Shaping Heroic Virtue Brill Studies in Intellectual History
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Shaping Heroic Virtue Brill Studies in Intellectual History General Editor Han van Ruler (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Founded by Arjo Vanderjagt Editorial Board C.S. Celenza (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) M. Colish (Yale University) J.I. Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) A. Koba (University of Tokyo) M. Mugnai (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) W. Otten (University of Chicago) VOLUME 249 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsih Shaping Heroic Virtue Studies in the Art and Politics of Supereminence in Europe and Scandinavia Edited by Stefano Fogelberg Rota and Andreas Hellerstedt LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: detail of ceiling painting at Riddarhuset, showing the three graces holding the three crowns of Sweden, by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl, 1670–1675, Stockholm. Courtesy of Riddarhuset. Photo by Erik Krikortz. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shaping heroic virtue : studies in the art and politics of supereminence in Europe and Scandinavia / edited by Stefano Fogelberg Rota and Andreas Hellerstedt. pages cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; volume 249) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-29861-3 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30378-2 (e-book : alk. paper) 1. Virtue—History. 2. Heroes. 3. Middle Ages. I. Fogelberg Rota, Stefano, editor. BJ1521.S495 2015 179’.9—dc23 2015027876 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0920-8607 isbn 978-90-04-29861-3 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30378-2 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations viii Introduction 1 Andreas Hellerstedt and Stefano Fogelberg Rota Heroic Virtue between Active and Contemplative Life in Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages The Late Ancient Development of a Notion of Heroic Virtue 19 Erik Eliasson Heroic Virtue in Medieval Liturgy 41 Nils Holger Petersen Aristotle’s Heroic Virtue and Medieval Theories of Monarchy 55 Biörn Tjällén Kingly and Aristocratic Representations of Heroic Virtue in Early Modern Savoy and Rome The Gem and the Mirror of Heroic Virtue: Emanuele Tesauro and the Heroic at the Court of Savoy 69 Kristine Kolrud Anti-Protestant Heroic Virtue in Early Modern Rome: Queen Christina (1626–1689) and Senator Nils Bielke (1706–1765) 95 Stefano Fogelberg Rota The Theory and Practice of Heroic Virtue in Early Modern Sweden The King’s Virtues in Swedish Mirrors for Princes c. 1300–c. 1600 133 Tania Preste vi contents The Absolute Hero: Heroic Greatness and Royal Absolutism in Sweden 1685–1715 153 Andreas Hellerstedt The Enlightened Hero: Virtue, Magnanimitas and Glory in Panegyric Poetry on Gustavus III 1771–1792 186 Jennie Nell Index 207 Acknowledgements The authors of this volume would like to thank the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences for generously funding the network without which the chapters would never have been written. The Sven and Dagmar Salén Foundation has kindly provided us with additional funding to cover the expenses for the publication of the illustrations. The authors would also like to thank the personnel of the department of Literature and History of Ideas, Stockholm University, the department of Cultural Studies, Lund University, and the Swedish Institute in Rome. Susan Foran has improved the English of the chapters. Special thanks go to Maria Andersson (Stockholm University) for a last reading of the chapters. Last but not least, we would like to thank Han van Ruler, Ivo Romein, and the anonymous reviewer at Brill for their patience, unwavering support, and many helpful comments on the manuscript. List of Illustrations 1 Nicolas Auroux, frontispiece of Emanuele Tesauro, Panegirici (Turin, 1659). Turin, Biblioteca Reale di Torino. Photo: Biblioteca Reale di Torino. Reproduced by permission of the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Biblioteca Reale di Torino. No further reproduction allowed 72 2 Antonio De Pienne after Esprit Grandjean, Marie Christine of France, frontispiece of Samuel Guichenon, Histoire Généalogique de la Royale Maison de Savoie (Lyons, 1660). Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Réserves des livres rares. Photo: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Reproduced by permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France 76 3 Philibert Torret, called Narciso or Narcis, Marie Christine of France with Adelaide, Margherita and Carlo Emanuele II, c. 1644, detail showing Duchess Marie Christine. Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale. Photo: Soprintendenza B.S.A.E. di Siena & Grosseto. Reproduced by permission of the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo 77 4 Guillaume Dupré, bronze medal with portrait of Duchess Marie Christine (obverse) and her device with the inscription “Plus de fermeté que d’éclat” (reverse), 1635, Turin, Palazzo Madama—Museo Civico d’Arte Antica di Torino. Photo: Archivio Fotografico, Fondazione Torino Musei. Reproduced by permission of the Fondazione Torino Musei. No further reproduction allowed 77 5 Giovenale Boetto (?) after Giovanni Gaspare Baldoino, Allegory of the Reconciliation between Marie Christine of France and the Princes of Savoy, frontispiece for a thesis by Carlo Amedeo and Ottavio Valentino Provana di Druent, 1644, detail showing Duchess Marie Christine. Turin, Biblioteca Reale di Torino. Photo: Blue Skies Studio, Turin. Reproduced by permission of the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Biblioteca Reale di Torino. No further reproduction allowed 78 6 Frontispiece of Emanuele Tesauro, Il cannocchiale aristotelico (Turin, 1654). Turin, Biblioteca Civica Centrale di Torino. Photo: Biblioteca Civica Centrale di Torino. Reproduced by permission of the Biblioteca Civica Centrale di Torino 80 7 Tommaso Borgonio, L’educatione d’Achille, c. 1650, folio showing the fourth entry of the Ballet of Achilles, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino, q.V 58, fol. 100. Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria. Photo: Studioelle, Turin. Reproduced by permission of the Ministero dei list of illustrations ix beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino. No further reproduction allowed 83 8 Charles Audran after Esprit Grandjean, Allegory of Carlo Emanuele II, c. 1644–45, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, 50.C.5469. Photo: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Reproduced by permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France 86 9 Emblem 69, p. 269 (Centuria III) in Sebastián de Covarrubias Orozco, Emblemas morales (Madrid, 1610). Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli “Vittorio Emanuele III.” Photo: Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli “Vittorio Emanuele III”—Laboratorio fotografico digitale. Reproduced by permission of the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli 89 Introduction Andreas Hellerstedt and Stefano Fogelberg Rota The articles in this volume are the result of discussions between the eight authors during five workshops (2011–2013) at Stockholm University, the Swedish Institute in Rome and at Lund University. The workshops were orga- nized by a network funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens jubileumsfond), and were led by the editors, Stefano Fogelberg Rota and Andreas Hellerstedt. The participants were schol- ars working on a wide range of topics, from Late Ancient philosophy to late eighteenth-century literature, and depart from different fields within the humanities: philosophy, history, theology, history of ideas, comparative litera- ture and art history. The different perspectives represented, and the inherently interdisciplinary character of these discussions, had a common origin and theme: the concept of heroic virtue and its development from its first expres- sion in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (VII.1.1). The philosopher describes it as a virtue opposed to bestiality (thêriotês) and standing beyond us, a heroic and somehow divine virtue. Aristotle gives no further explanation of this disposi- tion and while he refers to the example of Hector in Homer’s Iliad, he promises to return to the subject on a later occasion. The briefness of Aristotle’s descrip- tion is inversely balanced by the richness of references to a superhuman virtue found during Late Antiquity, throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern times and up to the late eighteenth century, on the eve of the collapse of the ancien régime. The primary purpose of this volume, and the discussions that preceded it, is to outline the history of the reception of the idea of heroic virtue through a number