Portraying the Prince in the Renaissance: The Humanist Depiction of Rulers in Historiographical and Biographical Texts (Transformationen Der Antike) (Transformationen Der Antike, 44)

The portrayal of princes plays a central role in the historical literature of the European Renaissance. The sixteen contributions collected in this volume examine such portrayals in a broad variety of historiographical, biographical, and poetic texts. It emerges clearly that historical portrayals were not essentially bound by generic constraints but instead took the form of res gestae or historiae, discrete or collective biographies, panegyric, mirrors for princes, epic poetry, orations, even commonplace books – whatever the occasion called for. Beyond questions of genre, the chapters focus on narrative strategies and the transformation of ancient, medieval, and contemporary authors, as well as on the influence of political, cultural, intellectual, and social contexts. Four broad thematic foci inform the structure of this book: the virtues ascribed to the prince, the cultural and political pretensions inscribed in literary portraits, the historical and literary models on which these portraits were based, and the method that underlay them. The volume is rounded out by a critical summary that considers the portrayal of princes in humanist historiogrpahy from the point of view of transformation theory. Contents Introduction I. Virtues Der Herrscher und die gute Ordnung. Das Bild Karls VII. in der französischen Historiographie am Übergang von der tradierten zur humanistisch geprägten Historiographie Charlemagne am Renaissancehof. Die Darstellung Karls des Großen in Paolo Emilios De rebus gestis Francorum Guter König, schlechter König? Die Darstellung Heinrichs V. und Heinrichs VI. von England in Polydor Vergils Anglica historia Alfonso ›the Magnanimous‹ of Naples as Portrayed by Facio and Panormita: Four Versions of Emulation, Representation, and Virtue II. Cultural and Political Pretensions Illyrian Trojans in a Turkish Storm: Croatian Renaissance Lords and the Politics of Dynastic Origin Myths Personelle Serialität und nationale Geschichte. Überlegungen zu den Herrschergestalten in Franciscus Irenicus’ Germaniae Exegesis Riccardo Bartolinis Austrias (1516) oder: Wie ein Herrscher zum Feldherrn gegen die Türken wird III. Models Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Der Herrscher als zweiter Salomo. Zum Bild König Roberts von Anjou in der Renaissance Pier Candido Decembrio and the Suetonian Path to Princely Biography Die Cosmias des Giovanni Mario Filelfo (1426–1480) Einhard reloaded. Francesco Tedeschini Piccolomini, Hilarion aus Verona, Donato Acciaiuoli und die Karlsbiographik im italienischen Renaissance-Humanismus Auf den Spuren Paolo Giovios? Herrscherdarstellung in Jacobus Sluperius’ Elogia virorum bellica laude illustrium IV. Method Princes between Lorenzo Valla and Bartolomeo Facio Juan Páez de Castro, Charles V, and a Method for Royal Historiography Picturing the Perfect Patron? Francesco Filelfo’s Image of Francesco Sforza Verbis phucare tyrannos? Selbstanspruch und Leistungsspektren von zeithistorischer Epik als panegyrischem Medium im 15. Jahrhundert V. Critical Summary The Description Makes the Prince: Princely Portrayal from the Perspective of Transformation Theory Indices Index of Names Index of Places List of Contributors Annotation What role do rulers play in historical texts and what determines the way they are portrayed? More fundamentally, what qualifies a text as a work of history, and what functions do such writings have with regard to rulers? This volume explores these themes, considering the national or regional, personal, discursive, and generic parameters that influenced the writing of history and the way rulers were depicted in humanist texts