The Noisy Renaissance: Sound, Architecture, and Florentine Urban Life - Hardcover

Atkinson, Niall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0271071192 ISBN 13: 9780271071190

Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016

Synopsis

From the strictly regimented church bells to the freewheeling chatter of civic life, Renaissance Florence was a city built not just of stone but of sound as well. An evocative alternative to the dominant visual understanding of urban spaces, The Noisy Renaissance examines the premodern city as an acoustic phenomenon in which citizens used sound to navigate space and society.

Analyzing a range of documentary and literary evidence, art and architectural historian Niall Atkinson creates an “acoustic topography” of Florence. The dissemination of official messages, the rhythm of prayer, and the murmur of rumor and gossip combined to form a soundscape that became a foundation in the creation and maintenance of the urban community just as much as the city’s physical buildings. Sound in this space triggered a wide variety of social behaviors and spatial relations: hierarchical, personal, communal, political, domestic, sexual, spiritual, and religious.

By exploring these rarely studied soundscapes, Atkinson shows Florence to be both an exceptional and an exemplary case study of urban conditions in the early modern period.

About this title

About the Author

Niall Atkinson is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271071192
• ISBN 13: 9780271071190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280