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Italy in the Seventeenth Century
In his comprehensive overview of 17th century Italy, Professor Sella challenges the old view that Italy was in general decline, instead he shows it to have been a time of sharp contrasts and shifts in fortune. He starts with a balanced and critical analysis of political developments (placing the Italian states in their wider European context) before assessing the state of the economy. He then looks in depth at society, religion, and culture and science and in particular reassesses the influence of the Counter Reformation on Italian life. His book ends with an engrossing account of the life and work of Galileo as well as an overview of the important and often neglected contributions made by other scientists in the later part of the century. This rich and balanced volume is an ideal introduction to early modern Italy, and provides a critical revaluation of a much misunderstood period in the country's history.
Italian Courts and European Culture
Between the fifteenth and the eighteenth century, princely courts dominated the Italian political scene. These courts were effervescent centers of cultural production. As such, they became a model for European monarchies who imported Italian courtly forma del vivere (‘style of life’) to legitimize their power and to define social status. This phenomenon included architecture and painting, theater and music, manners and aesthetics, and all the objects, behaviors and beliefs that contributed to homogenize European culture in the age of the Old Regime. It involved a hemorrhage of art and a continuous circulation of people, texts and symbols. The foundational material for this process was classicism and its purpose was political. This delineates a new geography and chronology of a truly European cultural history. It also provides the key traits for the European cultural identity. This book offers a comprehensive reconstruction of the Italian geo-political map focused on courts (thirteenth - seventeenth centuries) and analyses the homogeneity of political forms and of the Italian Christian-Classicist culture.
Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires
This volume presents new research on royal courts from antiquity to the modern world, from Asia to Europe. It addresses the interactions of rulers and and elites at court, as well as the multiple connections between court, capital, and realm.
The Idea of Work in Europe from Antiquity to Modern Times
This volume takes a fresh and innovative approach to the history of ideas of work, concerning perceptions, attitudes, cultures and representations of work throughout Antiquity and the medieval and early modern periods. Focusing on developments in Europe, the contributors approach the subject from a variety of angles, considering aspects of work as described in literature, visual culture, and as perceived in economic theory. As well as external views of workers the volume also looks at the meaning of work for the self-perception of various social groups, including labourers, artisans, merchants, and noblemen, and the effects of this on their self-esteem and social identity. Taking a broad chronological approach to the subject provides readers with a cutting-edge overview of research into the varying attitudes to work and its place in pre-industrial society.
Ruling Peacefully
Raised in the splendid court of Mantua, wealthy even by the standards of Renaissance cardinals, the patron of artists and scholars, the father of numerous children, an active participant in Italian and European politics as regent of the Duchy of Mantua, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga (1505-1563) was in many respects a typical Renaissance prelate from a noble family. Nevertheless, in the course of his life he also exhibited a real commitment to reform of the Church and gave serious attention to the religious debates of his day. He reformed the diocese of Mantua, befriended reformers both Catholic and Protestant, and served as papal legate to the Council of Trent. Ruling Peacefully provides the first...
Reviving the Renaissance
This book offers an account of neo-Renaissance taste and style in Italy during the second half of the nineteenth century. By the time Italy had developed its obsession with the neo-Renaissance in the 1870s, collectors and scholars in the rest of Europe had been excited by Renaissance taste and style for several decades. In Italy the Renaissance was promptly reconceptualised, in a forced alignment with the accepted historical version of its birth and development, and its help enlisted in the search for an Italian national identity. But what represented this neo-Renaissance in Italy, and what aided its diffusion? In an attempt to answer these questions this book explores the many areas marked by neo-Renaissance taste. It traces its diffusion and development from the institutions which instructed its chief exponents, to architecture and exhibitions and the publications which disseminated neo-Renaissance designs so effectively.
A Context for Rule
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