Everyday Renaissances: The Quest for Cultural Legitimacy in Venice (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History): 18 - Hardcover

Sarah Gwyneth Ross

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067465983X ISBN 13: 9780674659834

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2016

Synopsis

The world of wealth and patronage that we associate with sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Italy can make the Renaissance seem the exclusive domain of artists and aristocrats. Revealing a Renaissance beyond Michelangelo and the Medici, Sarah Gwyneth Ross recovers the experiences of everyday men and women who were inspired to pursue literature and learning. Ross draws on a trove of unpublished sources to reconstruct the lives of over one hundred artisans, merchants, and others on the middle rung of Venetian society who embraced the virtues of a humanistic education and passed their books and hard-earned wisdom on to their families and heirs. Physicians were often the most avid-and the most anxious-professionals seeking cultural legitimacy. Ross examines the lives of three doctors: Nícolo Massa (1485-1569), Francesco Longo (1506-1576), and Alberto Rini (d. 1599). Though they had received university training, these men were not patricians but members of a social group that still yearned for credibility. Unlike priests or lawyers, physicians had not yet rid themselves of the taint of artisanal labor, and they were thus indicative of a middle-class that sought to earn the respect of their betters, advance their families, and secure honorable remembrance after death.

About this title

Review:

"Everyday Renaissances rests on a solid foundation of original archival research; Ross has mined inventories and testaments for what they can tell us about the humanistic values and aspirations of their subjects. Clearly-written and logically structured, this is a significant addition to our understanding of Venetian Renaissance humanism." --Craig Kallendorf, author of Humanist Educational Treatises

About the Author:

Sarah Gwyneth Ross is Associate Professor of History, Boston College.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 067465983X
• ISBN 13: 9780674659834
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256