Ancient DNA analyses of remains of the Medici family (16th century) provide insights into the genetic variation of Plasmodium falciparum.

ABSTRACT While no Italian city had a High Renaissance inscriptional landscape to match that of Venice, the lagoon city’s role as proving ground for the revival, development and dissemination of Roman capitals on writing for public display has been critically overlooked. The present essay challenges the unsatisfactory consensus narrative around the great classicising epigraphic renewal and foregrounds the Venetian contribution. I apply close reading and cross-comparison of the surviving evidence in three fully-illustrated sections – Innovation, Competition, Affirmation – to shed new light on the dynamics that forged Venice’s uniquely flexible and influential inscriptional settlement. I document the pioneering introduction of a forceful mid-imperial style in the first half of the Quattrocento, decades before the Humanist palaeographic ferment centred on Padua. I show that, paradoxically, the more finessed Humanist script aesthetic achieved its epigraphic breakthrough in Venice itself. I end by examining the creative twinning of Venice’s two capital modes around 1500.

The article analyses the development of Italian and Spanish Renaissance theatre, as well as their common features and differences. It also highlights how the two theatrical schools made a significant contribution to the history of European theatre by artistically expressing Renaissance ideas, humanism, and popular themes. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, under the influence of Christian ideology, classical art experienced a decline; however, by the 14th–16th centuries, the emergence of new social relations led to the revival of theatre. At the same time, the article scientifically examines the process by which Italian and Spanish theatre emerged from medieval conservatism to reach a stage of popular, humanistic, and artistically mature development.

Purpose This study re-examines the relationship between gender, work and emancipation by questioning the assumption that feminist agency emerges only within modern ideological movements and institutional reforms. It aims to investigate how women’s economic participation in pre-modern contexts may constitute early forms of gendered autonomy. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts an interpretive historical case study grounded in the new accounting history tradition. Drawing on archival payroll and accounting records documenting Isabella Morra’s employment as a lady-in-waiting, the analysis combines documentary examination with hermeneutic interpretation. Accounting records are treated as historically situated social texts that reveal how labor, recognition and authority were organized within institutional settings. Findings The analysis shows that Morra’s remunerated service temporarily shifted her status from familial dependency to institutional recognition within a Renaissance court. Payroll records document her transformation into a salaried member of the household administration, indicating a form of economic autonomy that disrupted established family arrangements governing women’s roles and mobility. This fragile repositioning proved unstable: her subsequent murder, traditionally interpreted as an “honor killing,” can be reconsidered as a violent reaction to the destabilizing implications of women’s economic independence. Originality/value This paper makes three contributions. First, it advances a temporally expanded understanding of feminist agency by showing how practices of economic autonomy may precede the formal articulation of feminist ideology. Second, it contributes to management and organizational history by interpreting Renaissance courtly service as an early organizational system structured by roles, remuneration and administrative governance. Third, it extends accounting history by demonstrating how payroll records functioned as social technologies that rendered women’s labor visible within institutional arrangements of recognition and authority.

This article provides a new interpretation of Giulio Campagnola’s 1509 engraving, The Astrologer, by situating its innovative punteggiato technique and enigmatic iconography within the precise astrological and political climate of Renaissance Venice. By identifying the numerical data on the astrologer’s disc as a reference to the lunar eclipse of 2 June 1509, the author argues that the composition—featuring a scholar, a monstrous reptile, and a distant city—represents a visual projection of the eclipse’s predicted impact. Framed by the political crisis following the Battle of Agnadello, the engraving emerges as a prophetic defense of Venetian resilience, a message further reinforced by a comparative analysis of a recently rediscovered astrological sonnet attributed to Campagnola.

Breast ultrasound is a key diagnostic method for breast cancer and relies heavily on the interpretation of visual cues. At the same time, medical education is increasingly being driven by time constraints, which favors rapid pattern recognition, limiting the scope for reflective image analysis and the diagnostic process. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose and evaluate an artistic and pedagogical teaching model, inspired by the interpretive practices of Italian High Renaissance painting, as a tool to support the development of diagnostic reasoning in breast ultrasound. This model focuses on careful observation, analysis of the relationship between detail and the overall image, and the conscious transformation of visual cues into clinical meaning. This study was conducted during the four-day ARSA Think Tank Meeting (ARSATTM). Medical students worked in four groups; two groups received methodological training based on visual cue analysis, and two did not. All groups performed identical tasks involving the interpretation of breast ultrasound images and ultrasound examinations on real patients. The results indicate that an artistic-pedagogical teaching model to promote more coherent and reflective diagnostic reasoning in breast ultrasound is feasible. Therefore, integrating this approach may be a valuable addition to medical students' ultrasound education in the realities of limited clinical time.

本文考察了宗教组织与思潮在塑造佛罗伦萨文艺复兴过程中所扮演的复杂且常常充满矛盾的角色。通过对修道会、兄弟会以及萨伏那罗拉运动中禁欲主义的分析，本研究揭示了宗教机构如何同时促进和制约文艺复兴的文化发展。本研究表明，宗教机构对文艺复兴的贡献更多是偶然的而非刻意的，受到精神追求与世俗文化事业之间相互作用的影响。

This article examines the cultural and artistic significance of Italian Renaissance poetesses through the lens of literary history and visual representation. Drawing on feminist scholarship, it highlights the prominence of women’s writing in sixteenth-century Italy and its connection to the rise of print culture and the vernacular. Focusing on figures such as Laura Battiferri, Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Franco, Veronica Gambara, and Tullia d’Aragona, the study analyzes portraits by artists including Bronzino, Sebastiano del Piombo, Michelangelo, Tintoretto, Antonio da Correggio and Moretto da Brescia. These images reveal how Renaissance artists employed symbolism and classical models to construct the poetess as an intellectual, moral and creative authority.

Abstract According to John Addington Symonds's introduction for the Mermaid Series edition of the plays of John Webster and Cyril Tourneur (1888), Webster excelled at depicting the ‘dreadful depths in human nature’. The fin-de-siècle fascination with humanity's ‘dreadful depths’ is well-known, and the word ‘dreadful’ has long been synonymous with the late Victorian urban concoction of sexual delight and danger. What Symonds terms the ‘dreadful stuff’ of Webster's tragedies The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614) derived from the criminal history of the Italian Renaissance, of which Symonds was the pre-eminent nineteenth-century historian. Symonds and the leading Victorian critic of Elizabethan drama, Algernon Charles Swinburne, both took Webster as the subject of their earliest dramatic criticism and returned frequently to the ‘dreadful stuff’ of these two plays. This article traces the roots and implications of that preoccupation, arguing that the ‘dreadful stuff’ of Webster's Italian tragedies was integral to these writers’ sexual as well as critical psychologies. For Swinburne, the suffering of Webster's Duchess presented a study in the connoisseurship of pain and the power of erotic pathos, while for Symonds the gender-ambiguous ‘dreadful daring’ of Vittoria Accoramboni in the trial scene of The White Devil was rapturously arousing. The article underscores the importance of Webster's tragedies in creating a space in the late nineteenth century for critical and erotic speculations about art, pain and desire.

This article re-examines the palazzo as a residential building type and argues for its renewed relevance in contemporary housing design and architectural education. Rather than approaching the palazzo as a historical or stylistic artefact of the Italian Renaissance, the author frames it as a typological principle rooted in spatial organisation, repetition and urban context. Central to this redefinition is the palazzo’s centripetal structure: a multi-storey urban building organised around a courtyard that functions simultaneously as circulation space and architectural core. Drawing on historical examples from Florence, Genoa, Naples and Venice, as well as on theoretical reflections by figures such as Berlage, Quatremère de Quincy and Martí Arís, the article clarifies the distinction between the palazzo and superficially similar building forms such as the almshouse courtyard or the closed urban block. A typological matrix is introduced to demonstrate how the stacking and repetition of standardised dwelling units around a courtyard generate consistent yet image-free ordering principles. This matrix serves primarily as a didactic tool, enabling students and designers to engage with type as an abstract, generative framework rather than a stylistic model. The article further situates the contemporary rediscovery of the palazzo within a broader architectural shift towards craftsmanship, tectonics and the “ordinary,” following criticism of late-modern formalism and spectacle architecture. Through examples from design practice and international teaching studios, the palazzo is shown to offer an alternative to normative housing models by integrating density, spatial hierarchy and urban presence. The author concludes that the palazzo’s enduring value lies in its capacity to reconnect housing design with disciplinary knowledge, professional authority and the city as its primary context, making it a productive reference for addressing today’s housing challenges.

Through a commented translation, this article examines the sonnet Se ne la selva Idea…, dedicated to the Princess of Sulmona and preceding the dance Villanella Balletto, one of the 80 poems included in Il Ballarino (1581), by Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta (c. 1526/1531 – after 1605), one of the most important dance masters of the Italian Renaissance. More than simple choreographic manuals, his works intertwine music, etiquette, and poetry, presenting almost every dance preceded by laudatory sonnets dedicated to noble ladies. The reading of the sonnet demonstrates how Caroso, by integrating poetry and dance, transforms mythological narratives into instruments of courtly exaltation. Through the use of imagery and references to Greco-Roman mythology — especially the Judgment of Paris, the rivers of the Trojan landscape, and divine figures — he projects the addressee onto a symbolic and heroic plane, thereby condensing values and sensibilities of the sixteenth century. Thus, the proposed analysis not only highlights the poetic function in Caroso’s treatises, but also contributes to a broader understanding of the dialogue between literature, performing arts, and court culture in the Renaissance

The article is devoted to the work of Maria Syniakova, a vivid representative of Ukrainian modernist art, during the 1910s. Although only a limited number of her works have survived to the present day, they provide a unique opportunity to trace the connections of her imagery, symbolism, painterly manner, and overall system of plastic solutions with the traditions of Ukrainian folk art, with the art of medieval Europe and the Italian Renaissance, with the latest pan-European artistic movements of the early twentieth century, as well as with the traditional art of Central Asia and the sacred art of Buddhism and Hinduism.

Abstract This article investigates the multiplicity of connections that were made between individuals from different trades and across the social hierarchy in sixteenth-century Verona. In the sixteenth century, Verona was a constituent part of the Venetian Empire with a large, diverse population. Each of the different neighborhoods of the city contained a heterogeneous mix of individuals, from the indigent poor to artisans, professionals, and the traditional elite, often living side by side. Through an exploration of three separate case studies from the courts of Verona, this article explores some of the ways in which these individuals socialized: at a card game, a dance, and a lottery. It is argued that connections were often made in spaces that transcended the public and private spheres, with domestic and workshop spaces being used to gather people from across the community. Despite concern from the authorities about the dangers of illicit gatherings, evidence within these cases suggests that there was an appetite among artisans of Verona to hold social occasions to earn extra income and to make new connections. Communities and culture were built among these wide and varied networks, and to understand more about everyday life and social ties in Renaissance Italy, it is important to look beyond traditional socio-economic and cultural boundaries.

Abstract Michael Tarchaniota Marullus (1453–1500) represents one of the most significant, but also exceptional, cases of the Greek presence in the Italian Quattrocento, for the way in which he, expressing himself exclusively in the Latin language, conceptualized the notion of an exiled Greekness. By analyzing his humanist controversy with the most prominent Italian scholar in late fifteenth-century Florence, Angelo Poliziano, this study highlights the way in which Marullus perceives his presence in humanist letters, both in terms of otherness and appropriation. In the context of this controversy and beyond, Marullus’s poetic writings reveal his efforts to carve a place for himself in the evolving landscape of the late Florentine Renaissance. This is achieved through the conceptualization of a poetic persona embodying a multifaceted and adaptable Greekness, which provides him with the necessary theoretical framework to position himself within the humanistic structure.

Rooted in the Indian knowledge system, the triad of satyam (truth), shivam (goodness), and sundaram (beauty) offers a holistic approach to knowledge that finds surprising resonances in Italian philosophical thought. This research paper examines the epistemological parallels between the Indian concepts of satyam (truth), shivam (goodness), and sundaram (beauty) and their counterparts in Italian philosophy. Using a comparative approach, this paper examines how the two traditions address the nature, sources, and limitations of knowledge. Indian epistemology, particularly in the Ny?ya tradition, integrates satyam, shivam, and sundaram into a unified worldview, while Italian Renaissance thought sought to merge art, science, and philosophy, reflecting a multidimensional view of knowledge. The paper highlights similarities, such as the emphasis on empirical evidence in both traditions. For instance, Indian epistemology values pratyaksha (direct perception) and anumana (inference), which neatly parallels European empiricism as we see it in the works of Francis Bacon and John Locke. The paper also examines the contributions of Giambattista Vico and Benedetto Croce in Italian thought, noting their unique perspectives on truth, morality and beauty. While comparing these two, Indian and Italian traditions, the paper underscores the importance of cross-cultural philosophical inquiry of our understanding and knowledge. It advocates for a more inclusive and global perspective in epistemology, showing how diverse philosophical viewpoints can enrich our grasp of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Abstract This article offers a critical examination of Isabella Andreini’s Lettere (1607), situating the collection within the Renaissance tradition of letter writing and exploring its innovative reconfiguration of female subjectivity and agency. Through close readings of selected letters analyzed against the backdrop of the long-standing tradition of female letter writing—particularly the elegiac genre—this study highlights how Andreini’s female voices negotiate love as a domain of reciprocal affection and self-determination. By juxtaposing traditional motifs with empowering narratives, the Lettere destabilize dominant gendered power structures embedded in early modern epistolary conventions. This investigation contributes to a broader understanding of the intersections among gender, emotion, and authorship in Renaissance Italy.

Blake Wilson: Singing to the Lyre in Renaissance Italy: Memory, Performance, and Oral Poetry

Leah R. Clark, <i>Courtly Mediators: Transcultural Objects between Renaissance Italy and the Islamic World</i>

Summary The article explores the role of the senses in the design and reception of early modern Italian gardens. Drawing on recent developments in garden studies and insights from the sensory turn at large, the article repositions the garden as an immersive environment that actively engaged with the full spectrum of human perception. Through case studies of Villa Medici of Pratolino and Villa d’Este in Tivoli, the article investigates how these gardens interacted with the human sensorial apparatus. It demonstrates that in late Renaissance Italy gardens were not mere visual spectacles but intentionally designed to make visitors experience nature and art with all their senses engaging body and mind. Furthermore, it argues that sensory studies can offer a tool to gain more insight in the afterlife of gardens, which is characterised by processes of decay, loss, and renewal, due to natural transformation and human intervention.

A historically significant form of linguistic hybridization was the so-called ‘macaronic’ poetry from the Italian Renaissance. Its best-known practitioner was a sixteenth-century Benedictine monk, Teofilo Folengo. Starting from that historical context, this article seeks to better describe what was (and remains) typical of macaronic writing, namely the intentional creation of a linguistic hybrid with comic effect. In macaronic multilingualism, languages are blended, fused together, not juxtaposed, as happens in other manifestations of multilingualism in literature. A more difficult question relates to the need (or not) for Latin to be part of the equation. In the absence of bilingual blending, the mere presence of Latin is certainly not enough, but what about clearly hybrid texts that only involve modern languages and do not contain any Latin?