Leone X: Finanza, mecenatismo, cultura. Atti del convegno internazionalae, Roma, 2-4 novembre 2015 ed. by Flavia Cantatore, et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: Leone X: Finanza, mecenatismo, cultura. Atti del convegno internazionalae, Roma, 2-4 novembre 2015ed. by Flavia Cantatore, et al. Nelson H. Minnich Leone X: Finanza, mecenatismo, cultura. Atti del convegno internazionalae, Roma, 2-4 novembre 2015. Edited by Flavia Cantatore, C. Casetti Brach, Anna Esposito, F. Frova, D. Gallavotti Cavallero, P. Piacentini, F. Piperno, and C. Ranieri. 2 tomes. [ Roma nel Rinascimento, Inedita, Saggi, 69.] (Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento. 2016. Pp. viii, 814, 184 illustrations. €100,00; €80,00 for members. ISBN 978-88-85913-95-0.) This collection of thirty-nine studies, all but one in Italian, is grouped under the themes: "The New Age of Gold," "International Equilibria," "Ceremonies, Music, Spectacle," "Cultural Patronage," "The Arts, the Court, the City," "Literature and Entertainments," and "Gold and Money between the Curia and City." The studies demonstrate how Leo X reversed his predecessors' marginalization of Rome's municipal administrative powers and respected its communal prerogatives, thus initiating a new "golden age" for the Eternal City. The first section studies Leo X's influence on local institutions. Carla Frova traces the Medici pope's efforts to make the University of Rome a leading institution of learning by attracting to its faculty prominent scholars. Vincenzo de Caprio shows how Pietro Bembo's theories on imitation of classical Ciceronian and Virgilian Latin, as found in his published correspondence of 1512 with Gianfrancesco Pico, influenced the Latin and Italian literary style of the Roman court and curia. Luciano Palermo claims that Leo X has been unfairly depicted as a spendthrift. He followed in the footsteps of his predecessors who overspent their incomes, and he was reorganizing papal finances according to "reasons of state" when overtaken by a premature death. Maurizio Gargano studies the letter of Raphael and Baldessar Castiglione addressed to Leo X that proposed a subtle architectural plan for the city that combined three components: ancient Roman (rescuing ruins), Christian (churches, hospital), and Medicean (the imposing Madama palace near Piazza Navona and a new via Leonina [via della Scrofa-via di Ripetta] leading northward toward Florence). Alessandro Zuccari studies the function and decorations with Medicean themes of the Villa Madama on the slope of Monte Mario designed by Raphael and Sangallo where Leo X went to relax. The second section is dedicated to Leo X's efforts to fashion an equilibrium with foreign powers. Elena Valeri studies Leo's caution and dissimulation in trying to preserve some modicum of Italian independence when confronted with the rivalry among France, the Empire, and Spain for dominance of the Italian peninsula. Using the correspondence of Bernardo Divizi, Marcello Simonetta follows Leo's oscillating stance regarding Francis I's intentions for Milan and Naples following the death of Louis XII. The third section is dedicated to ceremonials, music, and spectacle. Anthony M. Cummings shows how the frottolist Michele Pesenti da Verona evolved into a "proto-madrigalist" due to the aesthetic tastes of the Leonine court. Marzia Pieri studies the various types of comedic performances (classical and modern) that briefly flourished in various settings (laboratories) around Rome under Leo X and [End Page 365]points to Francesco de' Nobili (Cherea) as the founder of modern comedy. Klaus Pietschmann documents Giovanni dei Medici's passionate interest and expertise in music just before his election as pope, a strategy for increasing his reputation, evident in the treatise Regule florum musices(1510) of Pietro Cannuzzi, O.F.M., dedicated to the cardinal. Section four contains ten essays devoted to patronage and culture. Among the figures and objects studied are the curial official and patron Baldassarre Turrini by Outi Merisalo; the Greek scholar, printer, and tutor Angelo Barbato by Francesca Niutta; the former tutor and papal adviser Bernardo Michelozzi by Claudia Corfiati; the urban poets of Leonine Rome by Stefano Benedetti; Erasmus' advice to the pope on promoting peace by Davide Canfora; the oration by Blosio Polladio and the poem of Caio Silvano Germanico on the occasion of the installation of the statue of Leo X in the Campidoglio by Rosanna Pettinelli; and the statue sculpted by Domenico Aimo da Varignana and its fate by Angela Quattrocchi. Some of the chronicles describing Leo X's procession to take possession of...