Download or read book Cities of God written by Augustine Thompson and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When religion is considered, the subjects are usually saints, heretics, theologians, and religious leaders, thereby ignoring the vast majority of those who lived in the communes. Drawing on many ecclesiastical and secular sources, this book aims to give a voice to the majority - orthodox lay people and those who ministered to them.

Download or read book The Defeat of a Renaissance Intellectual written by Francesco Guicciardini and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2019-05-17 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A papal advisor and sixteenth-century power broker, Francesco Guicciardini wrote voluminously throughout his time in service to the Medici. The texts in this volume chart his career chronologically, revealing an intellectual whose philosophy of self-interest failed not only to perceive the interests of others but ultimately to serve his own. During Guicciardini’s life, Florentine politics was dominated by the struggle of republican leaders to retain civic political autonomy against the ambitions of the Medici family. Like Machiavelli and Petrarch, and arguably even Dante, Guicciardini was what Carlo Celli calls an “establishment intellectual,” one whose talents furthered the hegemony of authoritarian rule against the interests of his own class. The letters, treatises, reports, and orations included in this volume span Guicciardini’s long career, from his first appointment as ambassador to the Spanish court to just a few years before his forced retirement from political life. They reveal Guicciardini’s role as a protagonist in the events related in his famous History of Italy (1540), shed light on the self-recriminations and remorse that sometimes gnawed at his conscience, and explain why, ultimately, Guicciardini fell from political grace into irrelevance. Through these previously untranslated writings, The Defeat of a Renaissance Intellectual evidences the hard lessons Guicciardini learned in service to the Medici: working within a corrupt system does not lead to solutions, and reason and self-interest are not foolproof guides for predicting human behavior. This book will appeal especially to scholars who study the Medici clan, the Italian Wars, and Renaissance politics and history.

Download or read book Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy written by Ottavia Niccoli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1990-08 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of the religious ferment, foreign invasions, and internal political strife that beset Italy before the full effects of the Counter-Reformation, the powerful and humble alike turned to popular prophecy for guidance and solace. Ottavia Niccoli examines here the forms of these prophecies--including interpretations of natural disasters, abnormal births, floods, and planetary conjunctions--and gives examples of how they were transmitted from the lower classes to the elite through street singers, apocalyptic preachers, astrologers, and printers. By tracing the ongoing revision of the prophecies, Niccoli reveals them as an indication of how various levels of society viewed events of the time, as a form of propaganda for such causes as anti-Lutheranism, and as a reflection of the interaction between "high" and "low" culture. Based on popular leaflets, diaries, civic chronicles, and iconographic sources, this book explores the expression of a culture in which nature, religion, and politics formed a unified system with a uniform code of interpretation. It connects the decline of prophecy in Italy with the end of the Italian wars and the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, when popular preaching was banned and charismatic religion discouraged.

Download or read book Preaching and New Worlds written by Timothy Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays examines the polyvalent concept of "New Worlds" in the context of medieval and early modern sermon studies. While the terms "Old World" and "New World" are commonplace in studies of Europe and the Americas, this volume explores how preaching in the Atlantic world and beyond creatively engaged audiences in addressing new cultural and religious perspectives regardless of their geographical location and time period. The identification of the "other" in sermons is already an implicit recognition of a novel world, which could be equally enticing and intimidating. The scholars represented in this volume examine a wide panorama of medieval and early modern efforts as they identify how sermons, which often served as a highly effective media of mass communication, reflect shifting identities, sometimes contested and sometimes embraced, within long-standing traditional constructs. Particular themes include apocalypticism, art and mission, cultural interaction, multilingualism, forms of religious life, and theological innovation.

Download or read book Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent written by Bert Roest and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2004-10-01 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides, for the first time, an exhaustive discussion of the Franciscan production of texts of religious instruction during the later medieval period (c. 1210-c. 1550). In eight chapters, it introduces the reader to the most important Franciscan sermon cycles, the Franciscan guidelines for living the life of evangelical perfection, the many Franciscan novice training manuals, the Franciscan catechisms and confession manuals, the Franciscan output of liturgical handbooks, the large number of Franciscan texts containing more wide-ranging forms of religious edification, and Franciscan prayer guides. This book provides medievalists and Renaissance scholars alike with a new tool to assess the intellectual and religious transformations between the thirteenth and the sixteenth century, and contributes to the current re-interpretation of the late medieval pastoral revolution.

Download or read book Andrea Mantegna and the Italian Renaissance written by Joseph Manca and published by Parkstone International. This book was released on 2023-12-28 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mantegna; humanist, geometrist, archaeologist, of great scholastic and imaginative intelligence, dominated the whole of northern Italy by virtue of his imperious personality. Aiming at optical illusion, he mastered perspective. He trained in painting at the Padua School where Donatello and Paolo Uccello had previously attended. Even at a young age commissions for Andrea’s work flooded in, for example the frescos of the Ovetari Chapel of Padua. In a short space of time Mantegna found his niche as a modernist due to his highly original ideas and the use of perspective in his works. His marriage with Nicolosia Bellini, the sister of Giovanni, paved the way for his entree into Venice. Mantegna reached an artistic maturity with his Pala San Zeno. He remained in Mantova and became the artist for one of the most prestigious courts in Italy – the Court of Gonzaga. Classical art was born. Despite his links with Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna refused to adopt their innovative use of colour or leave behind his own technique of engraving.

Download or read book Salvation written by Valerie Martin and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of Property and bestselling author of Mary Reilly—"a bold retelling of a familiar, beloved story” (Los Angeles Times), inspired by the fresco cycles that depict the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Drawing from myriad sources and moving in reverse chronological order, she begins in the dark, final days, with a suffering Francesco on the verge of death, then shows us the unwashed and innocent revolutionary, unafraid to lecture a pope on Christ’s message. We see his mystical friendship with Chiara di Offreducci, a nobleman’s daughter who turns her back on the world to join him, and finally, the frivolous young Francesco on the deserted road where his encounter with a leper leads him to an ecstatic embrace of God. Salvation is at once an illuminating glimpse into the medieval world and an original and intimate portrait of the man whose legend has resonated through the centuries.

Download or read book The Merchant of Prato s Wife written by Ann Morton Crabb and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2015-02-09 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the fourteenth-century Italian merchant Francesco Datini has received attention from business historians, there has previously been no full study of his wife, Margherita Datini. Drawing on a sizable trove of Margherita’s correspondence held in the Archivio di Stato di Prato, including hundreds of letters she exchanged with Francesco, Ann Crabb investigates the social and economic importance of women’s roles as wives and mothers, early modern European views on honor, and the practice of letter writing in Margherita’s world. Margherita’s often colorful comments demonstrate her attitudes toward her rather unhappy marriage and her inability to have children, along with other aspects of her life. Her letters reveal the pride she felt in carrying out her many responsibilities as a wife and, later, a widow: in scribal letter writing, in business, in household management, and in farming. Crabb emphasizes that the role of a wife was a recognized social position, beyond her individual relations with her husband, and provided opportunities beyond what restrictive laws or restrictive views of female honor would suggest. Further, Crabb considers Margherita’s successful efforts, on her own initiative and in her late thirties, to learn to read and write at a literate level. This book will be of interest to both scholars and general readers of women’s history. In addition, historians of early modern Italy and, more generally, of early modern Europe will find this book valuable.

Download or read book Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan written by Evelyn S. Welch and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Milan was one of the largest and most important cities in Renaissance Italy. Controlled by the Visconti and Sforza dynasties from 1277 until 1500, its rulers were generous patrons of the arts, responsible for commissioning major monuments throughout the city and for supporting artists such as Giovanni di Balduccio, Filarete, Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. But the city was much more than its dukes. Milan had a distinct civic identity, one that was expressed, above all, through its neighbourhood, religious and charitable associations. This book moves beyond standard interpretations of ducal patronage to explore the often overlooked city itself, showing how the allegiances of the town hall and the parish related to those of the servants and aristocrats who frequented the Visconti and Sforza court. In this original and stimulating interdisciplinary study, Evelyn Welch illustrates the ways in which the myths of Visconti and Sforza supremacy were created. Newly discovered material for major projects such as the cathedral, hospital and castle of Milan permits a greater understanding of the political, economic and architectural forces that shaped these extraordinary buildings. The book also explores the wider social networks of the artists themselves. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, is de-mythologised: far from being an isolated, highly prized court artist, he spent his almost eighteen years in the city working within the wider Milanese community of painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and embroiderers. The broad perspective of the book ensures that any future study of the Renaissance will have to re-evaluate the place of Milan in Italian cultural history.

Download or read book The Renaissance in the Streets Schools and Studies written by Paul F. Grendler and published by Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. This book was released on 2008 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Augustine Beyond the Book written by Karla Pollmann and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-05-11 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates the processes by which Augustine of Hippo's writings were re-invented in other media, including the visual arts, drama and music. Thereby it highlights the crucial role of Augustine's readers in constructing his universal stature.

Download or read book Ars et Ingenium The Embodiment of Imagination in Francesco di Giorgio Martini s Drawings written by Pari Riahi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-11 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When did drawing become an integral part of architecture? Among several architects and artists who brought about this change during the Renaissance, Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s ideas on drawing recorded in his Trattati di architettura, ingegneria e arte militare (1475-1490) are significant. Francesco suggests that drawing is linked to the architect’s imagination and central in conveying images and ideas to others. Starting with the broader edges of Francesco’s written work and steadily penetrating into the fantastic world of his drawings, the book examines his singular formulation of the act of drawing and its significance in the context of the Renaissance. The book concludes with speculations on how Francesco’s work is relevant to us at the onset of another major shift in architecture caused by the proliferation of digital media.

Download or read book Funeral Oratory and the Cultural Ideals of Italian Humanism written by John M. McManamon, S.J. and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-10-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By studying the funeral orations of Renaissance Italy, McManamon analyzes Italian humanism as a characteristic phase in Western rhetorical culture. By examining hundreds of funeral speeches, he provides a valuable overview of major civic issues and humanistic themes, adding significant new material to the history of rhetoric. When Italian humanists spoke at funerals, they took this unique opportunity to press for their reformist goals. Originally published in 1989. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Download or read book Humanist Taste and Franciscan Values written by Corrie E. Norman and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cornelio Musso (1511-1574) has been hailed by his own and subsequent generations as a «Michelangelo of words, » «a modern Demosthenes, » and the «Chrysostom of the Italians» who brought humanist style and rhetoric to bear on Italian preaching. When Musso discussed preaching, however, he emphasized the values of his Franciscan Order. This study describes the influence of the Franciscan preaching tradition and the relationships between the tastes of Musso's humanist culture and the values of his Franciscan heritage in his sermons. It makes the case for emphasizing continuity with the traditions of the medieval preaching orders as well as humanistic innovations for understanding early modern Catholic preaching.

Download or read book Myrtle and cypress written by Annette Calthrop and published by . This book was released on 1876 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Publications of the University of Manchester written by and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Guardians of Republicanism written by Mark Jurdjevic and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-03-06 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guardians of Republicanism analyses the political and intellectual history of Renaissance Florence-republican and princely-by focusing on five generations of the Valori family, each of which played a dynamic role in the city's political and cultural life. The Valori were early and influential supporters of the Medici family, but were also crucial participants in the city's periodic republican revivals throughout the Renaissance. Mark Jurdjevic examines their political struggles and conflicts against the larger backdrop of their patronage and support of the Neoplatonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino, the radical Dominican prophet Girolamo Savonarola, and Niccolò Machiavelli, the premier political philosopher of the Italian Renaissance. Each of these three quintessential Renaissance reformers and philosophers relied heavily on the patronage of the Valori, who evolved an innovative republicanism based on a hybrid fusion of the classical and Christian languages of Florentine communal politics. Jurdjevic's study thus illuminates how intellectual forces-humanist, republican, and Machiavellian-intersected and directed the politics and culture of the Florentine Renaissance.