Mad Blood Stirring : Vendetta in Renaissance Italy

by Muir, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780801858499
• ISBN10: 0801858496
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-05-18
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Awarded the 1993 Howard Marraro Prize for the best book in Italian history Nobles were slaughtered and their castles looted or destroyed, bodies were dismembered and corpses fed to animals -- the Udine carnival massacre of 1511 was the most extensive and damaging popular revolt in Renaissance Italy (and the basis for the story of Romeo and Juliet). Mad Blood Stirring is a gripping account and analysis of this event, as well as the social structures and historical conflicts preceding it and the subtle shifts in the mentality of revenge it introduced. This new reader's edition offers students and general readers an abridged version of this classic work which shifts the focus from specialized scholarly analysis to the book's main theme: the role of vendetta in city and family politics. Uncovering the many connections between the carnival motifs, hunting practices, and vendetta rituals, Muir finds that the Udine massacre occurred because, at that point in Renaissance history, violent revenge and allegiance to factions provided the best alternative to failed political institutions. But the carnival massacre also marked a crossroads: the old mentality of vendetta was soon supplanted by the emerging sense that the direct expression of anger should be suppressed -- to be replaced by duels. From reviews of the complete edition: "A model study of how vendetta and political disorder related to one another... Superbly documented." -- Times Literary Supplement "A superbly researched book... The human detail is both vivid and coherent." -- Italian Studies "Muir is one of the best microhistorians of our day... His careful analysis, persuasive reasoning, impressive documentation, and lively prose demand close and careful attention. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in early modern Italy, and more widely, for those who study social or microhistory." -- Sixteenth-Century Journal "An exceptional book accessible both to students and to general readers." -- History

Author Biography

Edward Muir is the Ver Steeg Professor of History at Northwestern University. He is the editor, with Guido Ruggiero, of Sex and Gender in Historical Perspective and Microhistory and the Lost Peoples of Europe.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix	(2)
Author's Note to the Reader's Edition	xi	(2)
Dramatis Personae	xiii	(6)
Introduction	xix
Prologue	3	(10)
ONE The Friulan Enigma	13	(37)
The Land Between	14	(14)
Vendetta	28	(10)
Factions	38	(12)
TWO Approaching Thunder	50	(31)
The Rise of Antonio Savorgnan	51	(12)
Invasions, 1499-1509	63	(9)
The Pillage of Sterpo	72	(9)
THREE The Tempest of 1511	81	(29)
Giulietta e Romeo	82	(7)
The Cruel Carnival of Udine	89	(9)
Castles Burn	98	(12)
FOUR The Problem of Meaning	110	(23)
The Carnival Body	113	(6)
Assigning Blame	119	(3)
The Apocalyptic	122	(4)
The Will to Narrate	126	(7)
FIVE Retaliation	133	(24)
Assassination of Antonio Savorgnan	134	(6)
Dogs of Revenge	140	(17)
SIX Toward the Duel	157	(26)
Resumption of the Vendetta	158	(4)
The New Manners	162	(10)
Revenge by Courtesies	172	(11)
Conclusion	183	(10)
Notes	193	(6)
A Note on Sources	199	(2)
Index	201