Italy Archive
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Prophetic Statebuilding: Machiavelli and the Passion of the Duke
Posted on April 12, 2014 | No CommentsMy interpretation of Machiavelli’s use of Borgia highlights the biblical resonances of Machiavelli’s account of the rise and fall of this exemplary new prince—a prince whom both his subjects and the Florentine himself call by the exalted title “Duke Valentino.” -
The Cyrurgia of Albucasis and other works, 1500
Posted on April 12, 2014 | No CommentsFour surgical treatises, printed in the last year of the fifteenth century, make up the oldest illustrated printed book in the Sibbald Library. The second one, the Cyrurgia of Albucasis, is the most interesting and I shall deal only briefly with the others. -
Greek in Marriage, Latin in Giving: The Greek Community of Fourteenth-century Palermo and the Deceptive Will of Bonannus de Geronimo
Posted on April 12, 2014 | No CommentsThis article discusses the pitfalls that can occur in the study of ethnicity in the me- dieval period in the context of the potential existence of two separate Greek minori- ties—one indigenous and one immigrant—in fourteenth-century Latin-dominated Palermo, Italy. -
The Fables of Leonardo da Vinci
Posted on March 30, 2014 | No CommentsWhen wine is consumed by the drunkard, it takes revenge on the drinker. -
What is an Australasian parrot doing in a 15th century Italian painting?
Posted on March 24, 2014 | No CommentsThe Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a species of parrot native to Australia and eastern Indonesia. However, you can also see one in the Madonna della Vittoria, a painting made in 1496 by Andrea Mantegna. -
Herb-workers and Heretics: Beguines, Bakhtin and the Basques
Posted on March 22, 2014 | No CommentsDuring the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify themselves as members of a wide-spread and influential women's movement. The same term was used by their detractors and overt opponents, with the highly charged negative meaning of "heretic." The etymology of the term “beguine” and ultimate origins of the movement have never been satisfactorily explained. -
Death and the Fraternity: A Short Study on the Dead in Late Medieval Confraternities
Posted on March 22, 2014 | No CommentsSince the publication of Philippe Aries' ground-breaking The Hour of our Death, historians of confraternities have largely followed his lead and treated confraternities as a "guarantee of eternity." -
Saint Patrick’s Purgatory: a fresco in Todi, Italy
Posted on March 17, 2014 | No CommentsThis essay deals with the tradition of the revelation of Purgatory to St. Patrick on Station Island in Lough Derg, whose popularity is testified not only in literary texts in the various languages of Medieval Europe but also in a unique work of art in the convent of the Sisters of Saint Clair at Todi, Umbria -
Badia Burning: The Spectacle of Violence in 14th-century Tuscany
Posted on March 17, 2014 | No CommentsThe 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
Posted on March 15, 2014 | No CommentsPut down the Godfather, turn off the Sorpanos, and check out the real Italian families of Medieval and Renaissance Italy! -
Avignon vs. Rome: Dante, Petrarch, Catherine of Siena
Posted on March 12, 2014 | No CommentsIn the fourteenth century the image of ancient Rome as Babylon was transformed into the positive idea of Rome as both a Christian and a classical ideal. -
The Woman who Ruled the Papacy
Posted on March 9, 2014 | No CommentsShe was the lover of one Pope, mother to another, and grandmother to a third. -
Writing the Antithesis of María of Aragón: Alvaro de Luna’s Rendering of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris
Posted on February 22, 2014 | No CommentsOf the many works that form the canon of the debate on women in the fifteenth century, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula, there is a text that often omitted. This lesser known text was written by one of the most notorious figures in Spanish history: don Alvaro de Luna. -
Medieval Castle and Hamlet for Sale in Italy: Castello Izzalini
Posted on February 18, 2014 | No CommentsGet an entire medieval village, dating back to the 12th century, with its own castle and church. -
A Medieval Guide to Friendship
Posted on February 17, 2014 | No CommentsWhat kind of friend are you? A 13th-century writer looks at types of friends, most of whom you want to stay away from! -
Medieval Mass Grave discovered underneath the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Posted on February 17, 2014 | No CommentsWorkers 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
Posted on February 16, 2014 | No CommentsCassone and spalliere panels depicting the Old Testament Book of Esther were produced by a number of Florentine artists during the fifteenth century. -
The Man of Sorrows and the King of Glory in Italy, c. 1250 – c. 1350
Posted on February 9, 2014 | No CommentsThe Man of Sorrows – an iconographic type of Jesus Christ following his Crucifixion – has received extensive analytical treatment in the art-historical literature. -
A Medieval LIfe (in his own words)
Posted on February 8, 2014 | No CommentsForty years of the life of Opicino de Canistris, priest and writer in 14th century Italy, in his own words. -
Cecco D’Ascoli and Church Discipline of Natural Philosophers in the Middle Ages
Posted on February 8, 2014 | No CommentsProbably 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. -
Seeing again : geometry, cartography and visions in the work of Opicinus de Canistris (1296-C.1354)
Posted on February 8, 2014 | No CommentsSet against erratic textual content, the images in the Palatinus are combinations of mathematical forms, collection of figures and zodiac symbols. -
Violence and Repression in Late Medieval Italy
Posted on February 8, 2014 | No CommentsBetween the second half of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fifteenth, central and northern Italian city-states frequently suffered moments of disruption of the social peace because of factional battles. -
Opicinus de Canistris: Yesterday and today
Posted on February 8, 2014 | No CommentsOpicinus is the first maker of anthropomorphic maps of the countries around the Mediterranean, and the first psychotic cartographer and imaginative writer in the historical field of the Psychopathology of Expression. -
What Makes Her Beautiful? Feminine Beauty Standards in Renaissance Italy
Posted on January 28, 2014 | No CommentsPerhaps one of the most straightforward elements of beauty was the skin. Pale and undamaged skin was considered the most beautiful for women. -
Florence Cathedral: The Design Stage
Posted on January 25, 2014 | No CommentsNo 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.
