Court Festivals of the European Renaissance
Court Festivals of the European Renaissance

Author: J.R. Mulryne

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1351947982

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Festival culture is an area which has attracted increasing interest in the field of Renaissance studies in recent years. In part the outcome of scholars' focus on the place of the city in the establishment and dissemination of common culture, the attention paid to festivals also arises from the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, which reaches across the usual demarcation lines between disciplines such as cultural, political and economic history, literature, and the visual and performing arts. The scholars contributing to this volume include representatives from all these disciplines. Their essays explore common themes in festival culture across Renaissance Europe, including the use of festival in political self-fashioning and the construction of a national self-image. Moreover, in their detailed examination of particular types of festival, they challenge generalizations and demonstrate the degree to which these events were influenced the personality of the prince, the sources of funding for the ceremony, and the role of festival managers. Usually perceived as binding forces promoting social cohesion, festivals held the potential for discord, as some of the essays here reveal. Examining a wide range of festivals including coronations, triumphal entries, funerals and courtly spectacles, this volume provides a more inclusive understanding than hitherto of festivals and their role in European Renaissance culture.

The Dream Maker
The Dream Maker

Author: Jean-Christophe Rufin

Publisher: Europa Editions

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1609451562

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“Rufin offers his readers a return . . . to a time when the wildest dreamer could be a wealthy merchant—Jacques Coeur, the treasurer poet” (Les Echos). After a brilliant career as a trader, Jacques Coeur was summoned to the court of Charles VII and appointed Master of the Mint in 1436. He rose to become the King of France’s visionary First Banker who, with his tours of the Far East, his opposition to the crusades, and his efforts to develop trade, brought France out of the darkness toward the Renaissance and modernity. At the height of his success, his ill-considered infatuation with Agnès Sorel, King Charles VII’s favorite mistress, precipitated Coeur’s fall from grace. In Rufin’s delectable prose this true story becomes a gripping tale of adventure, a novel of ideas, and a moving love story. “The Dream Maker blends with skill and efficiency politics, business, travel and love. All of this written in a classic, elegant prose, of which Jean-Christophe Rufin has long had a command.” —Le JDD “Rufin bestows such immediacy to this artist of finance, such vitality that we hear the sound of Coeur’s own voice telling us his life.” —Télérama “Rufin has re-established his eloquence and spirit, that of the great novelist of the people. . . . His new novel is both a chivalric odyssey and a brilliant reflection on power.” —Lire “The vivid portraits of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel give readers an intimate glimpse into court intrigue in 15th-century France.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “A fascinating novel.” —Historical Novel Society

Medieval Art in Motion
Medieval Art in Motion

Author: Mariah Proctor-Tiffany

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2019-01-18

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0271083050

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In this visually rich volume, Mariah Proctor-Tiffany reconstructs the art collection and material culture of the fourteenth-century French queen Clémence de Hongrie, illuminating the way the royal widow gave objects as part of a deliberate strategy to create a lasting legacy for herself and her family in medieval Paris. After the sudden death of her husband, King Louis X, and the loss of her promised income, young Clémence fought for her high social status by harnessing the visual power of possessions, displaying them, and offering her luxurious objects as gifts. Clémence adeptly performed the role of queen, making a powerful argument for her place at court and her income as she adorned her body, the altars of her chapels, and her dining tables with sculptures, paintings, extravagant textiles, manuscripts, and jewelry—the exclusive accoutrements of royalty. Proctor-Tiffany analyzes the queen’s collection, maps the geographic trajectories of her gifts of art, and interprets Clémence’s generosity using anthropological theories of exchange and gift giving. Engaging with the art inventory of a medieval French woman, this lavishly illustrated microhistory sheds light on the material and social culture of the late Middle Ages. Scholars and students of medieval art, women’s studies, digital mapping, and the anthropology of ritual and gift giving especially will welcome Proctor-Tiffany’s meticulous research.