Seventeenth-century Italy Research Articles

Hypocrisy, ‘Prudence’, ‘Conscience’ in Administration: The Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in Seventeenth-Century Italy

The article argues that the post-Tridentine papacy was more focused on maintaining its own centrality than on implementing the reforms established by the Council of Trent. It shows that the Roman Curia often undermined its own bishops and interfered with their efforts to reform their dioceses. This practice – which might be perceived as hypocritical by us and was viewed as such by some contemporary commentators – was seen as justified by the baroque political virtue of ‘prudence’, and the idea of bishops being the conscience keepers of their dioceses. The article, in pondering the theme of hypocrisy, explores the work of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, which was responsible for overseeing the episcopate and religious orders. It uses previously unnoticed sources from the Bodleian Library in Oxford to show how the Congregation operated and how it perceived its role in defending the rights of the church and its clergy.

Madonna and Child Metatron: A Clandestine Polemic from Thirteenth-Century Iberia to Seventeenth-Century Italy

Madonna and Child Metatron: A Clandestine Polemic from Thirteenth-Century Iberia to Seventeenth-Century Italy

The Ingenuity of Fireflies: Conceits and Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Italy

The Ingenuity of Fireflies: Conceits and Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Italy

Letterati, artisti, mecenati del Seicento e del Settecento: identità culturali tra Antico e Moderno ed. by Michela Di Macco

Reviewed by: Letterati, artisti, mecenati del Seicento e del Settecento: identità culturali tra Antico e Moderno ed. by Michela Di Macco Eloise Davies Letterati, artisti, mecenati del Seicento e del Settecento: identità culturali tra Antico e Moderno. Ed. by Michela Di Macco. (Quaderni sull'Età e la Cultura del Barocco, 3) Florence: Olschki. 2020. xiv+ 220 pp.; 67 figs. €35. ISBN 978-8-822267-35-1. Where does the baroque end and the neoclassical begin? This is the question at the heart of this collection of essays on the relationship between the 'antique' and the 'modern'. The authors challenge simple narratives which portray the neoclassical as a shift towards antique purity, unpicking the multifaceted relationship between classical sources and classicizing art. The five essays published here are the fruit of scholarships awarded by the Fondazione 1563 in Turin, as part of the same programme of research that produced the Fondazione's exhibition 'Sfida al Barocco: Roma Torino Parigi 1680–1750' ('Challenge to the Baroque: Rome Turin Paris 1680–1750') in 2020. The [End Page 143] period 1680–1750 too often falls between the boundaries of periodization, not easily categorized as either baroque or neoclassical, yet viewed as central to the emergence of the 'modern'. By placing this transitional period centre stage, the exhibition offered a chance to take a detailed look at the process of stylistic and intellectual change, mapping its variety and complexity. Unfortunately, having been held mid-pandemic, this substantial re-examination of an important period will not have reached the wide audience it deserved. It is thus good news that this volume reiterates and traces the empirical underpinnings of the exhibition's central claims. The contributors share a commitment to expanding histories focused on Rome and Paris to encompass developments rooted in other places too, including Genoa, Venice, and the cities of Northern Europe. They also tell the story of an accidental revolution: a taming of baroque excess that was not a conscious rejection of what had come before, but rather an inadvertent by-product of artists responding to old models in new contexts. Giacomo Montanari opens with a reconsideration of the career of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto). Moving beyond the obvious story of formative Roman influences, Montanari offers evidence that Castiglione's art was also shaped by his early years in Genoa. In an imaginative move, Montanari turns to the library of Castiglione's master, Giovan Battista Paggi, suggesting that the influence of these books—including a selection of alchemical treatises—can be found in Castiglione's artistic works, and that they provide a hitherto overlooked key to Castiglione's broader artistic philosophy. Valeria Di Giuseppe Di Paolo explores the importance of classical models for the artists of the later seventeenth-century French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Ironically, at the very moment in which the French aimed to develop a distinctive national style, they turned to Italian depictions of the classical world as the foundation of an artistic education, making painstaking copies of works by Raphael and others. But in the realm of sculpture there was more opportunity—even a need—for experimentation, as incomplete ancient models were adapted to create new works true to modern life. By employing a prosopographical approach to the early eighteenth-century French 'generation of 1700', Alessia Rizzo achieves a delicate balance between collective trends and individual idiosyncrasy. Careful attention to social networks is also a theme of Sara Piselli's piece on the court of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. Transcending boundaries between different artistic forms, Piselli emphasizes the close relationship between developments in painting and sculpture. Meanwhile, Claudia Tarallo turns to literature, tackling the puzzle of why late seventeenth-century Italy did not produce epic poetry with a reputation to match that of Tasso or Ariosto, despite having such dramatic events as the Ottoman War to work with. By breaking down artificial divisions between different spheres of early modern intellectual and artistic culture, these essays offer a wealth of suggestions for future research. The collection would have achieved greater historiographical coherence and heft if the authors or editor had attempted a fuller synthesis of the findings of these diverse case studies in the Introduction or...

Book Review: Bernard McGinn: The Crisis of Mysticism: Quietism in Seventeenth-Century Spain, Italy, and France

Book Review: Bernard McGinn: <i>The Crisis of Mysticism: Quietism in Seventeenth-Century Spain, Italy, and France</i>

History, Politics, and Fiction in Seventeenth-Century Italy: The Case of Baroque Novels

History, Politics, and Fiction in Seventeenth-Century Italy: The Case of Baroque Novels

Antonio degli Albizzi and Lutheran Propaganda in Early Seventeenth-Century Italy

In the early 1610s, some Italian Lutheran propaganda came to the attention of the Holy Office. Such propaganda is an anomaly for the period, and questions the current scholarship on the topic. Via the bibliographic study of pamphlets previously neglected or unknown, this article investigates this activity, mostly attributing it to Antonio degli Albizzi (1547–1627), sometime secretary to the Cardinal of Austria. This curious case elucidates the longevity of interest in Lutheranism in the Italian peninsula, and, even if in the mind of just one man, the belief that seventeenth-century Italians could still turn to Protestantism.

Revisiting the Music-Printing Market in Seventeenth-Century Italy and the Peculiar Case of Pietro Millioni’s Guitar Books

This article examines the Italian music-printing industry in the seventeenth century from two distinct perspectives. The first revisits the industry’s decline and the circumstances that led to that state of affairs. The second traces the unlikely commercial success of the guitar tutors of Pietro Millioni, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of the industry. A quantitative analysis of production patterns using a newly constructed database of seventeenth-century Italian music prints provides a nuanced view of the rise and fall in output across various printing centers. Cross-referencing these data with an analysis of the corpora of the leading printing houses of Venice and Rome exposes various idiosyncrasies of these two centers of music printing and suggests that the downturn in production was driven not only by domestic conditions but also by the gradual decline of Venice as a dominant international economy. The music in the Millioni books is printed with an idiomatic notation for the guitar known as alfabeto. The simplicity of alfabeto notation offered the musically illiterate an accessible path to music making, while its typographical features offered printers a cheap and easy method of printing music without specialized equipment or expertise. The continued success of these books in a contracting market demonstrates the significant appeal of this music for both printer and consumer, which contributed to the codification of oral musical traditions in print. The reconstruction of the genealogy of the Millioni books discloses numerous commercial ties between publishers, as well as their influence over musical content.

Air Quality and the Senses in Early Modern Italy

Using printed and archival records, this article analyzes the sensory practices associated with air quality in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy. Air pollution was a prime concern for early modern Italians, particularly in urban centres where industry, density, and frenetic sensescapes were thought to prompt chronically unhealthy airs. According to early modern experts, air quality was at the root of individual and public health. My analysis shows how Italians relied on a robust set of sonic and olfactory tools to cleanse the air and craft healthy environments. Simultaneously, a contrasting set of sounds and smells were thought to pollute the air. The sensory practices surrounding air quality reveal the highly localized and personalized nature of early modern environmental practice. This article argues that entwined social and environmental conceptions of purity and pollution shaped sensory, social, and environmental experience in the premodern city.

Art in the Time of Pandemic: Elisabetta Sirani, Artistic Agency, and Capitalist Social Reproduction

Art in the Time of Pandemic: Elisabetta Sirani, Artistic Agency, and Capitalist Social Reproduction

“All that we see is seen in perspective”: point of view as word and image

Whereas the fictiveness of narrative perspective is taken for granted in literature, it also emerges as a salient element in the experiences of pictorial art and architecture as part of a viewer’s internal response to their altered views of reality. Whether a visual technique or a narrative one for shaping the way things are seen, perspective assumes that the conditions of seeing an object are flexible and open to mental and material variables in diverse historical media and sites. These range from the cognitively provocative trompe l’œil fresco paintings of seventeenth-century Italy, the typographical headings used as chapter divisions in eighteenth-century British novels, and hand-colored eighteenth-century prints of city scenes made to look three-dimensional through an optical device, to the inscribed stones used in post war Berlin monuments, and an art historian’s recent perspectives on memories of his twentieth-century childhood home. Concentrating on perspective foremost as a medium and conduit for the imagination, Getting Perspective reveals its transhistorical role in word and image as a shaper and maker of imagined worlds.

Marian Plague Columns in Jaroměř and Polička: A Comparative Study on Baroque Sculptural Decorations of the Bohemian Urban Public Space in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Based on fragmentally preserved sources as well as existing literature related to the topic (especially regional historiography, art history and historic preservation), the present study sets Marian plague columns into a broader context. Through the comparison of two minor East-Bohemian towns of a comparable population, it follows the factors playing a signifi cant role in the creation of complex Baroque sculptural compositions. At the same time, it aims to identify the functions that the sculptures were to fulfi l through their position in the public space. In this sense the study is inspired by the classic essay by Peter Burke called Conspicuous consumption in seventeenth-century Italy, which considers “the consumption” to be a specifi c form of communication. The composition of Marian plague columns can be perceived as an undeniable form of communication. From multiple perspectives, the article documents the key determinants, which are sometimes rather surprising, infl uencing the choice of partial components of the sculptural compositions as well as their overall impression – the communicative intention. Both Marian plague columns, to this day the most important monuments decorating the public space of the towns in question, are therefore approached in an interdisciplinary way especially in the context of the history of the towns, their manors and the East-Bohemian region. Therefore, the religious situation of both towns and their surroundings is not overlooked either. With regard to the fact that Jaroměř and Polička have been royal dowry towns, the Marian plague columns also refl ect the relation to the Bohemian queen, which is expressed verbally as inscriptions on them. In particular, the artwork in Polička and the events related to its creation importantly signalize the “conspicuous consumption”.

The Letters of Salvator Rosa: An Italian Transcription, English Translation and Critical Edition. Alexandra Hoare, ed. and trans. 2 vols. Harvey Miller Studies in Baroque Art. London: Harvey Miller, 2018. 1,104 pp. €225. - Salvator Rosa, Friendship and the Free Artist in Seventeenth-Century Italy. Alexandra Hoare. Harvey Miller Studies in Baroque Art. London: Harvey Miller, 2018. 522 pp. €175.

The Letters of Salvator Rosa: An Italian Transcription, English Translation and Critical Edition. Alexandra Hoare, ed. and trans. 2 vols. Harvey Miller Studies in Baroque Art. London: Harvey Miller, 2018. 1,104 pp. €225. - Salvator Rosa, Friendship and the Free Artist in Seventeenth-Century Italy. Alexandra Hoare. Harvey Miller Studies in Baroque Art. London: Harvey Miller, 2018. 522 pp. €175.

Revisiting the Plague in the Age of Galileo

Revisiting the Plague in the Age of Galileo

Pandemics, Power, and Conspiracy Theories

Pandemics, Power, and Conspiracy Theories

Extending Vocal Pedagogy: Extended Vocal Techniques in North American Post-Secondary Music Education

In North America, post-secondary music education is heavily focused on (and limited to) the repertoire and techniques of the Western Art Music canon. Vocal training at these institutions is no exception: vocalists are trained in the bel canto technique whose lineage reaches back to seventeenth-century Italy. This conservatory-based curriculum supports a categorical vocal pedagogy, one that seeks to produce a particular type of singer with a very specific kind of sound. Instead of embracing what each individual singer is capable of, this model focuses on what singers should be capable of from the perspective of repertoire and technical mastery in the operatic tradition. In this paper I will argue that this model risks our losing sight of what the singer has to say in favour of what the composer has to say. Recently there has been discussion and research around a more inclusionary model of vocal pedagogy that would incorporate other techniques alongside bel canto. However, these discussions have been focused on inclusion of musical theatre and belt techniques, with very little discourse on the inclusion of extended vocal techniques. By drawing on the scholarly discourse on the limits and extensions of technical training in post-secondary vocal performance, as well as interviews with several women working in the performance and teaching of extended vocal techniques in Canada, I will explore the potential for extended vocal techniques to contribute to a more inclusive model of vocal pedagogy.

Habitual Offenders: A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy. Craig A. Monson.

<i>Habitual Offenders: A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy</i>. Craig A. Monson.

Tra fonti erudite e lettori ordinari: una traduzione seicentesca del &lt;i&gt;Satyricon&lt;/i&gt;

The paper presents a 17th-century translation of the Satyricon into Italian transmitted in manuscript. The translation is anonymous and presumably was intended for the illegal market of clandestine manuscripts. Material evidence shows that the translation actually circulated across time and among popular readers. The comparison between the Italian translation and 16th – and 17th editions of Petronius has revealed that the translator started his work on the obsolete text of the excerpta brevia (that is, the Satyricon as published before1575) and then shifted to the the excerpta longiora tradition, likely using the Satyricon edition published in 1601 (reprinted in 1608). Such a mixture of source texts proves the translator’s total lack of philological accuracy. In addition, he made several translation errors. However, surprisingly enough, the Italian translation underpins an excellent work of textual criticism on Petronius’ text. The suggested explanation is that the translator or a later reviser emendated the translation following a highly specialised commentary. Some translation errors, in fact, can be explained only as critical indications that have been completely misunderstood. The papers concludes putting in relation the success of the Satyricon among 17th-century popular readers with its reception as a subversive parody of the Greek novel and its traditional values.I have a PhD in Italian Studies (2006) from the Università RomaTre of Rome. Currently, I am a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the EHESS in Paris. My recent research interests are focused on the Early Modern Period; more specifically, on the translation and receptions of Classics and the circulation of heterodox texts. I am working at the research project Popular readers and clandestine literature: the case of an early modern translation of Petronius’ Satyricon into Italian (17th C.) funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and, more broadly, I am exploring the 17th-c. success of the Satyricon and its reception as a novel and as a satire.Affiliation: Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre des Recherches Historiques of the EHESS in Paris (research group: Grihl – Groupe de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur l’Histoire du Littéraire ).Relevant publications:‘La retorica dell’esperimento: per una rilettura delle Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl’insetti di Francesco Redi (1668)’, Italian Studies (2017), 72, 1, 41-56.Bartolomeo Beverini (1629-1686) e una versione inedita della Metafisica di Aristotele’, in L. Bianchi, J. Kraye and S. Gilson (eds), Vernacular Aristotelianism in Italy from the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Century, London, The Warburg Institute, 2016, 183-208.‘Freedom and censorship: Petronius’ Satyricon in seventeenth-century Italy’, Classical Receptions Journal (2014), 6. 1, 104-130.‘Con oscurità mutando in nomi: Napoli epicurea nei Successi di Eumolpione (1678)’, California Italian Studies (2012), 3. 1, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2tr7x1nd.

Tra fonti erudite e lettori ordinari: una traduzione seicentesca del &lt;i&gt;Satyricon&lt;/i&gt;

The paper presents a 17th-century translation of the Satyricon into Italian transmitted in manuscript. The translation is anonymous and presumably was intended for the illegal market of clandestine manuscripts. Material evidence shows that the translation actually circulated across time and among popular readers. The comparison between the Italian translation and 16th – and 17th editions of Petronius has revealed that the translator started his work on the obsolete text of the excerpta brevia (that is, the Satyricon as published before1575) and then shifted to the the excerpta longiora tradition, likely using the Satyricon edition published in 1601 (reprinted in 1608). Such a mixture of source texts proves the translator’s total lack of philological accuracy. In addition, he made several translation errors. However, surprisingly enough, the Italian translation underpins an excellent work of textual criticism on Petronius’ text. The suggested explanation is that the translator or a later reviser emendated the translation following a highly specialised commentary. Some translation errors, in fact, can be explained only as critical indications that have been completely misunderstood. The papers concludes putting in relation the success of the Satyricon among 17th-century popular readers with its reception as a subversive parody of the Greek novel and its traditional values.I have a PhD in Italian Studies (2006) from the Università RomaTre of Rome. Currently, I am a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the EHESS in Paris. My recent research interests are focused on the Early Modern Period; more specifically, on the translation and receptions of Classics and the circulation of heterodox texts. I am working at the research project Popular readers and clandestine literature: the case of an early modern translation of Petronius’ Satyricon into Italian (17th C.) funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and, more broadly, I am exploring the 17th-c. success of the Satyricon and its reception as a novel and as a satire.Affiliation: Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre des Recherches Historiques of the EHESS in Paris (research group: Grihl – Groupe de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur l’Histoire du Littéraire ).Relevant publications:‘La retorica dell’esperimento: per una rilettura delle Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl’insetti di Francesco Redi (1668)’, Italian Studies (2017), 72, 1, 41-56.Bartolomeo Beverini (1629-1686) e una versione inedita della Metafisica di Aristotele’, in L. Bianchi, J. Kraye and S. Gilson (eds), Vernacular Aristotelianism in Italy from the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Century, London, The Warburg Institute, 2016, 183-208.‘Freedom and censorship: Petronius’ Satyricon in seventeenth-century Italy’, Classical Receptions Journal (2014), 6. 1, 104-130.‘Con oscurità mutando in nomi: Napoli epicurea nei Successi di Eumolpione (1678)’, California Italian Studies (2012), 3. 1, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2tr7x1nd.

Women and the Academies in Seventeenth-Century Italy: Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia’s Role in Literary Academies

Building on recent scholarly work on literary academies in Italy, this article examines the role of women in seventeenth-century academies in Italy, and focuses on the membership and activities of Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, elected to seven academies in five cities between 1669 and 1672. Prior to admission to the Arcadia Academy, which included many female members, Cornaro Piscopia became a member of the Paduan Ricovrati, the Venetian Pacifici, and the Roman Infecondi. She became director of the Pacifici, for which she delivered three formal speeches of high erudition in vernacular. This article explores Cornaro Piscopia’s activities as author and presenter of academic speeches for the Pacifici, and as author of poems for the Infecondi. The article also shows how, by accepting Cornaro Piscopia as its first female member, the Paduan Ricovrati played a crucial role in spearheading female participation in traditionally male-dominated Seicento academies.