world around us. Praise for A Month in Siena “As exquisitely structured as The Return, driven by desire, yearning, loss, illuminated by the kindness of strangers. A Month in Siena is a triumph.”—Peter Carey

The Power of Images

The Power of Images PDF Author: Patrick Boucheron
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509512934
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Where can the danger be lurking? Two soldiers are huddled together, one gazing up at the sky, the other darting a sideward glance. They derive a tacit reassurance from their weapons, but they are both in their different ways alone and scared. They were painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, and they seem symptomatic of a state of emergency: the year was 1338, and the spectre of the signoria, of rule by one man, was abroad in the city, undermining the very idea of the common good. In this book, distinguished historian Patrick Boucheron uncovers the rich social and political dimensions of the iconic ‘Fresco of Good Government’. He guides the reader through Lorenzetti’s divided city, where peaceful prosperity and leisure sit alongside the ever-present threats of violence, war and despotism. Lorenzetti’s painting reminds us crucially that good government is not founded on the wisdom of principled or virtuous rulers. Rather, good government lies in the visible and tangible effects it has on the lives of its citizens. By subjecting it to scrutiny, we may, at least for a while, be able to hold at bay the dark seductions of tyranny. From fourteenth-century Siena to the present, The Power of Images shows the latent dangers to democracy when our perceptions of the common good are distorted and undermined. It will appeal to students and scholars in art history, politics and the humanities, as well as to anyone interested in the nature of power.