Rituals, Images, and Words: The Varieties of Cultural Expression In Late Medieval And Early Modern Europe

This collection of essays by Australian scholars offers a wealth of contemporary perspectives on cultural communication amongst men and women in late medieval and early modern Europe. Essays dealing with Florence and Venice, with Rome, Lucca, Ferrara, and Bologna, as well as with Germany, England, and Lorraine, draw attention to the array of cultural expressions which competed for space and influence across European societies of the period. These rich studies demonstrate the vitality of cultural production during a period of rapid and often violent transition. Variously focused on formal religious rites, on painting, sculpture, and woodcuts, on sermons, poetry, and letters, the contributors pursue cultural meaning as a matter of social identity and social context - as a performance that can be shown to affirm and also exclude particular topical values. Rituals, Images, and Words highlights the complex and subtle power of rhetorical forms in the history and historiography of late medieval and early modern Europe. Front matter (“Contents”, “Contributors”, “Figures”, “Acknowledgements”), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. 1 F. W. Kent, Charles Zika https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3524 The Religious Confraternities of High Renaissance Florence: Crisis or Continuity?, p. 9 Nicholas Eckstein https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3525 The Death of a Heretic, Florence 1389, p. 33 Nicholas Scott Baker https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3526 Cultivating Charisma: Elisabeth de Ranfaing and the Médailliste Cult in Seventeenth-Century Lorraine, p. 55 Sarah Ferber https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3527 Affective Devotion and the Early Dominicans: The Case of Fra Angelico, p. 87 Robert W. Gaston https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3528 Art History and the Resistant Presence of a Saint — The chiesa vecchia Frescoes at Rome’s Tor de’ Specchi, p. 119 Cynthia Troup https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3529 Separating the Men from the Boys: Masculinities in Early Quattrocento Florence and Donatello’s Saint George, p. 147 Patricia Simons https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3530 Henry VII’s ‘miraculum orbis’: Royal Commemoration at Westminster Abbey 1500–1700, p. 177 Peter Sherlock https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3531 Gardens of Love in Venetian Painting of the Quattrocento, p. 201 Jaynie Anderson https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3532 The Witch of Endor: Transformations of a Biblical Necromancer in Early Modern Europe, p. 235 Charles Zika https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3533 Iustus ut palma florebit: Pier Soderini and Florentine Justice, p. 263 Lorenzo Polizzotto https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3534 Personal Literary Anthologies in Renaissance Florence: Re-Presenting Current Events to Conform to Christian, Classical and Civic Ideals, p. 277 Dale Kent https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3535 The Fear of Schism, p. 297 Peter Howard https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3536 The Literary Career of Lucrezia Marinella (1571–1653): The Constraints of Gender and the Writing Woman, p. 325 Stephen Kolsky https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3537 Style and Substance in the Early Writings of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, p. 343 W. G. Craven https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3538 An Insatiable Appetite for News: Isabella d’Este and a Bolognese Correspondent, p. 375 Carolyn James https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3539 Unheard Voices from the Medici Family Archive in the Time of Lorenzo de’ Medici, p. 389 F. W. Kent https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3540 The Younger Castracani, p. 405 Louis Green https://doi.org/10.1484/M.LMEMS-EB.3.3541 Back matter (“Index”), p. 427

The focus of this collection is on processes of cultural communication in late medieval/early modern European societies and the part which these resources play in shaping community and fashioning self and group identity. The individual essays focus on (1) different forms of cultural discourse in late medieval/early modern Europe; (2) the techniques, rhetoric, genres and cultural traditions which were drawn on in order to communicate particular messages to audiences in these societies and persuade them of their veracity; (3) the social and cultural values which these discourses helped fashion or support; (4) the manner in which different communities or regimes drew on these discourses to shape, strengthen or legitimate their identity or organization. The scope of the book is intentionally multi-disciplinary and, in the case of some articles, interdisciplinary. And although the majority of articles concentrate on Italian societies of the period, the inclusion of others which centre on other European societies of the period helps underline the fact that the developments explored are far from exclusive to the Italian peninsula, or common to all the societies of the Italian peninsula. This approach certainly reflects the interests of the editors, of most of the contributors and of the teacher these articles honour. Ian Robertson's teaching was marked by cross-disciplinary enthusiasms and also by a concern for the variety of Italian social and cultural institutions and experience within a broader European context. The general focus on cultural communication within different societies of this period also reflects what the editors believe to be a recent historiographical shift in theunderstanding of past societies. It is one which emphasizes interaction and performance over structure and norm; the instruments and processes by which meanings and value are communicated and enacted.

The focus of this collection is on processes of cultural communication in late medieval/early modern European societies and the part which these resources play in shaping community and fashioning self and group identity. The individual essays focus on (1) different forms of cultural discourse in late medieval/early modern Europe; (2) the techniques, rhetoric, genres and cultural traditions which were drawn on in order to communicate particular messages to audiences in these societies and persuade them of their veracity; (3) the social and cultural values which these discourses helped fashion or support; (4) the manner in which different communities or regimes drew on these discourses to shape, strengthen or legitimate their identity or organization. The scope of the book is intentionally multi-disciplinary and, in the case of some articles, interdisciplinary. And although the majority of articles concentrate on Italian societies of the period, the inclusion of others which centre on other European societies of the period helps underline the fact that the developments explored are far from exclusive to the Italian peninsula, or common to all the societies of the Italian peninsula. This approach certainly reflects the interests of the editors, of most of the contributors and of the teacher these articles honour. Ian Robertson's teaching was marked by cross-disciplinary enthusiasms and also by a concern for the variety of Italian social and cultural institutions and experience within a broader European context. The general focus on cultural communication within different societies of this period also reflects what the editors believe to be a recent historiographical shift in the understanding of past societies. It is one which emphasizes interaction and performance over structure and norm; the instruments and processes by which meanings and value are communicated and enacted.