Este Family Research Articles

The Renaissance in Italy: A History

The Renaissance in Italy: A History

A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy by Tamar Herzig (review)

Reviewed by: A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy by Tamar Herzig Andrew Berns Tamar Herzig. A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019. 400 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000222 A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy tells the story of a Jewish convert to Christianity in fifteenth-century Italy. Based on thorough archival research in several northern Italian cities, Herzig combines narrative history with some historiographical engagement. The book will stand as an example of microhistory—Herzig explicitly acknowledges the influence of Thomas Robisheaux—and an appealing study of a colorful character from Renaissance Italy. The heart of Herzig's book is her story of the life of Salomone da Sesso, a Jew who converted to Christianity in 1491 and was patronized by the Este family in Ferrara. One of the better-known Jewish artists of the Renaissance, Salomone da Sesso was a successful goldsmith and swordsmith. Although specialists have long known this, the general reader might not be aware that goldsmithing was one of the major professional and creative outlets for Jewish artists at this time. Painting, sculpture, and manuscript illumination all presented unique challenges to the Jewish practitioner, since they were perceived by the Jewish religious leadership as encouraging the violation of biblical proscriptions against creating idolatrous images (18). As Herzig explains, da Sesso's conversion did not result from a genuine desire to apostatize, nor even to pursue economic advantage or social status. Instead, his conversion was coerced following an allegation of sodomy. If convicted, Salomone da Sesso would have faced execution by fire. As we know all too well from Michael Rocke's work, accusations and prosecution of homosexual activity as a crime was shockingly common in Renaissance Florence—and apparently no less so in the Duchy of Ferrara. Such allegations were especially frequent among goldsmiths (61). Following his conversion, Salomone was exonerated and took the name Ercole de' Fedeli, enjoying the protection and patronage of several members of the Este family—including Alfonso I and Isabella d'Este. Ercole de' Fedeli lived, so far as we can tell, as a practicing Christian for thirty years. Herzig's book is divided into four parts and twenty chapters, most of which are quite short. This brevity contributes to the book's overall readability. Part 1, "The Virtuoso Jew," sketches the life story of Salomone da Sesso. Part 2, "Apostasy," explores the circumstances surrounding his conversion—including his alleged homosexual activity. Part 3, "A Family of Converts," expands the story beyond Salomone himself to his daughter Caterina, who not only converted to Christianity, but also entered the tertiaries' house of Santa Caterina da Siena and took the monastic name Sister Theodora. Part 4, "Between Christians and Jews," explores Ercole's fate, and that of his family members, into the early sixteenth century. In terms of her historiographical intervention, Herzig argues that forced conversion complicates the "traditional historiographical view that stresses the Ferrarese rulers' benevolent Jewry policy" (2). Herzig also understands this conversion story as reflecting "the discriminatory and repressive dimensions of Jewish-Christian [End Page 455] relations in Renaissance Italy" (244). No serious scholar would doubt this: it is commonplace even among historians who emphasize creative collaborations and intellectual cooperation between Jews and Christians that those episodes were exceptional, and were underlaid by a social, economic, and juridical structure that treated Jews as inherently inferior. But Herzig adds a certain level of nuance to her work when she notes that her book "cautions against seeing members of the persecuted minority solely as passive victims" (244). Indeed, as Herzig demonstrates, Salomone da Sesso / Ercole de' Fedeli had plenty of agency throughout his life. There are other strengths to this book. Herzig is sensitive to the importance of social class—and not merely religious identity—in Renaissance Italy. She is perhaps at her best in disclosing "the chasm separating religious ideology from the social realities experienced by Italian Jews who consented to baptism" (10). Her training and experience as a social historian are also on display through this work: she is good at illuminating how occupational and social structures...

Iron Making in Fornovolasco (Italy) at the End of the Fifteenth Century, the Canecchio Furnace, and an Artifact Characterization

This study investigates the rise of the Este family in Garfagnana (Tuscany, Italy) during the first half of the 15th century. The Este wanted to annex this region to improve their cast-iron production both for military and economic advantages. This article, thanks to a document found in the State Archives of Modena, encompasses an overview of the Fornovolasco settlement, a description of the furnace room, an analysis of the first casting campaign, and an attempt at furnace sizing. In the final section, a brief characterization of a cast-iron artifact found in that region and probably coming from this casting campaign is provided.

The Illusory Architecture of the Camera di Giove in Sassuolo

The prospective illusionism of vaulted systems is a research field in which the study of geometry, survey, and architectural representation converge. The painting defines a precise scale and orientation relationship with the observer, while the morphology of the vaulted system increases the architecture’s spatiality. Therefore, the study of quadrature framed in vaulted surfaces implies investigating systems based on stratifications of real and ephemeral information. The present research examines the Camera di Giove, a vaulted room located in the Ducal Palace of Sassuolo, an important residence of the Este family. The chamber represents a typical Baroque example of an extension of spatial perception, thanks to the relationship with the nearby rooms and the vertical perspective of the vaulted painting. The research suggests a path of analysis that highlights the geometric–mathematical relationships existing between the quadrature, the vault, and the architectural space.

The Palazzo Foscarini in Venice and the Celebration Honoring the Dukes of Modena (1749) in a Getty Research Institute Manuscript

The Palazzo Foscarini in Venice and the Celebration Honoring the Dukes of Modena (1749) in a Getty Research Institute Manuscript

Romance and History: Imagining Time from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period ed. by Jon Whitman

Reviewed by: Romance and History: Imagining Time from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period ed. by Jon Whitman Andrew James Johnston jon whitman, ed., Romance and History: Imagining Time from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. xiv, 317. isbn: 978–1–107–04278–0. $55.76. Romance and History assembles a collection of essays on the relations between romance—both medieval and early modern—and history. The chapters are arranged according to subject matter and chronological order, with the 'Matter of Rome' followed by the 'Matter of Britain,' succeeded by the 'Matter of France and Italy,' and finally by sixteenth-century developments, thereby suggesting a vibrant cross-pollination between these different fields as European romance develops forms of sophisticated self-referentiality and becomes increasingly concerned with its own status vis-à-vis literary theory. In his thoughtful introduction, Jon Whitman takes his cue from Erich Auerbach's indictment of romance as lacking historical consciousness and argues in favor of a comprehensive reappraisal of romance's involvement with history. Christopher Baswell (chapter two) begins the collection proper with a discussion of how medieval romances dealing with themes from antiquity—the Roman d'Énéas, the Roman de Thèbes, the Roman de Troie, the Roman d'Alexandre, and the Roman de Toute Chevalerie—seek to contain history within and through complex forms of material artifacts such as gates, walls, and elaborate tombs. The third chapter by Catherine Croizy-Naquet compares two thirteenth-century historical prose narratives, the Faits des Romains and the Roman de Troie en prose, with respect to their strategies of rhetorically and poetically conceptualizing history. While the Faits heavily borrows devices from romance, the Roman reduces the romance quality of its subject matter, seeking to minimize the literariness of the narrative. Next, Robert W. Hanning studies the importance of the young men in medieval romance, and in the fifth chapter, Adrian Stevens traces specifically Angevin resonances in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. Friedrich Wolfzettel's contribution then offers an interesting hypothesis on the fourteenth-century romance of Perceforest. Situated in pre-Arthurian Britain, Perceforest self-consciously turns its back on the grail motif and its ideological consequences for the 'Matter of Britain,' establishing instead a notion of history that combines an almost proto-humanist enlightenment with a foreshadowing of the advent of Christianity. In the chapter that follows, Edward Donald Kennedy scrutinizes ethical and ideological ambivalence in the Prose Brut, Hardyng's Chronicle, and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Chapter eight sees Helen Cooper tease out the sophistication of Malory's response to England's political landscape during the Wars of the Roses. By analytically exploring the legal and ethical dilemmas and contradictions of his fictional Arthurian society, Cooper [End Page 82] argues, Malory constructs something akin to a political tragedy of nation-building. In chapter nine, Jean-Pierre Martin discusses the political aims of twelfth-century France's great aristocratic families as reflected in the elaborate genealogies presented in the 'Matter of France' texts, and Riccardo Buscagli's contribution betrays a similar thrust as it shows how the figure of Ruggiero is invented to buttress the Este family's claim to power. The eleventh chapter contains Marco Praloran's investigation into the development of entrelacement techniques in early modern European romance and how this impinges not only on the intelligibility of plot structures but also on the construction of temporalities. Chapter twelve, by Daniel Javitch, is interested in the ways in which Boiardo, Ariosto, and, especially, Tasso poetically handle and simultaneously theorize the marvellous in the service of claiming historical dignity for their romances. David Quint then enters into a similar discussion as he alerts us to the Gerusalemme's paradoxical juxtaposition of romance material and historical topicality, as embodied, for instance, in the complexities surrounding the depiction of Armida's chariot. Gordon Teskey examines the Faerie Queene's tensions between allegory and history, and, finally, in the single article that shows an interest in issues of gender and of cultural hybridity, Marina S. Brownlee investigates late medieval and early modern examples of Spanish romance—Pedro del Corral's...

Un aigle contremarqué sur undupondiusde Titus appartenant à la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, signe d’une provenance d’Este à Ferrare

A rather large number of antique coins bear a countermark that depicts a small eagle on gold or silver. The author argues the thesis, already discussed for several centuries, that this eagle is not the emblem of the Gonzaga family of Mantua, but instead the ownership mark - affixed in the late sixteenth century - of the Este family, Dukes of Ferrara and later of Modena. Some of their coins were pawned as collateral for a loan from 1614 until 1646, and eventually they were sold over a period of many years - in the 1640s, in the 1650s, and finally in the 1790s. Many coins from this collection can be found in the museums of Florence, Milan, Modena and Paris, but additional examples have been dispersed worldwide. One such piece belongs to the Royal Library of Belgium, a rare dupondius of Titus in the guise of the divinized Augustus. A remarkable fact is that this type is copied from a coin of Tiberius, of which an example with the Este countermark is also known.

Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy, ed. Sara F. Matthews-Grieco

This collection of essays brings together new research on various aspects of sexuality in Italian Renaissance culture, including some fascinating, unexpected (and sometimes very funny) primary source material. The book is divided into two sections—the first relates particularly to visual material, and the second to sociability and eroticism. After a brief introduction by Guido Ruggiero, an essay by the editor, Sara Matthews-Grieco opens the first section. She considers the culture of erotic prints, and in doing so introduces a theme that is repeated throughout—the problem of finding evidence about erotic cultures, particular those of the non-elites. Matthews-Grieco points out that our opinion about ‘popular’ erotic culture is inevitably skewed, as sexual imagery was often destroyed unless it was associated with a particular cultural (and thus financial) value, such as being by a renowned artist. She argues that early modern prints were deliberately marketed to two audiences—with ‘mythological’ pornography aimed at a higher class of client than those with people in contemporary dress; the lack of surviving prints makes any firm conclusions difficult, however. All the more fortuitous then, is Guido Guerzoni’s chance discovery of the erotic doodlings of a Modenese clerk, which he stumbled upon among the financial ledgers of the Este family and which he discusses in the next essay. Guerzoni places these drawings in a broader context of erotic imagery produced by and for non-elites. Attempting to get to grips with the mentalité of popular eroticism is also a concern of the next essay. Allen Grieco’s fascinating chapter reveals the ubiquity of connecting birds with sexual organs and lusty behaviour in an abundance of ways from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Not only were various types of bird used as a metaphor for penis, words such as ‘nest’ and ‘cage’ referenced the female genitalia. Grieco shows how these metaphors were closely linked to how the eating of birds was understood as potentially leading to lustful behaviour, Bernardino of Siena darkly warning widows that eating fowl could lead to ‘hot blood’. Marta Ajmar-Wollheim closes this section with an essay that convincingly argues that the dichotomy sometimes made by scholars between ‘illicit’ imagery (associated, for example with courtesans) and ‘licit’ imagery (associated with marriage) is a false one. She shows that imagery with sexual themes, if not necessarily ‘erotic’ in itself, was often connected with the marriage process, which could be a long-drawn-out series of events in the period before the Council of Trent.

Образ правителя и классическая традиция при феррарском дворе в XV — начале XVI века

The article aims to explore the specific role of Classical tradition in art and culture of the Italian Renaissance. To a large extent perception of Classical antiquity determined the identity of the Renaissance centers. Thus, in the 15thcentury Ferrara cultivation of Classical culture based on local courtly traditions pursued a specific goal to consolidate the dynastic and personal prestige of the Este rulers. The author of the paper analyses the perception of images originating from Antiquity and their programmatic role in the development of the ideology of power in Ferrara during the reign of Leonello, Borso and Ercole I d’Este. Study of a wide range of monuments (paintings, sculptures, medals and illuminations) gives us the opportunity to trace the development of dynastic iconography. Particular attention is paid to communication of the fine arts and literature, which formed the basis of courtly “mythology” of the Este family.

Luxury food and ornamental plants at the 15th century a.d. Renaissance court of the Este family (Ferrara, northern Italy)

This paper reports the archaeobotanical data from the so-called Vasca Ducale (Ducal Pit), a brick rubbish pit discovered in the basal floor of the ducal palace of Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It was in use during the second half of the 15th century a.d. when the rich and powerful Este family inhabited the palace. Therefore, the results help to investigate the eating customs of a Renaissance court. The pit fill largely consisted of zoological remains, especially small bones and shellfish, with mainly waterlogged plant remains and some artefacts. Though the seed/fruit concentration was not high, a long list of taxa was identified of which the largest part belonged to food and ornamental plants. The data suggest that the pit was used for the disposal of dining waste and floor sweepings. The archaeobotanical data are compared with those obtained from other medieval sites in the city, and with two Renaissance sources of documentary evidence, the frescos in the Salone dei Mesi (Room of the months) in Ferrara’s Palazzo Schifanoia, and the cookbook by Cristoforo da Messisbugo, chef at the Este court. The archaeobotanical record of the Vasca Ducale (Ducal Pit) proved to be quite different from the other sites in Ferrara, especially because of the presence of luxury or exotic foods such as, for example, Punica granatum, Prunus armeniaca and Coriandrum sativum.

The Romance Epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso: From Public Duty to Private Pleasure (review)

Reviewed by: The Romance Epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso: From Public Duty to Private Pleasure Dosia Reichardt Cavallo, Jo Ann , The Romance Epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso: From Public Duty to Private Pleasure, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2004; hardback; pp. x, 294; RRP US$75.95; ISBN 0802089151. The northern Italian Renaissance romance epics of the chivalric poets Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso tend to be given short shrift in university courses, but they fill an interesting space between Malory and Spenser, and their influence extends beyond the Renaissance to the poets and dramatists of the Stuart court in the seventeenth century. English writers were familiar with continental literature (often in the original), but this inter-textuality is lost when texts such as those examined by Jo Ann Cavallo are ignored by current commentators. Cavallo's aim is ambitious: she sets out to examine key episodes in the poems and to focus on how each poet creatively reworks the romances of his predecessor. These poets use genre, she argues, to construct ideology. The principal narrative mode of the day was the romance epic, within which political issues could be raised. By arguing for the poets' deliberate engagement with their societies, Cavallo avoids a narrowly determinist Marxist view of the relation [End Page 140] between class and ideological superstructure through which hegemonic values are passively transmitted. Boiardo (1441-1494), Ariosto (1474-1533), and Tasso (1544-1595) were the 'three crowns of Ferrara', all in the service of the Este family in the span of more than a century from 1471 to 1597. Boiardo's achievement is his Orlando Innamorato of 1482-3; Ariosto's the better known Orlando Furioso (1516), which modern readers sometimes prefer to Tasso's La Gerusalemme Liberata (1581). All of these have inspired countless operas and paintings – which makes their neglect all the more surprising. Cavallo divides her study into three parts to correspond with the works of these three writers although in the second and third sections she does include some lesser lights: Cieco da Ferrara, Trissino, and Bernardo Tasso. She begins by re-instating Boiardo as an innovator in the history of Italian chivalric literature and by looking at the political dimensions of his romance. Boiardo's epic contrasts the good and bad behaviour of rulers through a series of didactic episodes and a movement from romance, through history, to epic. In this she breaks new ground for although Boiardo was involved in politics in his minor works and in his life, scholars generally assume that his romance writing involves avoidance of political engagement. Cavallo provides some detailed analysis of the poetry of the three books of the unfinished Orlando Innamorato and a welcome summary of the action. In Book One, she points out, although there are many fabulous adventures involving giants and maidens and these take place in Eastern, non-Christian kingdoms, their rulers are plagued with the same problems of legitimacy and maintaining power that were occurring in the feudal systems of Christian countries. Boiardo also examines the expansionist ambitions of rulers through his re-telling of the history of Alexander the Great. In the course of this book there also develops a contrast between a hero neglecting duty for passion and a new type of hero who upholds the values of chivalry, while in Book Three this hero, Ruggiero, becomes a peace-maker. Ariosto's creative remaking of Boiardo's work is the focus of the middle section of Cavallo's book. It was a complex undertaking due to Ariosto's successive revisions of his poem between 1516 and 1532. Here the issue of public duty versus private pleasure becomes more obvious as the hero, Ruggiero, is repeatedly seduced to abandon duty, but then extricates himself into a morally improved state. Cavallo argues that the Orlando Furioso is a response to a loss of humanist belief in the individual's and the prince's duty to act for the good of society under the aegis of an increasingly repressive state. In his addition of four [End Page 141] new episodes for the 1532 version of the poem, Ariosto merges novellas of civic virtue with allegorical episodes of moral education. Courtesy...

Menaechmi and the Renaissance of Comedy

If The Comedy of Errors remains, for English speakers, the supreme instance of the Menaechmi contribution to drama, that play deserves to be seen as part of a larger picture of European, including English, comedy. Consider, for example, that watershed in the history of European theater occurring at Ferrara on 25 January 1486, with Duke Ercole I's carnival entertainments honoring Francesco Gonzaga, betrothed to Isabella d'Este. Thousands witnessed, with fireworks and other holiday events, the staging of Plautus's Menaechmi. The first publicly performed play in Ferrara, this lively comedy of twins and mistaken identity appears, more significantly, to have been the first classical comedy so presented in vernacular translation. (1) A contemporary chronicler, describing the play as beletissima e piacevole reports that the production showed the traveling Menaechmus arriving in a galley with a sail, while the resident brother's city was realistically represented and painted in the background. (2) Enthusiasm sparked another performance of this play at the festivities for the marriage of young Alfonso d'Este and Anna Sforza, daughter of the duke of Milan, as one of three plays on successive February nights of 1491. Ercole d'Este's Ferrara, in fact, took a lead in the staging of Roman comedy. In all, between 1486 and 1505 Ercole had an active role in presenting at least fourteen different plays by Plautus and Terence. In 1493 he took three productions to the Sforza court in Lomhardy, an event which, as Thomas Tuohy observes, suggests the preeminence of the d'Este theatre at that date. (3) We may find it difficult to believe that some ten thousand spectators saw Ferrara's first Menaechmi performance. (4) Certainly one reason for choosing Menaechmi for this occasion--both celebrating the Este-Gonzaga union and inaugurating a theatrical venture--would have been its relative unfamiliarity, being part of the manuscript discovery by Nicholas of Cusa, about 1428, of twelve hitherto unknown comedies by Plautus. The plays did not become widely available until the first printed edition of the comedies in 1472, though manuscript copies had circulated. Few would have read the play, much less witnessed it, at school. How and why this comedy, among the twelve--or twenty in all--acquired such widespread favor during the sixteenth century has not as yet formed the subject of comparative inquiry. The Ferrara entertainment of 1486 also helped initiate a new theatrical wave in the Renaissance. Its audience included, among the entourage of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, the boy Ludovico Ariosto, who would himself later translate Menaechmi, though his version is lost. Menaechmi thus figures prominently in the backgrounds that led to Ariosto's writing the first widely recognized commedia erudita (vernacular comedy based on Roman models), La Cassaria, acted at Ferrara on a March evening in 1508. Once again, if indirectly, Plautus contributed to Ferrara carnival festivities, as vernacular Plautine imitations would continue to do for generations following this play. Meanwhile, surely influenced by the Este precedent, vernacular performances of Menaechmi met with applause at Bologna (where influence of the Ferrara court was especially strong) (5) in 1491, at Cesena in 1492, at Milan in 1493, and at both Mantua and Rome in 1502 for the second marriage of Alfonso d'Este, this time to Lucrezia Borgia. The Venetian diarist Marin Sanudo mentions seeing the comedy in 1508 (bellisima) and 1526 (non molta bella). (6) Carrying on an Este family tradition, in 1528, Menaechmi celebrated the union of Ercole II with the daughter of Louis XII, Renata or Renee. (7) In this era royal patronage could lift the reputation even of ancient authors. Latin productions of the comedy played at Rome, where Pomponius Laetus presided over the staging of many Plautine comedies before his death in 1498. In addition to the 1502 performance there, Pope Julius II had the play acted in honor of his hostage Federico Gonzaga in 1511. …

Saint Francis and the Provençal Connection

SAINT FRANCIS AND THE PROVENÇAL CONNECTION "He was a poet, some say, and his life a great poem; he was a troubadour and his life a song" (Erikson 123). It has always been a given in Franciscan studies that troubadour verse constitutes a key cultural influence on Francesco del Pietro de Bernardone. For example, Fahy writes: Francis' more formal education, moreover, was supplemented by his contact with troubadours and the jongleurs so often found in cities like Assisi in those days (19). Numerous other scholars have made the same assumption.1 Just how valid the assertion and how deep the influence is the subject ofthis inquiry. THE WRITINGS Did the saint even know the language ofthe troubadours? At the local church school, Francis learned some rudimentary Latin, but there is no evidence he studied other languages. What is more, by the time he was a young adult and had found his religious vocation, he was outspokenly anti-intellectual, referring disparagingly to himself as "ignorans et idiota."2 It does not seem probable he went searching for poems in books. Francis was no Thomas Aquinas studiously reconciling theology and science.3 On the other hand, there is a strong likelihood that Francis's mother was from what is now France. But, as Rajna makes clear, she was probably from Picardy, and if Francis learned any French from her, it was not langue d'oc , the tongue of the troubadours, but rather the langue d'oïl that was spoken in the north (385-87). In brief, while the ancedotal evidence suggests that the saint knew some French, nothing indicates he had any familiarity with the language ofthe Midi.4 ROUBEN CHOLAKIAN Nevertheless, one cannot categorically prove that Francis did not actually hear Provençal songs in the streets ofAssisi or that he did not learn some ofthem while carousing with his friends. The Provençal song had, after all, swept across Italy at about the time Francis lived. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras was known to be in the hire of the Duke of Montferrat, along with Gaucelm Faidit and Peire Vidal. The Counts of Savoy also drew into their entourage poets from southern France, most notably Peire Raimon. The same can be said of the Este family at Ferrara where at one time or another Uc de Saint Circ and Guillem de laTorboth entertained ladies and gentlemen with theirlove-songs.5 There is, moreover, considerable evidence that Francis loved to sing. Whether he learned to enjoy music at his mother's side or in the company ofhis boisterous comrades, until his dying day he took great pleasure in music. His first biographer, Thomas de Celano notes: "The sweetest melody would bubble up in him and he would give exterior expression to it in French" (Vita secunda 90). Saint Bonaventura echoes the same sentiment : "Francis felt such pleasure at the wonderful melody that he thought he had left this world" (Habig 670). The common theme is repeated in the anecdotal fourteenth-century anthology, Mirror ofPerfection : "For the sweetest of spiritual memories would often well upwithin himand findexpression inFrenchmelodies" (Habig 1226). The Legend of the Three Companions finally, is the most emphatic ofall: "And Francis in a loud, clear voice sang the praises of God in French" (Habig 920). In short, Francis may have had musical gifts and known some French songs. The issue then becomes, what precisely is meant by "French." It seems unlikely that it incorporated Occitan, seen always as a separate language and a separate culture. More probably for the Italian writer ofthe Middle Ages, "francese" or the equivalent Latin "francigenus," meant rather the "langue du roi" or "francés" of the north.6 On the other hand, there is evidence that Francis wrote poetry, and at least one ofthese poems has come down to us, the famous "D cántico di frate sole".7 At the time ofits composition, Francis was near 36 ST. FRANCIS AND THE PROVENÇAL CONNECTION the end ofhis short but dramatic life, and nodoubt full ofpremonitions abouthis imminentdeath. Nonetheless, he remained optimistic and felt compelled to compose a laude, or song ofpraise. IfFrancis had never written another poem in his entire life. "Il c...

:La corte di Ferrara e il suo mecenatismo, 1441-1598. Atti del convegno storico internazionale Copenhagen, maggio 1987

Text in English & Italian. The present volume contains the Acta of the International Conference on the Patronage of the Este Family, Copenhagen 1987. The special situation in the Duchy of Ferrara offers an element of dynastic continuity in the various phases of Humanistic and Renaissance culture which makes it nearly unique in European history. The approaches chosen by the contributors in various disciplines -- music, theatre, pictorial arts, literature, history of ideas -- make it possible to analyse the interaction between the cultural policy of the Signori and the intellectuals of their court, covering the historical period from 1441 to the passing of the Duchy of Ferrara into the hands of the Papal State in 1598.

Power and Display in the Seventeenth Century: The Arts and Their Patrons in Modena and Ferrara.

A study of the changing attitudes towards art and artists in two major north Italian cities following the enforced departure of the Este family from their traditional seat in Ferrara. An assessment is given of the effects of patronage on the careers of local artists such as Guercino.

‘Per il bene di … nostra cipta’: Borso d'Este and the Certosa of Ferrara*

Although the Este family had traditionally supported numerous monastic foundations, Borso d'Este's patronage of the Carthusian order is notable in that it introduced a new religious community into Ferrara. The history of the establishment, development, and decoration of the Charterhouse of Ferrara is indicative of the taste, artistic and religious views, and political exigencies which shaped the religious patronage of Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio. At the same time, the specific examples of Borso's monastic patronage are illustrative of the fundamental assumptions underlying fifteenth-century aristocratic support of religious foundations.On April 23,1452, Borso d'Este laid the cornerstone for the Certosa on a site not far from the Este villa of Belfiore and the Dominican Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. By spring 1461, the Monastery was habitable, though not yet complete.

エステ荘の庭園

After explaining the relationship between the Villa d'Este in Tivoli and the Este family, a historical trace of changes in the garden was made.Though Ippoito d'Este encountered an unlcky situation by the establishment of the villa with its splendid water works and fountains, he and the designer, Ligorio, have created and left us a unique garden of the renaissance.Compared with the upper terraced garden, the lower garden has been largely changed. At present this garden is splendid, but, in the near future, the grove of old cypresses will have fallen, and we should be concerned as to how this part of the garden will be reconstructed.

Pirro Ligorio and Decoration of the Late Sixteenth Century at Ferrara

IN July 1577 the Ferrarese painter Bartolomeo Faccini was killed by falling from a temporary scaffolding set up in the court of the Este Castle at Ferrara.1 Faccini and his brother Girolamo had just completed decorating the four walls of the courtyard with frescoes depicting two hundred of the most notable members of the Este family which then ruled Ferrara. According to Cesare Cittadella, the Faccini had included a portrait of the contemporary duke, Alfonso II, with those of his ancestors. Since Alfonso II objected to the inclusion of his portrait, the artist had to erase it. It was only after all the scaffolding was removed that Bartolomeo Faccini discovered that he had forgotten to destroy the name and arms of the Duke which had been below this portrait. It was this which caused the erection of a temporary scaffolding from which Faccini plunged to his death.