DOCSLIB.ORG

La Retorica Della Storiografia Letteraria Nell'età Dell'arcadia

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
La Retorica Della Storiografia Letteraria Nell'età Dell'arcadia La retorica della storiografia letteraria nell’età dell’Arcadia by Giovanni Scarola A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Italian Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Giovanni Scarola 2017 The Art of Literary History in the Age of Arcadia Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto Abstract I This thesis analyses, from a rhetorical perspective, the main works of the founding fathers of Italian literary history, all of whom lived in the golden years of the Accademia dell'Arcadia: Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni (1663-1728), Giacinto Gimma (1668-1735), Giulio Cesare Becelli (1686-1750), Apostolo Zeno (1669-1750), and Francesco Saverio Quadrio (1695-1756). The methodology is derived from the theoretical framework outlined by Hayden White in Metahistory (1973), adapted to the field of literary history. It is based on the four main rhetorical tropes, the methodological import of which was first pointed out by Giambattista Vico in his New Science (1725, 1730, and 1744): metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. According to White, the historiographer narrates facts through “a verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse.” Such narration follows a process of pre-configuration according to one of the above-mentioned tropes, combining one of four archetypical categories of emplotment (romance, comedy, tragedy, and satire), one of four categories of argumentation (formalist, organicist, mechanistic, and contextualist), and one of the four basic categories of ideological implication: conservatism, liberalism, anarchism, and radicalism. Following the example of White in his study of eight 19th-century historians and philosophers of history--namely Michelet, Ranke, Tocqueville, and Burkhardt among the historians, and Nietzsche, Hegel, Marx, and Croce among the philosophers--this thesis classifies the five mentioned authors according to the appropriate paradigms for trope- ii emplotment, mode of argumentation and ideological implication. As a result, Crescimbeni’s distinctive traits are found to be synecdoche, romance, formalism and liberalism; Zeno’s are irony, contextualism, satire and conservatism; Gimma’s are metaphor, romance, contextualism and liberalism; Quadrio’s are metonymy, comedy, organicism and conservatism; and Becelli’s are metaphor, epic, organicism and radicalism. The “epic” mode of emplotment has been added to White's original framework, given the role played by Italian poetry in the cultural discourse on the nascent Italian spirit of the nation, of which it became a primary symbol. iii The Art of Literary History in the Age of Arcadia Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto Abstract II This thesis analyses, from a rhetorical perspective, the works that marked the birth of Italian literary historiography, a genre that first made its appearance in 1698, when Gian Mario Crescimbeni published the first edition of his Istoria della volgar poesia. Crescimbeni (1663-1728) and the literary historians who followed in his footsteps, namely Giacinto Gimma (1668-1735), Apostolo Zeno (1669-1750), Giulio Cesare Becelli (1686-1750), and Francesco Saverio Quadrio (1695-1756), flourished in the golden years of the Accademia dell'Arcadia, from 1690 to the mid-18th century, when it began to lose much of its initial lustre. They paved the way for Girolamo Tiraboschi’s Storia della letteratura italiana, a milestone in literary historiography first published in the period 1782-1785, and then republished in a larger, 16-volume version in 1787-1794. Inspired by former Queen Christina of Sweden, the Accademia dell'Arcadia was co- founded by Crescimbeni himself, Vincenzo Gravina, and Paolo Coardi in 1690 in Rome. Thanks to Crescimbeni’s extraordinary abilities as a promoter, the Academy became a major aggregating institution for scholars and poets living in Italy and beyond its boundaries. The Arcadian Academy, which derived its name from the mythical Peloponnese area, upheld the aesthetic significance of lyric poetry, especially pastoral idylls, in a systematic effort to promote a general return to the literary ideals of Classicism, in reaction to Baroque aesthetics. In this respect, one of its principal models was the sixteenth-century poet Angelo iv Di Costanzo, who was considered the true heir of Petrarch. But the Academy was also a determining factor in Crescimbeni’s work and in the development of the genre of literary history itself. Crescimbeni, under the pseudonym of Alfesibeo Cario, was the first Custode Generale (that is, President) of the Academy until his death, which occurred in 1728. The method followed in this thesis has been derived from the framework outlined by the American scholar Hayden White (1928-) in Metahistory (1973), adapting it to the field of literary historiography. White considers historiographers and philosophers of history tout court, whereas this thesis examines five literary historiographers, whose works relate to Kulturgeschichte rather than Staat Geschischte. Moreover, whereas White analysed the works of eight historians who produced their works during the 19th century, this thesis analyses five 18th-century authors. White’s method aims to identify the four main tropes of the rhetorical discourse -- metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony --which were first identified as such by the philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) --that permeated the mindsets and, consequently, functioned as the main rhetorical backdrop of the works of the aforesaid eight authors. However, before going into more detail, a few considerations are in order regarding Vico and the four rhetorical figures in question. In his Principj di scienza nuova (New Science), the first edition of which was published in 1725, Vico departed from tradition by theorizing history as a cyclical (rather than linear) process that develops over three ages: the age of the Gods, or of the senses, characterized by metaphor; the age of the Heroes, or of the phantasy, exemplified by metonymy and synecdoche, as well as metaphor; and the age of Men, or of the intellect, associated with irony. In more modern times, Vico’s ideas were embraced, before Hayden v White, by Kenneth Burke (1945) and Northrop Frye (1957). Frye also was the first scholar to use, in 1960, the term metahistory, then adopted by White. In his seminal book of 1973, Metahistory, a work in which history is read as a discourse on history itself, Hayden White draws a fundamental distinction between a chronicler-compiler and a historian: while the chronicler simply compiles a sequence of selected dates and facts, the historian first determines his starting and ending points, then arranges and narrates a selection of facts that occurred between them. In this respect, the five thinkers whose works have been examined in this thesis were the first scholars to apply the narrative method to literary history, unlike the chroniclers, compilers and biographers who had preceded them. In White’s own words, the historical work is “a verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse.” White calls such narration a poetic act through which man makes history, specifying that, despite his good intentions, there is no real objectivity in the historiographer’s work. This concept was exemplified very effectively by Robert Penn Warren, a co-founder of New Criticism, who said: “History is not truth. History is in the telling.” In fact, such narration follows a process of pre-configuration by the historiographer, primarily due to one of the afore-mentioned four rhetorical figures. This preconfiguration determines his specific narrative strategies--namely, strategies of emplotment, formal argumentation, and ideological implication--whose combination forms his style of narration. In turn, each one of the said strategies is also organized according to a quadripartite subdivision, as follows: 1. Emplotment: indicates the process through which the historian narrates the facts in a fashion corresponding to a specific “archetype,” a term White borrows from Northrop Frye’s vi Anatomy of Criticism to designate a literary genre characterizing the narration. According to Frye, the archetypical genres are: romance, tragedy, comedy, satire or irony. In adopting Frye’s nomenclature, White excludes irony¸ placing it among the previously mentioned four tropes. He also indicates that more archetypes, such as epic, are conceivable, which, however, he excludes from his structure. A brief explanation of the above-mentioned archetypical genres follows: Romance is a drama of redemption symbolized by the hero’s transcendence of the world of experience, his victory over it, and his final liberation from it; Tragedy is characterized by the protagonist’s fall at the end of a tragic play. However, such fall brings about a general gain in consciousness in those who remain, a rise counterbalancing the fall, even an epiphany concerning the laws governing human existence; Comedy, a work in which there is a general reconciliation at the end of the play. Human beings are reconciled with one another, with their world and society, which re-emerges in a healthier form, with the pieces falling into the right place; Satire, in White’s own words, is “a drama of diremption […] dominated by the apprehension that man is ultimately a captive of the world rather than its master, and by the recognition that […] human consciousness and will are always inadequate.” 2. Formal argumentation,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance Brill’S Series in Jewish Studies
    Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies Series Editor David S. Katz VOLUME 45 Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance Sources and Encounters Edited by Ilana Zinguer, Abraham Melamed, and Zur Shalev LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hebraic aspects of the Renaissance : sources and encounters / edited by Ilana Zinguer, Abraham Melamed, and Zur Shalev. p. cm. — (Brill’s series in Jewish studies) This volume presents a selection of papers from the international conference Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance (University of Haifa, May, 2009). Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-21255-8 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Renaissance—Congresses. 2. Civilization, Modern—Jewish inÁuences—Congresses. 3. Cabala and Christianity—Italy—Congresses. 4. Christian Hebraists—Europe—History—Congresses. 5. Jewish philosophy—History—Congresses. 6. Christianity and other religions—Judaism—Congresses. 7. Judaism—Relations—Christianity—Congresses. I. Zinguer, Ilana. II. Melamed, Avraham. III. Shalev, Zur, 1967– CB367.H43 2011 940.2’1—dc23 2011023046 ISSN 0926-2261 ISBN 978 90 04 21255 8 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Love, the Book Market, and the Popularization of Romance
    Notes Introduction: Love, the Book Market, and the Popularization of Romance 1. “Maxume autem admonendus est, quantus sit furor amoris. omni- bus enim ex animi perturbationibus est profecto nulla vehemen- tior, . perturbatio ipsa mentis in amore foeda per se est.” Cicero, Tusculan Dispuations. Book 4.35. My translation. 2. Jacques Ferrand, A Treatise on Lovesickness, ed. and trans. Donald A. Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990), 217. 3. “Non si trovara in Venere, & Cupido che ordinatamente senza confusione parlasse.” Mario Equicola, De Natura d’amore (Venice, 1536), sig. I6v. My translation. 4. A song with this title was written by Boudleaux Bryant in 1960 and was recorded by the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Gram Parsons, Nazareth, and others, with great commercial success. 5. Thomas M. D. Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, A General Theory of Love (New York: Random House, 2000), viii. This book, coauthored by three psychiatrists, argues that “new research in brain function has proven that love is a human necessity” (Publishers Weekly review). 6. Jacques Ferrand, Erotomania, or a treatise discoursing of the essence, causes, symptomes, prognosticks, and the cure of love, or erotique mel- ancholy, trans. Edmund Chilmead (Oxford, 1640), sig. B6r–B7r. 7. David Cressy, Birth, Marriage and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). Guido Ruggiero, Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the End of the Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). 8. Alan Bray, The Friend (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003). Gail Paster, Katherine Rowe, and Mary Floyd-Wilson, eds., Reading the Early Modern Passions: Essays in the Cultural History of Emotion (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).
    [Show full text]
  • Humanism and Spanish Literary Patronage at the Roman Curia: the Role of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, Bernardino López De Carvajal (1456–1523)
    2017 IV Humanism and Spanish Literary Patronage at the Roman Curia: The Role of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, Bernardino López de Carvajal (1456–1523) Marta Albalá Pelegrín Article: Humanism and Spanish Literary Patronage at the Roman Curia: The Role of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, Bernardino López de Carvajal (1456-1523) Humanism and Spanish Literary Patronage at the Roman Curia: The Role of the Cardinal of Santa Croce, Bernardino López de Carvajal (1456-1523)1 Marta Albalá Pelegrín Abstract: This article aims to analyze the role of Bernardino López de Carvajal (1456 Plasencia-1523 Rome) as a literary patron, namely his contributions to humanism in Rome and to Spanish letters, in the period that has been loosely identified as Spanish Rome. Carvajal held the dignities of orator continuus of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, titular cardinal of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and was even elected antipope with the name of Martin VI in the Conciliabulum of Pisa (1511) against Julius II. He belonged to the avant-garde of humanists devoted to creating a body of Neo-Latin and Spanish literature that would both foster the Spanish presence at Rome and leave a mark on the Spanish literary canon. He sponsored a considerable body of works that celebrated the deeds of the Catholic Kings and those of the Great Captain, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. He also commissioned literary translations, and was involved in the production of theatrical pieces, such as those of Bartolomé Torres Naharro. Key Words: Benardino López de Carvajal; Literary Patronage; Catholic Kings; Erasmus; Bartolomé Torres Naharro; Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.
    [Show full text]
  • Leon Battista Alberti
    THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ITALIAN RENAISSANCE STUDIES VILLA I TATTI Via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy VOLUME 25 E-mail: [email protected] / Web: http://www.itatti.ita a a Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 AUTUMN 2005 From Joseph Connors: Letter from Florence From Katharine Park: he verve of every new Fellow who he last time I spent a full semester at walked into my office in September, I Tatti was in the spring of 2001. It T This year we have two T the abundant vendemmia, the large was as a Visiting Professor, and my Letters from Florence. number of families and children: all these husband Martin Brody and I spent a Director Joseph Connors was on were good omens. And indeed it has been splendid six months in the Villa Papiniana sabbatical for the second semester a year of extraordinary sparkle. The bonds composing a piano trio (in his case) and during which time Katharine Park, among Fellows were reinforced at the finishing up the research on a book on Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor outset by several trips, first to Orvieto, the medieval and Renaissance origins of of the History of Science and of the where we were guided by the great human dissection (in mine). Like so Studies of Women, Gender, and expert on the cathedral, Lucio Riccetti many who have worked at I Tatti, we Sexuality came to Florence from (VIT’91); and another to Milan, where were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Harvard as Acting Director. Matteo Ceriana guided us place, impressed by its through the exhibition on Fra scholarly resources, and Carnevale, which he had helped stimulated by the company to organize along with Keith and conversation.
    [Show full text]
  • BOOKS from the LIBRARY of the EARLS of MACCLESFIELD
    BOOKS from the LIBRARY of THE EARLS OF MACCLESFIELD CATALOGUE 1440 MAGGS BROS. LTD. Books from the Library of The Earls of Macclesfield Item 14, Artemidorus [4to]. Item 111, Hexham [folio]. CATALOGUE 1440 MAGGS BROS. LTD. 2010 Item 195, Schreyer [8vo]. Item 211, del Torre [4to]. Front cover illustration: The arms of the first Earl of Macclesfield taken from an armorial head-piece to the dedication of Xenophon Cyropaedia ed. T. Hutchinson, Oxford, 1727. BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE EARLS OF MACCLESFIELD AT SHIRBURN CASTLE This selection of 240 items from the Macclesfield of languages. The works are almost all new to the Library formerly at Shirburn Castle near Watlington, market, Maggs having been privileged to have MAGGS BROS LTD Oxfordshire, mirrors the multiform interests of the received the remainder of the library not previously 50 Berkeley Square library, encompassing classical texts, works on the consigned for sale. The books, which are mostly non- military arts, a (very) few works of a scientific nature, English, range from one very uncommon incunable London W1J 5BA works of more modern literature and history, some to a few printed in the eighteenth century, but most collections of emblems, and some items on the study are of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Telephone 020 7493 7160 Fax 020 7499 2007 5 Email [email protected] 1 ABARBANEL, Isaac. Don Yitzhaq with loss of page numbers, modern half calf. [email protected] Abravani’el... & R. Mosis Alschechi Venice: M.A. Barboni, 1690 £2000 comment. in Esaiae prophetiam 30 [actually This work, clearly meant for those members of the Isaiah 52 v.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolution of Landscape in Venetian Painting, 1475-1525
    THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPE IN VENETIAN PAINTING, 1475-1525 by James Reynolds Jewitt BA in Art History, Hartwick College, 2006 BA in English, Hartwick College, 2006 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by James Reynolds Jewitt It was defended on April 7, 2014 and approved by C. Drew Armstrong, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture Kirk Savage, Professor, History of Art and Architecture Jennifer Waldron, Associate Professor, Department of English Dissertation Advisor: Ann Sutherland Harris, Professor Emerita, History of Art and Architecture ii Copyright © by James Reynolds Jewitt 2014 iii THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPE IN VENETIAN PAINTING, 1475-1525 James R. Jewitt, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 Landscape painting assumed a new prominence in Venetian painting between the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century: this study aims to understand why and how this happened. It begins by redefining the conception of landscape in Renaissance Italy and then examines several ambitious easel paintings produced by major Venetian painters, beginning with Giovanni Bellini’s (c.1431- 36-1516) St. Francis in the Desert (c.1475), that give landscape a far more significant role than previously seen in comparable commissions by their peers, or even in their own work. After an introductory chapter reconsidering all previous hypotheses regarding Venetian painters’ reputations as accomplished landscape painters, it is divided into four chronologically arranged case study chapters.
    [Show full text]
  • Profiling Women in Sixteenth-Century Italian
    BEAUTY, POWER, PROPAGANDA, AND CELEBRATION: PROFILING WOMEN IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS by CHRISTINE CHIORIAN WOLKEN Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Edward Olszewski Department of Art History CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERISTY August, 2012 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Christine Chiorian Wolken _______________________________________________________ Doctor of Philosophy Candidate for the __________________________________________ degree*. Edward J. Olszewski (signed) _________________________________________________________ (Chair of the Committee) Catherine Scallen __________________________________________________________________ Jon Seydl __________________________________________________________________ Holly Witchey __________________________________________________________________ April 2, 2012 (date)_______________________ *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. 1 To my children, Sofia, Juliet, and Edward 2 Table of Contents List of Images ……………………………………………………………………..….4 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………...…..12 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………...15 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………16 Chapter 1: Situating Sixteenth-Century Medals of Women: the history, production techniques and stylistic developments in the medal………...44 Chapter 2: Expressing the Link between Beauty and
    [Show full text]
  • Ruth Kelso Bibliography.Txt Ruth Kelso's Doctrine of the English Gentleman in the Sixteenth Century BIBLIOGRAPHY
    Ruth Kelso Bibliography.txt Ruth Kelso's Doctrine of the English Gentleman in the Sixteenth Century BIBLIOGRAPHY To show how frequently issues and themes of moral philosophy spring up in Ruth Kelso's bibliography, I identified key words and then searched for them in the bibliograpy. In the following list, the numbers in parantheses refer to the number of times the word or phrase was mentioned in the bibliography. If you want to find the words in the bibliography, please use the search feature of this PDF file. INDEX: | Academia_d'Urbino+(1)| Academici+(1)| academie+(1)| active+(1)| affections+(1)| agricoltura+(1) | amante+(2)| amata+(1)| ambassadeur+(1)| ambassador+(1)| amicitia+(1)| amico+(1) | ammaestramento+(1)| amministratione+(1)| amor_platonico+(1)| amore_humano+(1)| amore+(13) | amori_humani+(1)| amoribus+(1)| amorosa+(1)| amorosi+(1)| amorous+(1)| amour+(2)| angling+(1) | anthropologia+(1)| Anti_duel+(2)| antiquis_auctoribus+(1)| antiquus+(1)| Aphorismes+(1) | apodemica+(1)| apprentiship+(1)| arboribus+(1)| archerie+(2)| ARETINO+(1)| ARIOSTO+(1) | Aristotele+(1)| Aristotelis+(1)| Aristotile+(1)| arithmeticke+(1) | arithmetike+(1)| armas+(4)| arme+(3)| armes+(6)| armis+(1)| armoiries+(1)| armorial+(1) | armorie+(2)| armories+(1)| Armorum_emblemata+(1)| armorum+(1)| armory+(1)| army+(1) | arte_di_scrimia+(1)| artes+(1)| arti_liberali+(1)| Artis_historicae+(1)| astronomie+(1) | auncientS+(1)| autobiography+(1)| Avertimenti_morali+(1)| ballarino+(1)| ballo+(1) | Basilikon_doron+(1)| batailes+(1)| batailles+(1)| beatitudine_humana+(1)|
    [Show full text]
  • 20. Bibliography 389–416 DB 432012
    Bibliography Manuscripts Antigini, Giuliano. Cronaca 1384–1504. Ferrara, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, MS Classe I, 757. Azzari, Fulvio. Croniche di Reggio Lepido originale secondo le vite de’ suoi vescovi. Modena, Biblioteca Estense, no further details; a seventeenth-century copy is in Reggio, Biblioteca Panizzi, MS Reggiani C 44. Brancati, Giovanni. Oratio habita Neapoli in nuptiis Helionorae regis Ferdinandi filiae anno 1473 die 23 mense Mai. Valencia, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS cod. 774, ff. 25v−42v. Calcagnini, Teophilo. Letter to Ercole d’Este, Rome, 7 June 1473. Padua, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 342, ff. 54v–59r. Caleffini, Ugo. Annals of Ferrara, 1471–1483, copied in 1581 by Giulio Mosto, and continued by Girolamo Merenda, in his own hand, down to 1534. London, British Library, MS Add. 22324. Carbone, Ludovico. Epithalamium Neapoli actum in divam leonoram Aragonensem et dvum Herculem estensem. London, British Library, MS Add. 20794, ff. 1r−30r. Cornazzano, Antonio. Rime. Modena, Biblioteca estense universitaria, MS Ital. 177 (formerly α.I.6.21). ———. Del modo di reggere e di regnare. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS MS M 0731. Equicola, Mario di Alveto. Annali della città di Ferrara raccolti da Mario Equicola di Alveto ad annum 1559. Ferrara, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, MS Classe II, 355. ———. Genealogia degli Signori Estensi […] composto da Mario Equicola dell’anno MDXVI. London, British Library, MS Add. 22330 Genealogia Estense. The manuscript consists of two fragments, one in Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, MS Ita. 720 (formerly α.L.5.16), the other in Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Vittorio Emanuele 293. For a facsimile of the whole and commentary, see Genealogia dei Principe d’Este, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Una Direttrice Per La Diffusione Delle Culture Iberiche in Italia
    Mezzogiorno aragonese e settentrione cortigiano: una direttrice per la diffusione delle culture iberiche in Italia Jacopo Gesiot (Università degli studi di Udine) Abstract Questo lavoro si propone di ricostruire un ipotetico tracciato di diffusione della cultura iberica in Italia, principiato a partire dal prestigioso catalizzatore della corte aragonese di Napoli, e via via ramificatosi attraverso i centri dell’Italia padana a cavallo tra Quattro e Cinquecento. Visti i primi contatti a opera di mercenari, studenti ed ecclesiastici, si passa a studiare la fioritura della cultura plurilingue raccolta attorno ad Alfonso di Trastámara nel quadro della rete di relazioni, soprattutto matrimoniali, intessute con le corti settentrionali. Sulla scorta dei vari accasamenti, a cui si somma quello splendido di Lucrezia Borgia con Alfonso d’Este, si spargono attraverso la penisola intrattenitori e artisti di diversa qualità, interpreti di una letteratura, talvolta estemporanea, che finisce per interessare pure intellettuali di peso, come il Bembo e l’Equicola, arbitri di una cultura cortigiana che, ai suoi margini, si apre alle novità originate nella Penisola iberica. Al termine di questo excursus, interrotto con l’incoronazione bolognese di Carlo V, si raccolgono i segnali di un’assimilazione ormai compiuta, e, come si suggerisce nell’ultima sezione, sfociata nei primi accenni di un’operazione critica e di sistemazione, parallela al recupero delle lettere provenzali, che provvederà le condizioni per i primi passi della romanistica cinquecentesca. Parole chiave: Italia e Spagna, relazioni culturali, Napoli aragonese, Gonzaga, Este. The present work aims to reconstruct an hypothetical blueprint of the spread of Iberian culture in Italy, which gradually extended to the centers of Northern Italy between the 15th and the 16th centuries, since the settling of the Aragonese court in Naples.
    [Show full text]
  • Look at the Studiolo of Isabella
    C LO S A E LOOK AT THE STUDIOLO OF ISABELLA D’ E S T E Samantha Wexler tudioli and cabinets of curiosity were very popular for the powerful and affluent of the Renaissance who desired to showcase collections of rare and unusual objects. These studioli were intimate places for private contemplation that also served to exhibit inner worthiness and refined taste, and they have long been regarded as one of the greatest inventions of the Renaissance.1 The conventions of display at work in these studioli originated from the display of holy relics in churches. Studioli, however, would include objects that were clearly less divine in nature, including rare and often valuable curios, precious gems, ostrich eggs and even crocodiles.2 The shift in these types of collections from religious institutes to the domestic sphere is indicative of studioli being the domain of the influential, the powerful and the wealthy of the time. A studiolo was intended and designed as a secular space devoted primarily to scholarly and humanistic activities such as reading and contemplation. These activities also expanded their purpose to serve as a bridge between the secular and the sacred , since they shared parallels with the cells of the scriptoria used by monks when they created illuminated manuscripts. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a Renaissance philosopher and humanist, stated: “[T]hrough study 100 101 and contemplation, a scholar might find union with God.”3 In which included the many influential members of her own family.10 1434, Leon Battista Alberti described the studiolo as: “[A] sanctum Isabella d’Este was born in 1474 to Ercole d’Este, the Duke of sanctorium that only the head of the household [can] enter.”4 Thus, Ferrara, and Elenora of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand I of the owner of a studiolo becomes a creator who shapes an external Naples, in the city of Ferrara.
    [Show full text]
  • Gendered Perspectives on Marriage in Renaissance Italy
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Joyful Miss: Gendered Perspectives on Marriage in Renaissance Italy A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Italian by Melina Rae Madrigal 2013 ii iii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION: Joyful Miss: Gendered Perspectives on Marriage in Renaissance Italy by Melina Rae Madrigal Doctor of Philosophy in Italian University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Massimo Ciavolella, Chair My dissertation investigates the convoluted layers comprising profeminist and misogynist precepts through the optic of marriage during the Renaissance period, particularly the Cinque- and early Seicento. My specific intention is to overturn some commonly held beliefs about each respective ideology and in the process unveil how tightly woven together they are, for their divergences are transparent but their points of convergence and overlap are less so. In fact, while many studies, such as Pamela Benson’s The Invention of the Renaissance Woman, seek to underline the misogyny penetrating works commonly held as profeminist, my scholarship instead locates some very concrete marks of profeminism locatable in works commonly held as misogynist. My chapter on Giovanni Della Casa’s An uxor sit ducenda (Se s’abbia da prender iv moglie) is a prime example: his reputation as a steadfast misogynist precedes him, but his text on whether or not marriage is useful actually enlists logic that speaks to the profeminist cause, adopting misogamist arguments that simultaneously criticize social treatment of women and indirectly promote levels of emancipation for them. While works like Benson’s provide useful insight into the lives of Renaissance Italians, I would argue my work brings an innovative and much-needed perspective to understanding gender studies in the early modern period.
    [Show full text]