Early Modern Italy

Scopo dichiarato dell’ordine dei cavalieri di Santo Stefano, fondato nel 1561 da Cosimo I de’ Medici anche per motivi di legittimazione dinastica, fu la difesa della cristianità dalla minaccia ottomana. La politica aggressiva nei confronti dei Turchi, praticata attraverso la guerra di corsa e gli attacchi per mare alle piazzeforti ottomane in vari punti del Mediterraneo, praticata in modo ancora moderato da Cosimo e Francesco de’ Medici, venne ripresa con forza da Ferdinando I, che ne fece un fiore all’occhiello del Granducato nel confronto con le analoghe attività delle altre potenze europee, e poi soprattutto da suo figlio Cosimo II e suo nipote Ferdinando II. In coincidenza con i tre granduchi l’uso di strumenti di comunicazione e propaganda relativi alle imprese navali dei cavalieri, relativamente poco presente fino alla fine del Cinquecento, divenne un progetto sistematico che vide nella prima metà del Seicento la pubblicazione di numerose relazioni, la loro ristampa in altre città italiane, e la loro traduzione, ristampa, o ripresa anche in altre nazioni europee (soprattutto in Spagna), con il coinvolgimento nella veicolazione complessiva dei contenuti anche di intellettuali come il poeta Gabriello Chiabrera. Il saggio mette in rilievo il carattere sistematico della produzione di relazioni sulle imprese dei cavalieri di Santo Stefano contro i Turchi nel corso del Seicento, illuminandone gli aspetti produttivi e il successo editoriale, ed evidenziandone anche i rapporti con la produzione di tipo più letterario.

Most modern historians perpetuate the myth that Giuliano de' Medici (1479-1516), son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was nothing more than an inconsequential, womanizing hedonist with little inclination or ability for politics. In the first sustained biography of this misrepresented figure, Josephine Jungic re-evaluates Giuliano’s life and shows that his infamous reputation was exaggerated by Medici partisans who feared his popularity and respect for republican self-rule.

Rejecting the autocratic rule imposed by his nephew, Lorenzo (Duke of Urbino), and brother, Giovanni (Pope Leo X), Giuliano advocated restraint and retention of republican traditions, believing his family should be “first among equals” and not more. As a result, the family and those closest to them wrote him out of the political scene, and historians - relying too heavily upon the accounts of supporters of Cardinal Giovanni and the Medici regime - followed suit. Interpreting works of art, books, and letters as testimony, Jungic constructs a new narrative to demonstrate that Giuliano was loved and admired by some of the most talented and famous men of his day, including Cesare Borgia, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Niccolò Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael.

More than a political biography, this volume offers a refreshing look at a man who was a significant patron and ally of intellectuals, artists, and religious reformers, revealing Giuliano to be at the heart of the period’s most significant cultural accomplishments.

During the reign of James II/VII Stuart (1685-1688), the political, diplomatic and cultural relations between the British court and the Italian states flourished as never before. This was due above all to the Roman-Catholic faith of the king and the lively personality of his consort Maria Beatrice d’Este («Mary of Modena»), while the growing English economic power was acquiring commercial dominance in the Mediterranean area. With the help of thousands of unpublished papers, the book by Alessandro Cont reconstructs the British diplomatic network in Italy during this period, the personalities and orientations of the ministers of Italian princes accredited to the court of Whitehall, the queen’s dynastic policy and the peculiar characteristics of her Italian entourage of chaplains, servants, artists and musicians.

This second volume in the  Illuminating Women Artists series delves into the life and work of the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. The book explores the evolution of Gentileschi’s expressive goals and techniques, and contains in-depth discussions of key artworks, such as Susanna and the Elders (1610), Judith Beheading Holofernes (c.1619–20), and Lot and His Daughters (1640–45).

This most recent edition of the bibliography contains almost 21,200 titles in English (64%) and French (36%), with an introductory section on historiography. It deals with every aspect of Italian history and culture from the Late Renaissance to the French Revolution.

Scholars have generally depicted kabbalists within an air of exclusivity. During the second quarter of the eighteenth century, however, a handful of Jewish mystics in Padua, led by Moses Hayim Luzzatto, opened their secret society to others interested but not adept in Kabbalah in an attempt to establish a "perfected community" and attain the long-awaited messianic redemption. This article explores the social factors and intentions that drove the group's activity, specifically how Luzzatto's thoughts of the unity of creation played out in life and community.

The relationship between father and son in the early modern period has been conceptualised exclusively in terms of submission of the latter to the authority of the former and as implying a one-way flow of obligations and resources running from the father to the son. This study reverses this usual perspective by showing that the legal institution of patria potestas also entailed a son’s economic obligation to his father, for it gave fathers full rights over the earnings of their grown-up sons. It was to escape this burden that many adult men, sometimes married and fathers in their own right, resorted to the legal deed of emancipation, which freed them from the patria potestas
of their living father and hence from any economic obligations to his family. The analysis of a sample of over a hundred deeds from the last quarter of the 17th century reveals that emancipations were particularly frequent among those urban classes which largely lived of their work and participated in the labour market from an early age. The arguments used by sons to justify their request for emancipation throw light on the specific nature of the father-son relationship among these groups. Fathers are often portrayed as too poor to comply with the duty of settling all male children in a trade and paying for the dowries of the daughters, and as obliged to rely on older sons to fullfil these essential paternal and masculine roles. They are implicitly depicted as failed patriarchs and their legal prerogatives over the son thus appear illegitimate. The analysis of these narratives, together with a brief examination of representations of fatherhood in earlier artisans’ diaries, exposes the gulf between shared expectations about fatherly roles and practice that made the position of the paternal figure particularly vulnerable among the non-propertied classes. Here paternal roles were often shared by a range of male figures, rather than being entirely fullfiled by the biological father. Tensions or simply emotional and physical distance characterised the father-son relationship, in sheer contrast with the rhetoric of the time, which depicted such bond as ‘the greatest love there is’.

Muurling, S. (2020). Women, Violence and the Uses of Justice Before the Criminal Court of Early Modern Bologna. In M. van der Heijden, M. Pluskota & S. Muurling (Eds.), Women's criminality in Europe, 1600-1914 (pp. 49-71). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press

It is widely known fact that during the conflict between the American Colonies and Great Britain, which resulted in independence and the birth of the United States of America, the insurgents presented their collective actions as a lawful form of resistance and defence against an unjust government in the motherland, which threatened their freedoms. They therefore did not consider themselves either disobedient or rebels. These views and these claims had, moreover, charachterized early modern European history for centuries, on the basis of a shared politico-juridical culture.
This volume analyzes some Italian urban rebellions that occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries (Urbino, Messina, Mondovì, Castiglione delle Stiviere) from this percpective, emphasizing the resemblances with the Catalan (1640) and the Neapolitan (1647) revolts. Fundamental problems emerge from all the cases under consideration: the borderline between loyalty and obedience, between unconditional and conditional obedience, the issue of sovereignty and its limits.
Originally published as Tumulti. Moltitudini ribelli in età moderna, Bologna, il Mulino, 2013.

Il saggio intende dimostrare che, subito dopo la pubblicazione, da parte di Alberico Gentili, dei De iuris interpretibus Dialogi sex (1582) e delle Lectiones et Epistolae (1583-1584) i rapporti fra Jean Hotman e il giurista di San Ginesio divennero molto difficili e burrascosi. Lo dimostrano alcune epistole scritte da Hotman ad autorevoli giuristi (ad es. Bodin), e ad alcuni umanisti (Bergmann, Payne, Cuffe, Th. Savile) contenenti critiche molto dure e severe ai Dialogi gentiliani. Malgrado ciò, e malgrado le opposizioni dei puritani, Gentili riuscirà ad ottenere la cattedra di Civil Law a Oxford.Il saggio contiene anche notizie circa il tentativo compiuto, dal Gentili, di ottenere un insegnamento a Tubinga nel 1580.

This essay investigates the role of the glass business in shaping the identity of glassmakers in Renaissance Venice. First, it re-examines the debated issue of secretiveness, highlighting the role played by immigration and emigration, and stressing how mobility affected the intersection between secrets and the creation of a distinctive identity. It then focuses on trade, examining the role played by the Venetian high political bodies in protecting a manufacturing that became a matter of state. It argues that thanks to government protection the participation of glass entrepreneurs in commerce did not need any formal branding, yet only to be recognized as “Venetian.” Lastly, the case study of the Bortolussi family shows the strategies of those glassmakers who tried to ascend to a superior social status, that of Venetian “cittadini originari.”

In the spring of 1518 an Italian cardinal, Egidio da Viterbo, travelled from Rome to Spain on a Papal mission. While the official purpose of the visit was to convince King Charles V to collaborate against the Turks, the Papal legate pursued another, more covert goal. The Cardinal sought to obtain for himself a translation of the Qur’ān. The translation was prepared for the Cardinal by Juan Gabriel, a Muslim convert (Morisco) from Teruel formerly known as Ali Alayzar. Seven years later, this text was corrected by another convert of Spanish origin, the famed Leo Africanus.
This book contains both an edition and study of Egidio da Viterbo’s Qur’ān. The critical edition is based on the two existing manuscripts and is the first published work to include the full text of this Qur’ānic translation. It includes the original translation, the corrections of the text made by Leo Africanus, an appendix with Qur’ānic glosses and a case study devoted to persons involved in the translation. The study serves as an introduction to the Latin text, exploring the context in which Muslim converts to Christianity collaborated with church authorities. It enumerates and analyzes the Morisco translator’s diverse philological tools, which could have been used by the clergymen for polemical purposes. At the same time, it offers further insight into European studies of Arabic during the period.

El capítulo analiza la faceta de formador de novicios de fray Juan de Jesús María, el Calagurritano, en los noviciados italianos de Génova y Roma así como su producción literaria sobre el tema: La Instrucción de Novicios y la Instrucción del Maestro de Novicios.

A few slides put together surrounding Mussolini, the main parts of his rule, and public imaginaries on the man. “Mussolini was further to the Left in his political opinions than any of his socialist rivals.” - George Bernard Shaw quoted in Socialism and Superior Brains.

Il saggio si propone di esaminare le leggi suntuarie emanate nel Granducato di Toscana fra il Cinquecento e il Settecento, allo scopo da un lato di evidenziare – attraverso un caso particolare - il perdurare anche in età moderna delle motivazioni che avevano portato all’approvazione di norme suntuarie nel corso del basso Medioevo; dall’altro invece di mostrare le particolarità di queste norme in quanto legate sia all’epoca, sia alla situazione specifica che viene analizzata.

What is a truffle? Is it the über-shroom, the highest order of fungal foods? Does it arrive, as some cultures feel, in the moment of a thunderclap? One thing is for sure: despite its unappetizing appearance, the truffle is without a doubt one of the most prized ingredients in the world’s pantry. In this book, Zachary Nowak digs deep into the history and fame of this unlikeliest of luxury items, exploring the truffle’s intoxicating hold on our senses how its distinctive flavor has become an instant indication of haute cuisine.
           
Nowak traces the truffle’s journey from the kitchens of East Asia to those of Europe and the Americas. Balancing cultural, historical, and scientific perspectives, he offers a thorough and complete portrait of this many-sided mushroom. By comparing the truffle’s history in the Old World with its growing prominence in the New World, he tells a larger story of the growth and dynamism of modern Western cuisine and food cultures. Featuring many instructive and surprising illustrations, and numerous recipes both historical and contemporary, this unique and fascinating book is a must-read for chefs, food historians, and anyone ever drawn by the truffle’s mysterious, rich, and savory allure.

Entre 1701 et 1703, au début de la guerre de Succession espagnole, Henry Bentinck (1682-1726), vicomte Woodstock, et son gouverneur huguenot, Paul Rapin de Thoyras (1661-1725), entreprennent un voyage pédagogique – le Grand Tour – qui devait les conduire de La Haye dans les Provinces-Unies à travers les États allemands jusqu’en Italie. Nous éditons la centaine de lettres connues de la correspondance qu’ils entretiennent au cours de ce voyage, avec le père du jeune homme, Hans Willem Bentinck (1649-1709), comte de Portland. Ces lettres apportent des informations sur tous les aspects de la vie quotidienne des voyageurs – sur les coutumes des Cours et des villes où ils séjournent, sur les bruits qui couraient à l’époque sur les événements de la guerre, sur les contraintes du voyage, sur les aléas du courrier et sur les rapports personnels difficiles entre les trois correspondants. Notre introduction porte sur ces différents aspects de la vie des voyageurs et sur la notion de « vie privée » que véhicule la correspondance. Nous ajoutons à ce corpus deux lettres inédites de Rapin-Thoyras à Woodstock de l’année 1721 ainsi que plusieurs lettres d’aristocrates qui envoient à Portland leurs commentaires sur le comportement de son fils.

Michaël Green est chercheur à l’Université de Lodz en Pologne, et chercheur affilié au Centre d’études sur la vie privée [Centre for Privacy Studies] de la Fondation Nationale danoise de la Recherche à l’Université de Copenhague. Ses travaux portent, entre autres, sur les minorités religieuses à l’époque moderne, sur l’histoire de l’éducation et sur la notion et la pratique de la vie privée. Parmi ses publications : The Huguenot Jean Rou (1638-1711): Scholar, Educator, Civil Servant (Honoré Champion, 2015), et les articles « The Orange-Nassau Family at the Educational Crossroads of the Stadtholder’s Position (1584 – 1711) » (2019) et « Bridging the English Channel: Huguenots in the Educational Milieu of the English Upper Class » (2018).

Traduction de l’anglais original de l’introduction et de l’apparat critique par Bertrand Marceau, maître de conférences en  histoire moderne à l’université de Reims.

I rapporti tra la repubblica di Venezia e il regno di Napoli durante il regno di Ferrante d’Aragona (1458-1494) non furono mai positivi. Una piccola eccezione si registrò negli anni dal 1470 al 1473, quando la minaccia dei Turchi a est aveva contribuito a far convergere alcuni obiettivi politici delle due potenze italiane. L’apice della concordia tra Venezia e Napoli fu raggiunto nel 1471, quando fu stipulato un accordo di carattere difensivo tra le due, finalizzato alla lotta comune contro la Sublime Porta.
Improvvisamente e in maniera piuttosto brusca, però, l’alleanza si spezzò nel 1473; la causa di ciò fu l’insorgere di una nuova rivalità tra Ferrante e Venezia, stavolta divampata in seguito a quella che venne poi definita la “Questione di Cipro”.
Nel 1464 la regina dell’isola, Carlotta di Lusignano, era stata detronizzata dal fratellastro, Giacomo II, che, una volta cinta la corona, si affrettò a ricercare alleati per consolidare il proprio status. Trovò in primis la Serenissima, che, vista la posizione di Cipro, baluardo d’Occidente rivolto verso l’Oriente, propose a Giacomo II un matrimonio veneziano, in modo da vincolare a sé l’isola.
Nel 1472, dopo lunghe trattative, Caterina Corner, appartenente a una delle famiglie più in vista del patriziato veneziano, divenne regina di Cipro. Il successo della repubblica di San Marco non poté che scontentare Ferrante, timoroso della crescita di autorità dei Veneziani nel Mediterraneo orientale. Il malcontento fu causato anche dal fatto che, prima di concludere le proprie nozze con la veneziana, Giacomo II si era rivolto a Napoli e aveva considerato l’idea di prendere una moglie aragonese.
Dal momento che Giacomo II, a causa della detronizzazione di Carlotta, era di fatto un usurpatore, una sua successione non sarebbe stata priva di contese: proprio in quest’ottica, il sovrano aragonese si impegnò per organizzare le nozze di una figlia di Giacomo, Carlotta, e un suo figlio naturale, Alfonso; in questo modo voleva creare una linea dinastica parallela e rivale a quella veneziana, alla quale appoggiarsi per rivendicare il trono di Cipro in caso di morte prematura del sovrano.
E questo fu quanto accadde a luglio del 1473, quando Giacomo II venne a morte e, in mancanza di sue disposizioni testamentarie chiare, scoppiò il caos nell’isola.
La “Questione di Cipro” si trascinò con fasi alterne, congiure, assassini e minacce da una e dall’altra parte fino ai primi mesi del 1474, quando l’isola era ormai in mano ai Veneziani.
Mentre le cronache veneziane, a partire da quella di Domenico Malipiero, narrano con dovizia di particolari il succedersi degli avvenimenti sull’isola cipriota, le principali opere cronachistiche napoletane li tacciono; se questo sia causato dal fallimento della politica aragonese non è dato sapere. Ad ogni modo è napoletana la figura protagonista di questa questione, il re Ferrante d’Aragona. Contrapposto alla pluralità di soggetti dai quali sono formate le istituzioni veneziane, il sovrano aragonese è il vero fautore dell’iniziale successo e poi della definitiva sconfitta di Napoli nella corsa al possesso di Cipro.
Da tre diverse fonti diplomatiche quattrocentesche è possibile ricostruire la memoria della figura di Ferrante in questa circostanza: dai dispacci di Leonardo Botta, oratore sforzesco a Venezia, da quelli di Francesco Maletta, collega di Botta operante a Napoli e da quelli di Zaccaria Barbaro, ambasciatore veneziano alla corte aragonese.
Tramite le lettere di ognuno di loro è giunto fino a noi un ricordo peculiare del sovrano, nato dalle esperienze personali dei tre ambasciatori e dal loro rapporto, più o meno diretto, con la corte aragonese durante i fatti del 1473; infatti, se Maletta, vista la sua qualità di residente a Napoli, ebbe modo più volte di dialogare direttamente con Ferrante, cosa che fece anche Barbaro, la memoria di Ferrante che traspare dai dispacci di Botta, che risiedeva presso la rivale Venezia, rimase sempre astratta e indiretta, poiché filtrata dalle testimonianze che l’oratore riceveva in Laguna o dalle lettere del suo signore, il duca di Milano.
Accompagnata dal constante riferimento alle cronache veneziane, questa vuole essere la ricostruzione delle memorie, talvolta discordanti tra loro, che questi diplomatici hanno lasciato del sovrano di Napoli, grande protagonista della “Questione di Cipro”.

This article analyses the debates about mixed marriages held within the Roman Curia (and especially the Roman Inquisition) between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, integrating these debates with the normative and prescriptive literature. These authorities generally considered mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics valid and even sacramental in virtue of the shared sacrament of the baptism, but at the same time constructed such unions as ‘carnal crimes’ to ‘abhor’. They believed that the most harmful effect of these polluting unions was that the Catholic partner might become tolerant of Protestantism, rendering the ‘heretic’ dangerously, contagiously familiar and abandoning future generations to heresy. Women were a particular concern for these authorities. Drawing upon traditional and somewhat contradictory ideas about women, they saw the wives in these marriages on one hand as particularly likely to be seduced by the ‘false faith’ because of their presumed weakness, but on the other hand they recognised women as a group with a special talent for beguiling men and so entrusted them with a missionary function towards their ‘heretical’ husbands. The role women could assume in mixed marriages therefore dynamised gender relations, but also caused social tension because of the challenge to patriarchal society, especially if they continued to practice their own faith and were entrusted with the religious education of the children.