Street Life in Renaissance Rome A Brief History with Documents

by Bell, Rudolph M

• ISBN13: 9780312622978
• ISBN10: 031262297X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-12-14
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Highlighting daily life in Renaissance Rome, Street Life in Renaissance Rome uses both primary sources and illustrations to look at this era from the bottom up, focusing on the eras impact on ordinary citizens, the plight of social outcasts, and the dangers of urban life.

Author Biography

Rudolph M. Bell (Ph.D. City University of New York) is a professor of European, Italian and Renaissance History at Rutgers University. His research focuses on Italian civilization and culture from the Middle Ages to the present. His books include The Voices of Gemma Galgani: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Saint; How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians; and Holy Anorexia. He has also co-edited with Virginia Yans, Women on Their Own: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Being Single.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

A Note about the Documents

List of Maps and Illustrations

PART ONE. Introduction: Rome: An Untold Story

Defining the Renaissance

A Pyramid of Renaissance Romes Peoples

The Apex

The Base

The Excluded

The Economics of Renaissance Rome (Legitimate and Not)

Civic Re-Birth Defeated

The Sack of Rome

Western Christendom Sundered

PART TWO. The Documents

1. Renaissance Beginnings

1. Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, ca. 1350-1352

2. Anonymous, The Life of Cola di Rienzo, ca. 1358

3. Catherine of Siena, Letter to Pope Gregory IX, ca. September 13, 1376

2. Renaissance Romans

4. Giovanni Mattiotti, Francesca Romana, ca. 1440

5. Johannes Burchardus, Lucretia Borgia and her family, 1501

6. Anonymous, Canti Carnascialeschi, 15th and 16th centuries

7. Anonymous, Pasquinate, 16th century

8. Pope Paul IV, Cum Nimis Absurdum, 1555

9. Alessandro Trajano Petronio, Del viver delli Romani, et di conservar la Sanita, 1592

10. Giovanni Belori, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: A Biography (1672) and an Inventory, 1605

11. Testimony, Artemisia Gentileschi, 1612

3. Renaissance Visitors

12. William Thomas, The History of Italy, 1549

13. Joachim Du Bellay, The Regrets, 1555

14. Anthony Munday, The English Roman Life, 1581

15. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Travel Journal: Rome, 1580-1581

4. The Sack of Rome

16. Luigi Guicciardini, The Sack of Rome, 1527

17. Francisco Delicado, La Lozana Andaluza, 1528

18. Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, 1566

19. Pietro Aretino, Aretinos Dialogues, 1536

5. Reformation Voices

20. Alfonso de Valdes, Dialogue of Lactancio and an Archdeacon, with a rebuttal letter from Baltasar Castiglione, 1528

21. Desiderius Erasmus, Julius Excluded from Heaven: A Dialogue, 1514 and Selections from Letters, 1514-1531

22. Martin Luther, Table Talk, ca. 1525-39

23. Caspar Schoppe, Letter to Conrad Rittershausen on Giordano Bruno, February 8, 1600

Appendixes
A Chronology of Renaissance Rome
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index