Papal Courts and Courtiers in the Renaissance

Abstract

The cultural influence of Rome and the papacy during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries has recently attracted much attention. At the same time, courts and courtiers have come under the scrutiny of a number of scholars anxious to define their function in the cultural sphere. This brief essay is an attempt to lean on such work collectively, so to speak, and it can make no claim to originality of source material or personal research. I should perhaps give the tone and indicate the level of my approach by explaining that the gist of what follows formed a lecture given in December 1986 to the Scottish branch of the Renaissance Society at a meeting in Glasgow. I should like to regard it as well as part of this tribute to James Cameron, also as an expression of my thanks to the late Judith Hook for her work for the Society; she herself wrote an important essay bearing on the topic, albeit at a later period, the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623-44), to which I shall refer later.