16th century Venice

In the second half of the 16th century, Girolamo Righettino, a brilliant draughtsman and theologian (a member of the Order of the Canons Lateran), produced city views with ornamental frames characterised by their rich allegorical programme. The drawings earned him widespread fame and were handsomely rewarded. A recently discovered autograph manuscript by Righettino sheds precious light on his only surviving view-an elaborate plan of Turin (1583). This article offers an introductory portrait of a personality forgotten to history and presents new research that allows us to situate his unique output-at the intersection of art and science, theology and politics, topography and allegory-in the wider context of Counter-Reformation Italy, when the ambitions of absolutist rulers were stoked by the fear of Turkish advances in the Mediterranean.

Im Zentrum der Tagung stehen die 1542 veröffentlichten Madrigali a cinque voci des frankoflämischen Komponisten Cipriano de Rore (1515/1516-1565), die am 4. Juni 2022 vom amerikanischen Ensemble Blue Heron (Leitung: Scott Metcalfe) bei den Regensburger Tagen Alter Musik aufgeführt werden.
Die Sammlung steht mit ihrem dichten Kontrapunkt und der Qualität der vertonten Texte exemplarisch für die frühe Phase des venezianischen Madrigals in den vierziger Jahren des Cinquecento und hat somit eine musikhistorisch exponierte Bedeutung.
Ziel der Tagung ist nicht nur die interdisziplinäre (musik- und literaturwissenschaftliche) Auseinandersetzung mit dieser Gattung, sondern auch der Dialog mit aufführenden Musikern. Darüber hinaus sollen im Hinblick auf eine musikhistorische Kontextualisierung weitere Komponisten, die zur Entwicklung des venezianischen Madrigals maßgeblich beigetragen haben (wie etwa Adrian Willaert, Perissone Cambio und Girolamo Parabosco), behandelt werden.

Inserito nel numero speciale del Notiziario pubblicato dagli Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Bassano del Grappa per celebrare il dono al locale Museo Civico di due frammenti inediti di Jacopo Bassano raffiguranti la "Vergine" e un "Pastore", l'intervento fa  il punto sugli studi e sul mercato delle opere dei Bassano negli ultimi dieci anni.

Due frammenti inediti di Jacopo Bassano, raffiguranti la "Vergine" e un "Pastore", sono apparsi nel 2019 sul mercato antiquario di Bassano del Grappa e sono stati esposti nel mese di dicembre per due giorni nella locale sede di Banca Mediolanum. Da quel momento ha avuto inizio una raccolta fondi per l'acquisto delle opere, in vista di una donazione al Museo Civico cittadino, che nella seconda metà del 2020 è stata presa in carico dagli Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Bassano del Grappa e che si è conclusa nell'autunno 2021. Per celebrare il dono, gli Amici dei Musei hanno pubblicato un numero speciale del loro Notiziario dedicato ai due quadri e ad argomenti bassaneschi, nel quale si è riproposta anche la scheda realizzata in occasione dell'esposizione.

Italien als Vorbild.Ökonomische und kulturelle Verflechtungen europäischer Metropolen am Vorabend der 'ersten Globalisierung' (1300-1600)
Internationale Jahrestagung des Mittelalterzentrums „Forum Mittelalter“
der Universität Regensburg in Verbindung mit dem     
DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2337 „Metropolität in der Vormoderne“ 
15. - 17. November 2018, Regensburg

The Construction of the Loggia in Zadar (Zara) (1565) in the Urbanistic and Stylistic Context of Forming the Venetian Administrative and Military Quarter

During the early modern period Venetian government established in Zadar the center of its administration over Dalmatia and Venetian Albania, which extended along the Eastern coast of the Adriatic from Kvarner Bay islands until the coast of today’s Montenegro. A great number of buildings were either newly-erected or remodeled in this period for the use of an extensive state and military administration. These buildings were strategically placed in the eastern part of the city thus forming the core of the administrative quarter within the space of the medieval Ducal palace and the City loggia on the nearby Large Square (Platei Magni) while expending (the core) with new buildings: a large Provveditore’s palace, Rector’s palace, Palace for the Commander of the Cavalry, the seat of the communal treasurer with fiscal offices (camerlengo), City Guard (Gran guardia), the palace for the military commander and the army hospital.  Bordering this space, next to the newly-erected 16th century fortification ring, the military and storage zone with army barracks, armory, storage space and a huge cistern Pet Bunara (Cinque Pozzi) was forming. The great majority of these buildings have been erected in stages, from the middle of the 15th until the end of the 18th century for use of defense and multiplied provincial administration but regardless of a long period of construction they all show common characteristics: enhanced functionality and a certain restraint in stylistic accents and monumental elements, which are present only on crucial points of access and state rituals (parts of facades, inner courtyards and so on). Stylistic elements are more enhanced only in a small number of buildings, mainly on those which were built before the end of the 16th century and primarily on two buildings on the Large Square:  City Guard (Gran guardia) and the Loggia. Both buildings exemplify echoes of the contemporary classic language of architecture which was often used precisely in the middle of the century as an expression of the Serenissima’s new visual program. However, some important deviations from the Tuscan order are noticeable, especially on the loggia. The proportions of the Tuscan columns are here much more elongated which has been explained as a case of an arbitrarily redone blueprint in which the measurements were not precisely planned out. Finally, by publishing a previously unknown document dated to October 12, 1564, we learn that the captain Antonio Cocco made a contract for the construction of the loggia with  renowned Dalmatian stonecutters and builders, Petar from Cres and Jeronim Bokanić and gave a desegno to the masters. The desegno obviously corresponds to the summarily-defined model, which showed three-arched (bugnato) facades articulated with paired Tuscan columns and other elements of the order, and which the Dalmatian masters freely interpreted by elevating their dimensions.

Cosa fa l’ambasciatore del re di Francia nella Venezia del Cinquecento: il diplomatico, l’umanista, l’eretico, l’uomo d’affari, la spia? Grazie alla sua posizione geografica strategica e alla sua rete commerciale, Venezia fu una porta verso l’«Altro», inteso sotto l’aspetto politico, culturale e religioso. Punto di osservazione privilegiato di questo mondo aperto fu l’ambasciata francese nella città del doge. Gli inviati francesi progettarono un’intesa politica e militare – scandalosa all’epoca – tra il re Cristianissimo e il peggior nemico della Cristianità, il sultano Solimano il Magnifico. Artefici di quell’«alleanza empia» furono perlopiù vescovi, che misero la loro cultura e il loro spirito tollerante a servizio di una politica spregiudicata. Basato su un ricco ventaglio di fonti – dalle corrispondenze private e ufficiali ai documenti inquisitoriali, dai racconti di viaggi alle cronache cittadine, dai libelli alle dediche degli umanisti –, il volume fa emergere la figura degli ambasciatori come uomini di frontiera a cavallo tra confessioni religiose e fedeltà politiche, attori di una circolazione di saperi, informazioni e libri nell’Europa del primo Cinquecento. Valenti umanisti e appassionati di antichità greco-romana, essi contribuirono infatti alla riscoperta da parte della corte di Francia dei tesori degli Antichi, dell’arte e della letteratura rinascimentale italiana. Uomini di cultura, ma anche uomini di potere, che attraverso il reclutamento di informatori e di spie, l’arruolamento di condottieri, la messa in circolazione di false notizie tentarono di condizionare l’andamento delle guerre d’Italia. Con rara ampiezza di sguardo e maestria di dettaglio, Guillaume Alonge ci conduce fin dentro i segreti di una delle corti più raffinate del l’Europa del Rinascimento, illuminando – come scrive Sergio Luzzatto nella sua prefazione – «il battutissimo spazio veneziano di una luce sorprendente».

Sorta forse prima del Mille in un’area adiacente il Canal Grande e ancora ricoperta di zone lacustri che saranno poi velocemente colmate seguendo la rapida espansione della città, la chiesa di San Giacomo dall’Orio ha mantenuto il proprio carattere antico, isolata rispetto agli edifici circostanti. La piccola facciata è tuttora orientata verso il canale mentre le absidi sono rivolte verso il campo che abbraccia l’edificio quasi su tutti i lati: una situazione, considerata la sua peculiare vitalità, inusuale nella fitta trama urbana di Venezia. Per secoli il quartiere, oscillante tra la periferia e il centro realtino, è stato abitato da operai e artigiani, in prevalenza impiegati nelle manifatture tessili e capaci di manifestare un’intensa attività devozionale; poche invece le famiglie patrizie. E come un vero e proprio palinsesto, la chiesa è stata sottoposta nei secoli a continui restauri e rifacimenti che, integratisi nel tempo gli uni negli altri, restituiscono oggi un complesso armonico, di una bellezza del tutto singolare e riconoscibile. Il volume illustra tutti questi aspetti attraverso nuove ricerche, intrecciando le committenze artistiche con l’ambiente sociale della parrocchia, la sua vita religiosa e il suo contesto urbano.

This volume in the series Lives of the Artists collects the major writings about Titian (c. 1488-1576) by his contemporaries and near contemporaries. The centrepiece is the biography by Vasari and includes the marginal annotations to Vasari by Annibale Carracci, which had never before published in English. The volume also presents for the full English translation of a selection of letters and poems by Pietro Aretino; Carlo Priscianese's full account of a dinner party with Titian, and the contributions by Speroni Speroni and Ludovico Dolce, round out the picture of this hugely thoughtful, intellectual artist, whose paintings remain some of the most sensual and affecting in all of Western art.
Mostly unavailable in any form for many years, these writings have been newly edited for this edition, including the identification of works and people mentioned in each text.

COMPLETE BOOK

http://www.aracneeditrice.it/aracneweb/index.php/pubblicazione.html?item=9788825508352

Antonio Brocardo è ricordato per essere entrato in polemica con Pietro Bembo, suscitando clamore e indignazione. Le fonti antiche sulla vita del Bembo lo descrivono come un folle intento a distruggere qualcosa che non riusciva bene a comprendere. Vitaliani lo definisce, nel titolo della sua monografia del 1902 (l'unica fino ad ora dedicata al poeta), “vittima del bembismo”. Eppure, già a partire da Croce, si cerca di ricostruire in maniera meno pregiudizievole la figura del poeta veneziano, considerando più da vicino i testi pervenuti. Questa nuova edizione mira finalmente – attraverso un solido apparato critico – a ricostruire l’opera del Brocardo e a fornire un adeguato commento.

This article examines the sugar sculptures created for a ball in honor of Henri III of France in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice in 1574. The first part discusses the production and display of the statuettes. In the next section, the setting of the sugar sculptures is examined in the context of the collation prepared for the king in Palazzo Grimani in Santa Maria Formosa, which contains the city’s greatest collection of antiquities. Finally, the article examines the possible relationships between sugar statuettes and ancient sculptures and their use in crafting the image of Venice as a new Rome.

This article presents a fragmentary and hitherto unpublished inscribed funerary stele, which was reused in Venice as an architectural spolium and has recently come to light. The text, written in Latin, is very likely to be the epitaph for a legionary, whose name is unknown since it occupied the part of the inscription that has not survived. Archaeological data and textual analysis suggest that the inscribed stone dates to the 1st - early 2nd centuries AD and probably came to Venice from the Eastern shores of the Adriatic. It also seems likely that the legionary mentioned in the fragmentary text was a native of Narbonese Gaul who died in Dalmatia or in Aquileia. The inscription can perhaps be associated with another funerary stele (CIL V 2162), which was reused in the base of the nearby San Vidal bell-tower.

The paper is dedicated to Leonardo Donà's tomb, which remained strangely unstudied.
Among Venetian Ducal tombs, it epitomises a special case of self-representation, not for the forms of the monument (realised in fact by his heirs in a different form from his will), but for the conscious use of it as a political tool. The paper investigates the intentions of the Doge and the meaning of his choice in the context of his activity as a politician and in the actual building of the city.
He had a central role in the development of the city, contributing since the late 70’s of 16th century in the most remarkable architectural achievements of the early modern Venetian Republic, those which determined the architectural and urban configuration of the “myth of Venice” as the perfect Republic in the perfect city. He was in fact appointed in the commissions responsible for the church of the Redentore, the urbanization of the Fondamenta Nuove, the palace of the Procuratie Nuove, Rialto Bridge, the basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, the new town of Palmanova, beside having built his own palace and having planned his own tomb.
In Venice, a Republic, in which the Doge was officially only the first among equals and in which public self-display of individuals was formally not tolerated; in the case of a Doge who continuously affirmed his adherence to this stance, what form can assume his monument?

In the course of 1580, Agostino Valier, a bishop of Verona, conducted an apostolic visitation to Istrian dioceses. The report on the visitation represents an historic source of great importance for the knowledge of late 16th century Istrian history. This paper brings to light information about Pula and its inhabitants  contained in the report on Bishop Valier’s visitation to the Pula Diocese. Descriptions include the very visit and other social, economic and religious circumstance in Pula of the period.

Stefano Dall’Aglio sheds new light on the notorious Florentine Lorenzino de’ Medici (also known as Lorenzaccio) and on two of the most infamous assassinations of Italian Renaissance history. In 1537 Lorenzino changed the course of history by murdering Alessandro de’ Medici, first Duke of Florence, and paving the way for the accession of the new duke, Cosimo I. In 1548 Lorenzino was killed in Venice in revenge for the assassination he had committed. Basing his work on extensive research in the historical archives of Florence and Simancas, Dall’Aglio reconstructs the events surrounding these murders and involving the Medici, their loyalists, the Florentine republican exiles, and some of the most powerful sovereigns of the time. The first publication in a century and the first work in English to examine the life of Lorenzino de’ Medici, this fascinating revisionist history is as gripping as a detective novel, as Dall’Aglio unravels a 500-year-old mystery, revealing that behind the bloody death of the duke’s assassin there was the Emperor Charles V.

Vittore Belliniano was an important member of Giovanni Bellini's studio in Renaissance Venice. It is likely that a double portrait of two men in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, attributed to Belliniano, contains an unrecognized portrait of the master painter, and possibly a self-portrait of Belliniano as well. The figures in the painting are similar to portraits of Bellini and Belliniano that survive in a small matched set, created by the latter (or by each man depicting the other). These are accepted as the most accurate likeness of Bellini and the only known image of Belliniano.
Vittore Belliniano (di Mattheo) rose to be a valued assistant who even took his master’s name after Bellini’s death in 1516. Moreover, it is possible there was a romantic relationship between the two men. The Renaissance workshop was home to assistants and Vittore would have had a place within Bellini’s social world. There is documentary evidence in Bellini’s life of homoeroticism.This is explored within the context of homosexuality in Early Modern Europe. A related double portrait in the Louvre with the figures reversed seems to have been painted in response to the Houston work, or a lost original, and takes on a different meaning.

A true story of vendetta and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, exile and repatriation, this book recounts the interwoven microhistories of Count Girolamo Della Torre, a feudal lord with a castle and other properties in the Friuli, and Giulia Bembo, grand-niece of Cardinal Pietro Bembo and daughter of Gian Matteo Bembo, a powerful Venetian senator with a distinguished career in service to the Venetian Republic. Their marriage in the mid-sixteenth century might be regarded as emblematic of the Venetian experience, with the metropole at the center of a fragmented empire: a Terraferma nobleman and the daughter of a Venetian senator, who raised their family in far off Crete in the stato da mar, in Venice itself, and in the Friuli and the Veneto in the stato da terra. The fortunes and misfortunes of the nine surviving Della Torre children and their descendants, tracked through the end of the Republic in 1797, are likewise emblematic of a change in feudal culture from clan solidarity to individualism and intrafamily strife, and ultimately, redemption.

Despite the efforts by both the Della Torre and the Bembo families to preserve the patrimony through a succession of male heirs, the last survivor in the paternal bloodline of each was a daughter. This epic tale highlights the role of women in creating family networks and opens a precious window into a contentious period in which Venetian republican values clash with the deeply rooted feudal traditions of honor and blood feuds of the mainland.

The essay analyses the Louvre Crucifixion by Paolo Veronese (c. 1575–1580) and aims to clarify the presence and significance of the woman cloaked in yellow in the middle of the composition. Alternatively identified with the personification of the Synagogue, Mary Magdalen, or one of the three Marys, the veiled figure recurred frequently in representations of different moments of the Passion of Christ from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, including a number of works by Veronese himself. A study of this visual tradition explains how Veronese arranged the Louvre composition to be observed from a specific viewing angle. When contemplated from the right-hand side, the image reveals how the woman robed in yellow, none other than one of the Marys, has the function of guiding viewers through a spiritual journey from the suffering of the Virgin to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

The publication of the most significant collections of historical sources regarding Venetian rule in the Levant (Greece and Eastern Mediterranean) remains a standing request of the research community. These sources include final Reports (relazioni) by Venetian governors of overseas dominions in the area under study. This book comprises those related to the Kingdom of Cyprus (Regno di Cipro). They are 25 Reports by Venetian patricians who were members of the supreme administrative body on the island (luogotenenti of Cyprus [6] and their counsellors [8], capitani of Famagusta [8] and provveditori generali of Cyprus [3]); the reports were located in archives or manuscript collections in Venice: Archivio di Stato, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana and the Library of Museo Civico Correr. Furthermore, it is included the reproduction of the abstract of the Report by provveditore generale Bartolomeo Contarini (1518), from the 27th volume of the Diarii by Marin Sanudo (report No 1), which isn’t located elsewhere (Marino Sanuto, I diarii, eds. Federico Stefani, Guglielmo Berchet and Nicolò Barozzi, vol. 27, Fratelli Visentini, Venice 1889, pp. 36-44). In addition to the 25 Reports, there is another one by a Venetian government official, Giovanni (Zuan) Franscesco Stella (1566), secretary of the Chancellery of Cyprus responsible for matters of the provveditori generali, which deals exclusively with issues related to the activities of provveditore generale Antonio Bragadin during his term in office before his death in Cyprus (report No 24). The texts that are published here belong to the category of sources that serve history in an inclusive manner, since their subject matter is related to political, economic as well as social history.

The book includes an extensive and informative introduction, aiming at both understanding the institutions that produced the published texts, and commenting on their nature and the themes elaborated in them. Followed by the diplomatic edition of the final Reports, their abstracts in Greek and documented lists of the supreme administrative officials on the island. The introduction and the abstracts of the Reports are also available in English, an option that makes the work accessible to the international research community. The publication concludes with a detailed index of human names and toponyms, as well as thematic terms from the Reports.

This paper examines the musical chapters in the Hebdomades  (1589), an encyclopedic commentary by the humanist Fabio Paolini on a single line of Vergil (Aeneid  VI.646: ‘Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum’). This book, originally given as a series of lectures before the Accademia degli Uranici in Venice, shows that Paolini, though not a professional musician, had read a variety of musical writers, such as Boethius, Vanneo, Vicentino, and his friend Zarlino, as well as the philosopher Marsilio Ficino, whose works also include discussions of musical matters. As a professional Hellenist, Paolini was better acquainted with the surviving Greek musical writings than most music theorists, and he gives valuable information about Greek manuscripts owned by Zarlino. However, the Hebdomades  also show that Paolini’s practical understanding of music theory was a little shaky. Furthermore, his comments betray a distinct humanist disdain for the music of his own time. Paolini’s work thus gives a good indication of the enthusiasm for music (or at least the ideal of ancient music) amongst non-musicians in Italian academies in the bloom of late humanism, but also the limits of non-professional speculation. The essay also examines the reception of Paolini’s work (especially by Martín del Río SJ), and includes an annotated edition of the relevant chapter of the Hebdomades.

The War of Cyprus (1570–71) took place within the framework of the Fourth Ottoman–Venetian War, which was concluded with the naval Battle of Lepanto and the peace treaty signed by the two contenders in 1573. This essay deals with the consequences of the War of Cyprus, focusing on a category of veterans that comprised native Cypriot non-professional combatants and militiamen who had fought alongside the Venetian overlords, as well as subjects of the Serenissima originating from former territories (such as the Morea) in the Venetian Maritime State (stato da mar), who served as professional military personnel in the army of Cyprus (stradioti). The principal issues explored in this essay are: firstly, their captivity in the hands of the Ottomans and the procedures for their liberation; and secondly, their subsequent claims to restitution through their recruitment into the Venetian armed forces. The sources on which the study is based are the veterans’ unpublished petitions to the Venetian authorities, in combination with other types of documents (notarial documents, court cases, deliberations by various Councils and magistracies etc.) from the Archivio di Stato di Venezia.

Pela sua localização privilegiada no meio do Oceano Atlântico, os Açores desempenharam a partir do século XV um importante papel como porto de apoio aos navios que rumavam a novos territórios.
Nas suas águas ficou o registo histórico-arqueológico desses tempos, nos naufrágios e no diverso espólio identificado a partir da segunda metade do século XX.
O desenvolvimento da arqueologia de âmbito subaquático nos Açores e em particular na baía de Angra do Heroísmo na ilha Terceira, tem sido um importante meio de estudo na compreensão da História Marítima portuguesa e internacional a vários níveis. Destaca-se a importância dos seus naufrágios para o estudo da construção naval, da vida a bordo, do comércio e das rotas marítimas, das actividades e organização portuária e o
seu papel fundamental como escala do Atlântico.
O presente artigo pretende fazer uma síntese dos trabalhos desenvolvidos, em sete das nove ilhas, integrados em diferentes projectos – Estudos de Impacte Ambiental (EIA), Açores Shipwreck Survey, Carta Arqueológica Subaquática dos Açores (CASA), ProjectoPIAS entre outros.

La Serenísima República de Venecia durante sus casi mil años de existencia (IX/XIX) se nos presenta como un estado soberano europeo, en forma de república aristocrática de mercaderes, que regía un importante imperio ultramarino. Gobernada por un Dogo con un poder similar al de un monarca, aunque limitado por una serie de consejos mediante los cuales se buscaba el equilibrio de poder entre las principales familias.
En el presente trabajo se estudia tanto su historia, como su organización política y social. Se analiza la figura del patrizio véneto, oligarquía de sangre que controlaba la vida pública.  Para terminar explicando las peculiaridades de su heráldica.

This table provides an index to all family names in the four registers of the Balla d’oro, a critical archival source for the history of Venice in the 15th and early 16th century. It also provides the corresponding family entries in the Alberi genealogici of Marco Barbaro, and the Matrimoni patrizi per nome di donna. Published in October 2021 on the website of the News on the Rialto, https://www.newsontherialto.com/Halffballaguide.pdf

The 19 letters presented in this appendix to the exhibition catalogue "Titian. Love, Desire, Death", translated in full for the first time and annotated (see pages: 216-20), comprise the totality of the surviving correspondence between Titian (about 1488-1576) and Philip of Habsburg (1527-1598) concerning the commission of the so-called "poesie".