"This volume celebrates the scholarship of Alison Brown, emeritus professor in the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London. A pre-eminent historian of the Renaissance, Professor Brown has, over a long and ongoing career, produced a stream of books and essays on the intellectual, cultural, and political history of Renaissance Florence and Italy. Her innovative and wide-ranging studies have made her the most authoritative interpreter of Florence's evolution from fifteenth-century republic to sixteenth-century principate. At the centre of her re-evaluation of this complex and dramatic story are her many studies of the Medici and their own evolution over several generations from citizen bankers to skillful patrons, manipulators of factional networks, "masters of the shop," and quasi-princes. Her research has brought new perspectives not only to politics and the nature of the Florentine state, but also to the period's intellectual and religious history--in particular the impact of the rediscovery of Lucretius--and the great ferment of political thought from the humanists to Savonarola, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini. Professor Brown's vibrant and original inquiries, grounded both in Florence's archival treasures and in the rich intellectual and artistic traditions of Renaissance Italy, deftly interweave politics, culture, and ideas to yield novel and eye-opening interpretations. The essays in this book by Professor Brown's friends and colleagues find inspiration in the themes she has explored and in her dedication to the highest aims and most exacting standards of historical research. The contributions focus on a wide variety of topics, including politics and political thought, family life, art, philosophy, law, and humanism. In providing a portrait of Renaissance studies today as a dynamic field influenced in myriad ways by Professor Brown's insights and methods, the volume is a tribute to the far-reaching influence of her scholarship"--Provided by publisher.
The art and language of power in Renaissance Florence
Publications of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. Essays and studies ;
Alison Brown and late fifteenth-century Florentine history : an appreciation / Roslyn Pesman -- Machiavelli's family and social background : the enigma of Messer Bernardo's illegitimacy / Luca Boschetto -- The 1487 Medici-Cybo marriage and its implications for the Medici Bank in Rome / Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli -- Women's rights according to Lorenzo De'Medici : the Borromei-Pazzi dispute and the Lex de testamentis / Lorenzo Fabbri -- Chancellor Angelo Marzi da San Gimignano : an episode in record-keeping and the rise of Medicean autocracy in sixteenth-century Florence / Andrea Guidi -- Social control and political consensus in Quattrocento Florence / Fabrizio Ricciardelli -- "Altra volta ne ragionai a lungo" : a reinterpretation of Niccolò Machiavelli's cryptic clause in The Prince / Jérémie Barthas -- The Portico Frieze of the Medici Villa at Poggioa Caiano : Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's influence / Riccardo Fubini -- A note on the movement of Michelangelo's David / Amy R. Bloch -- Breaking conventions : donor portraits in Ghirlandaio's Malatesta altarpiece / Jonathan K. Nelson -- The materials of ephemeral sculpture in Renaissance Italy / Eckart Marchand -- Against peacemakers : Niccolò Machiavelli on the end of tumults / Gabriele Pedullà -- "Che l'amore seguiti l'interesse" : the language of power in Giovanfrancesco Lottini's Discorso sopra le attioni del conclave / Simone Testa -- Historia testis temporum : Cesare Ripa's Historia between philosophy and allegory / Maia Wellington Gahtan -- Feigning ignorance : the case of Giannozzo Manetti's against the Jews and the Gentiles / Stefano U. Baldassarri -- Vincenzio Borghini's travelling library / Maria Fubini Leuzzi -- The Renaissance comes to Bloomsbury : studies in the Italian Renaissance in twentieth-century London / Camilla Russell -- Alison Brown's Florentine revolution / John M. Najemy.