10 Creepy Things to See at the Louvre That Are Better Than the Mona Lisa
If you’re an ancient historian, a medievalist, or early modernist, there are so many other amazing pieces and works of art a the Louvre other than these two tourist staples. Here is my list of cool, creepy, unusual and better than the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris.
How to protect yourself against the Plague: Remedies from Renaissance Italy
‘Rue tops, one clove of garlic, a walnut, a grain of salt, and eat on an empty stomach everyday for up to a month, and you must be cheerful, and this recipe, it’s good against vermin and it’s perfect.
The Morality of Misogyny: The Case of Rustico Filippi, Vituperator of Women
At the outset of his influential study on Rabelais, Mikhail Bakhtin makes an interesting observation. The scholar dedicates several pages to detail how the French author’s critical reception changed over time. Bakhtin illustrates how the attempt to comprehend an author can frequently be stymied by the cultural changes that occur across the centuries.
The Sincere Body: The Performance of Weeping and Emotion in Late Medieval Italian Sermons
In 1493 the well-known and controversial Franciscan preacher Bernardino of Feltre gave a series of Lenten sermons to the people of Pavia. On March 11 he dedicated an entire sermon to the necessity of contrition—or perfect sorrow over sin—in the rite of confession.
Flee the loathsome shadow: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) and the Medici in Florence
This article examines the changing political landscape of Medicean Florence, from Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), through the letters of the celebrated neo-Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99).
14 Reasons Why Florence is Great (in 1457)
Giovanni Rucellai, a 15th century merchant, tells us what was so great about Florence during his time.
Constructing social identity in Renaissance Florence: Botticelli’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’
This study scrutinizes a work within a neglected portion of Botticelli’s oeuvre, examining the ways in which its modest, and somewhat ambiguous, visual cues also construct its sitter’s elevated social identity, while simultaneously protecting it.
Did Purchasing Power Parity Hold in Medieval Europe?
This paper employs a unique, hand-collected dataset of exchange rates for five major currencies (the lira of Barcelona, the pound sterling of England, the pond groot of Flanders, the florin of Florence and the livre tournois of France) to consider whether the law of one price and purchasing power parity held in Europe during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
Florentine politics and the ruling class, 1382-1407
Although outwardly the regime respected the institutions of communal Florence and republican formalities, real power in the state supposedly resided in the hands of a narrow group of families.
Badia Burning: The Spectacle of Violence in 14th-century Tuscany
The theme of this paper is the use of ecclesiastical properties as sites of theatrical violence, and violence as a major element in the complex discourse between powerful rural lords and the Florentine commune.
BOOKS: The Feuding Families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy
Put down the Godfather, turn off the Sorpanos, and check out the real Italian families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy!
Medieval Mass Grave discovered underneath the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Workers doing renovations at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy have uncovered what seems to be the remains of a mass grave from the fifth-century AD.
The Meek And Mighty Bride: Representations of Esther, Old Testament Queen of Persia, on Fifteenth-Century Italian Marriage Furniture
Cassone and spalliere panels depicting the Old Testament Book of Esther were produced by a number of Florentine artists during the fifteenth century.
Cecco D’Ascoli and Church Discipline of Natural Philosophers in the Middle Ages
Probably the only natural philosopher of the Middle Ages to be burnt at the stake at the behest of the Church was one Francisco degli Stabili (c. 1269 – 1327) in Florence in late 1327.
Florence Cathedral: The Design Stage
No list of the outstanding Gothic monuments of Europe could fail to include the Cathedral of Florence, yet its place in medieval architecture remains anomalous. Anomalous above all is its unprecedented design, which integrates a rib-vaulted basilica, a domed octagon, and a triconch of fifteen extruded chapels.
The Dual Crises of the Late-Medieval Florentine Cloth Industry, c.1320 – c.1420
The consequences of that first economic crisis, in the ensuing transformation of the Florentine cloth industry, contained the very seeds that spawned the second and far more major crisis, which led to the inexorable downfall of this once majestic industry, by the early fifteenth century.
‘Selling stories and many other things in and through the city’: Peddling Print in Renaissance Florence and Venice
‘Selling stories and many other things in and through the city’: Peddling Print in Renaissance Florence and Venice Rosa M. Salzberg (University of…
Donatello and Ghiberti: The Choice Betewen Compositional Unity and Narrative Force
In the spiritual epicenter of Quattrocento1 Florence April 2, 1452 marked the completion of the Baptistery of San Giovanni’s third set of bronze doors.
The Italian Giant Bibles, Lay Patronage, and Professional Workmanship
Eleventh-century Umbro-Roman Giant Bibles were commissioned by varied church and lay patrons (and not only by Roman reform- party adherents) and crafted by ad hoc assemblies of paid craftsmen using methods of carefully calibrated, synchronous copying to reduce production time for the single commission.
You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me: The Power and Emotion in Women’s Correspondence in Fifteenth-Century Italy
This thesis examines the lives of Alessandra Strozzi and Lucrezia de’Medici of Florence
INTERVIEW: Author Tinney Sue Heath
In late July, I posted a book review on, “A Thing Done”, by Tinney Sue Heath. The book explores the fantastic world of Italian medieval vendetta during the thirteenth century. Here is my interview with this talented and accomplished author.
A Cell of their Own: The Incarceration of Women in Late Medieval Italy
I will then move to sketch the social profile of female inmates, mainly drawing on the records of Le Stinche, the Florentine municipal prison, during its first century of activity, circa 1300–1400.
Past/Present: Leonardo Bruni’s History of Florence
Past/Present: Leonardo Bruni’s History of Florence Giuseppe Bisaccia Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. 21, No 1 (1985) Abstract The importance of historical consciousness in the…
Scientists move closer to connecting Mona Lisa with Lisa Gherardini
Italian scientists are getting closer to solving the mystery of who was the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa.
Make-Up as Understructure: Renaissance Cosmetics as Renaissance Self-Fashioning
Cosmetics – like fashion in general – clearly seem to have experienced a notable expansion in their use toward the end of the medieval period.