Humanism and the Renaissance by Daniella Rossi, University of Cambridge, and Nadia Cannata Salamone, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’*

Humanism and the Renaissance By Daniella Rossi, University of Cambridge, and Nadia Cannata Salamone, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’*

1. General A most interesting and wide-ranging volume, Konrad Eisenbichler and Nicholas Terpstra, The Renaissance in the Streets, Schools and Studies: Essays in Honour of Paul F. Grendler, Toronto U.P., 373 pp., is a collection of essays on the subjects of Renaissance culture studied by Paul Grendler. The essays examine the intellectual, cultural and social history of the Italian Renaissance, including: N. Terpstra, ‘Roads to the Renaissance: an introductory note’ (15–28); M. L. King, ‘The school of infancy: the emergence of mother as teacher in Early Modern times’ (41–85); M. A. Lewis, ‘The Jesuit institutionalization of the Studia Humanitatis: two Jesuit Humanists at Naples’ (87–100); R. G. Witt, ‘The early communal historians, forerunners of the Italian Humanists’ (103–24); M. Hewlett, ‘Fortune’s Fool: the influence of Humanism on Francesco Burlamacchi, “Hero” of Lucca’ (125–56); N. Terpstra, ‘Catechizing in prison and on the gallows in Renaissance Italy: the politics of comforting the condemned’ (157–80); T. Deutscher, ‘The bishop’s tribunal and the laity: the diocese of Novara, 1563 to 1615’ (183– 209); P. V. Murphy, ‘“Your Indies”: the Jesuit mission at the Santa Casa di Loreto in the sixteenth century’ (211–31); J. K. Farge, ‘The origins and development of censorship in France’ (233–55); K. Eisenbichler, ‘How Bartolomeo saw a play’ (259–78); A. Santosuosso, ‘A society in disarray: satirical poets and Mannerist painters in the age of the Italian Wars’ (279–308); E. Rummel, ‘Cardinal Cisneros as dramatic hero: enlightened statesman or miracle worker?’ (309–20); J. O’Malley, ‘Paul Grendler and the triumph of the Renaissance: a reminiscence and some thoughts’ (323–43); W. J. Callahan, ‘Loving the Renaissance: Paul Grendler at the University of Toronto’ (345–56). Jonathan Sawday, Engines of the Imagination: Renaissance Culture and the Rise of the Machine, London–New York, Routledge, xxii + 402 pp., considers the impact of technology on the culture of Renaissance Europe from the perspective of several different 16th- and 17th-c.

* The authors are responsible for sub-sections 1–2; and 3–4 respectively. The ‘Theatre’ and ‘Prose’ sub-sections are postponed. Humanism and the Renaissance 495 writers and artists. Relevant chapters include: ‘Philosophy, power, and politics in Renaissance technology’ (31–69); and ‘The turn of the screw: machines, books, and bodies’ (70–124). Also, Gian Mario Anselmi, L’età dell’Umanesimo e del Rinascimento: le radici italiane dell’Europa moderna, Ro, Carocci, 209 pp., presents an original interpretation of the period looking at the exchange of cultural, artistic and anthropological trends between Italy, Europe and Far East Asia. The first volume of Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters, ed. Donald Beecher (The Lorenzo da Ponte Italian Library, The Italian Masters, 1), Toronto U.P., 416 pp., re-evaluates five of the period’s well-known comedic plays, providing the historical and performance background of each. Giachino Luisella, Al carbon vivo del desio di gloria: retorica e poesia celebrativa nel Cinquecento, Alexandria, Orso, 208 pp., offers an interesting study of the history and criticism on the subject of 16th-c. laudatory poetry. The second volume of Pietro Bembo’s History of Venice, ed. and trans. Robert W. Ulery, Jr. (I Tatti Renaissance Library), Cambridge, MA, Harvard U.P., xi + 407 pp., covers books V–VIII of Bembo’s extensive work. Pietro Bembo, *Le rime, ed. Andrea Donnini, 2 vols, Ro, Salerno, xcii + 1298 pp., re-examines the Viennese manuscript corrected by the author himself. Angelo Beolco (il Ruzante): La prima orazione, ed. and trans. Linda L. Carroll (MHRA Critical Texts, 16), London, MHRA, 158 pp., is the first complete transcription of the three manuscript versions of the text presented alongside the first English translation. Carroll gives a very extensive introduction to the oration which provides biographical information to the author as well as a thorough cultural, historical and contextual background to the text. Una soma di libri: l’edizione delle opere di Anton Francesco Doni, ed. Giorgio Masi, F, Olschki, xvi + 327 pp., looks exclusively at the literary production of the Florentine poligrafo Anton Francesco Doni, providing critical and philological analysis of some previously unstudied texts. On Doni’s colleague, Parabosco, Due commedie patetiche del Cinquecento: Il pellegrino di Girolamo Parabosco, I fidi amanti di Francesco Podiani, ed. Antonella Lommi, Mi, Unicopli, 287 pp. Daria Perocco, *La prima Giulietta: edizione critica e commentata delle novelle di Luigi Da Porto e Matteo Bandello, Bari, Palomar, 155 pp., gives the original version of the famous story as translated by Matteo Bandello. Gender. One of the most significant publications this year is Virginia Cox, Women’s Writing in Italy, 1400–1650, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins U.P., 496 pp., the first comprehensive study of women’s writing in Italy from the 15th to the 17th century. Cox provides an extensive