The Family Consciousness in Medieval Genoa: The Case of the Lomellini
The most famous figure of the family in this century was Napoleone Lomellini. He was a member of the ‘anziani’ and was known as ‘multum dives et magnus mercator a very rich and important merchant’
Personal’ Rituals: The Office of Ceremonies and Papal Weddings, 1483-1521
This analysis reveals the increasing involvement of papal ceremonialists in the preparation and supervision of wedding events,5 highlighting the ceremonialists’ own broad definition of their mandate and a pragmatic approach to the boundaries of papal ritual.
Rome During Avignon: Myth, Memory, and Civic Identity in Fourteenth-Century Roman Politics
Broadly conceived, my dissertation examines the traditions of popular government emerging spasmodically in the roughly two hundred and fifty years between the Roman senate’s 1143 revival, and the papacy’s definitive 1377 return to Rome from roughly seven decades in Avignon. The majority of my inquiry, however, is directed toward the much-understudied fourteenth century.
The Poisoned Image of the Borgias: A Look at the Public Image of Pope Alexander VI and His Children
Upon Rodrigo Borgia’s ascension to the papacy in 1492 and assumption of the name Alexander VI, the masses of Rome who watched his parade and celebration with hopeful eyes welcomed him eagerly, despite his wild ways and indiscretions as a cardinal.
Hidden in Plain Sight: The “Pietre di Paragone” and the Preeminence of Medieval Measurements in Communal Italy
Propelled by an active engagement with measurements, the medieval communes devised a revolutionary method to preserve these measurements, which I call Pietre di Paragone.
The Church Atrium as a Ritual Space: The Cathedral of Tyre and St Peter’s in Rome
This paper will attempt to outline a perspective on ritual and space regard ing the Early Christian atrium by confronting two cases of early church atria: one known from a literary source, the other from its archaeological reconstruction.
The Eternity of the World and Renaissance Historical Thought
Medieval and Renaissance controversies over the Aristotelian doctrine of “the eternity of the world” have hitherto been treated as disputes restricted to natural philosophers and theologians.
British government temporarily halts export of 700-year-old painting
An early 14th-century painting by Pietro Lorenzetti will not be allowed to leave the United Kingdom, at least temporarily, while an attempt is made to raise over £5 million to purchase the art-piece.
CRISIS OF CONTRACTS FOR MERCHANTS IN CRISIS: INSTITUTIONS, CORPORATE FINANCE AND GROWTH IN GENOA (11TH -17TH C.)
My paper focuses these “merchant princes” from Genoa before the “industrial revolution”. The rise and fall of Genoa provides indeed a striking case about the success and failure of what, in the same vein than Bagehot, Joseph Schumpeter called the “creative destruction”, and the role financial markets in that process.
The Morosinis in Hungary under King Andrew III and the two versions of the death of the Queen of Hungary Tommasina
In reality, Charles Robert’s predecessor, the last Arpád, Andrew III, called the Vene- tian, was already a foreigner on the throne of Hungary.
Transvestites, Saints, Wives, and Martyrs: The Lives of female saints as read by fifteenth-century Florentine women
An examination of the lives of female saints taken from the highly popular vernacular Vite dei santi padri written by Domenico Cavalca (c.1270-1342) and the ways women in quattrocento Florence may have been reading them.
Handspinners of the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance
The Handspinners of Paris, France: In 1270, a royal judge, Etienne Boileau, compiled “Le Livre de Metiers” (The Book of Trades) which contained the ordinances of 100 Parisian craft guilds. By consulting the surviving tax rolls of 1292, 1300, and 1313, it is possible to determine the extent to which these crafts were practiced.
The Dominican Convents in Medieval Norway
In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Norway was larger than it is today, where the former Norwegian districts of Jämtland and Bohus are now parts of Sweden. In 1380, the Norwegian throne was inherited by the Danish king, and for the rest of the Middle Ages, Danish monarchs ruled Norway, but even though the kings often made use of Danes in the administration, the Norwegian kingdom did in fact remain as an independent part of a so-called double monarchy.
Charlemagne’s Jihad
In 782, after almost two years with no clashes in the Saxon front, Charlemagne led his army into Saxony once again. This time, the main purpose was to subdue the Saxons who rebelled under the leadership of Widukind. It was a brutal campaign, during which, our sources relate, more than 4,500 Saxon rebels were beheaded in one day at the order of Charlemagne.
The Mystery of the Marble Man and his Hat: A Reconsideration of the Bari Episcopal Throne
Until the twentieth century, the throne was universally held to have been sculpted in or immediately before 1098 for Elias, the abbot of San Nicola and archbishop of Bari and Canosa.
Aspects of the English royal succession, 1066-1199: the death of the king
The death of any ruler in the twelfth century, even if it were expected, caused a considerable amount of shock and disquiet amongst those who were left behind.
Reading Health in the Stars: Politics and Medical Astrology in Renaissance Milan
Horary astrology was skillfully exploited in political circles and suggests that, far from being irrelevant to our understanding of Renaissance Italy, astrology played an important role in shaping its history.
Origins of the Medieval Theory That Sensation Is an Immaterial Reception of a Form
Let me begin my own discussion of Aquinas by saying that it seems to me that Cohen adequately proved that it was a mistake to view the sensible form as existing in the soul rather than the organ, and that Aquinas is not denying to the sensible form as received by the sensor a place in the physical world, or indeed physical existence, when he says it exists immaterially or spiritually.
Hebrew Astrology in Byzantine Southern Italy
It is a commonplace that our modern, tidy distinction between astronomy and astrology does not apply to the Middle Ages.
Shakespeare’s Richard II: Machiavelli for the Good of England
The name Machiavelli has negative connotations, and this way of thinking is not new. Throughout Europe, in Shakespeare’s time and earlier, Machiavellianism was associated with unscrupulous abuse of power, and Machiavellian methods were seen as immoral and evil.
Jacopo da Firenze and the beginning of Italian vernacular algebra
Whatever the reason, nobody seems to have taken an interest in the treatise before Warren Van Egmond inspected it in the mid-seventies during the preparation of his global survey of Italian Renaissance manuscripts concerned with practical mathematics.
A Moorish Sheet of Playing Cards
Examining medieval playing cards from Spain and Italy.
The Sovereign and the Pirates, 1332
One Monday in early Spring 1332 a galley commanded by two Genoese ran aground on the tiny island of Brescou in the Mediterranean, a mile or so off shore of the episcopal city of Agde.