The Renaissance Cities

The Renaissance Cities

Author: Norbert Wolf

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 3791386433

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A luxurious and definitive exploration of how and why the Renaissance flourished in Italy for two centuries. The idea of “renaissance,” or rebirth, arose in Italy as a way of reviving the art, science, and scholarship of the Classical era. It was also powered by a quest to document artistic “reality” according to newly discovered scientific and mathematical principles. By the late 15th century, Italy had become the recognized European leader in the fields of painting, architecture, and sculpture. But why was Florence the center of this burgeoning creativity, and how did it spread to other Italian cities? Brimming with vivid reproductions of works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, and others, this book showcases the creative achievements that traveled from Florence to Rome to Venice. Art historian Norbert Wolf explores the influence of secular and religious patronage on artistic development; how the urban structure and way of life allowed for such a rich exchange of ideas; and how ideas of humanism informed artists reaching toward the future while clinging to the ideals of the past. Insightful, accessible, and fascinating, this thoroughly researched book highlights the connections and mutual influences of Florence, Rome, and Venice as well as their intriguing rivalries and interdependencies.


Pienza

Pienza

Author: Charles Randall Mack

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-05-15

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1501746049

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Pienza, a small hill town in north central Italy, represents one of the major architectural masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Starting in 1459, under the sponsorship of Pope Pius II, it was rebuilt into a model Renaissance cityscape. Renamed in the pope's honor, Pienza is both a monument to papal will and the high point in the career of the supervising architect, Bernardo Rossellino. Because its physical state has changed only slightly since the fifteenth century, Pienza offers us a unique opportunity to see a variety of building traditions (Roman, Florentine, Sienese) and theoretical positions (Brunelleschian and Albertian) combined in an almost perfectly preserved urban environment. "The town," writes Charles Mack, "is a Renaissance Williamsburg without the artificiality of restoration." Pienza, the first book-length treatment of the subject in English, traces the entire redevelopment of the community, from conception through construction, and establishes Pienza's place in the story of Renaissance architecture.


Cities of the Renaissance World

Cities of the Renaissance World

Author: Michael Swift

Publisher: Compendium Publishing & Communications

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9781906347109

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A completely revised and updated, illustrated guide to the grounds that host Europe?s prestigious Champions League.


Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present

Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present

Author: Ilja Van Damme

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-18

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1351681796

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This volume critically challenges the current creative city debate from a historical perspective. In the last two decades, urban studies has been engulfed by a creative city narrative in which concepts like the creative economy, the creative class or creative industries proclaim the status of the city as the primary site of human creativity and innovation. So far, however, nobody has challenged the core premise underlying this narrative, asking why we automatically have to look at cities as being the agents of change and innovation. What processes have been at work historically before the predominance of cities in nurturing creativity and innovation was established? In order to tackle this question, the editors of this volume have collected case studies ranging from Renaissance Firenze and sixteenth-century Antwerp to early modern Naples, Amsterdam, Bologna, Paris, to industrializing Sheffield and nineteenth-and twentieth century cities covering Scandinavian port towns, Venice, and London, up to the French techno-industrial city Grenoble. Jointly, these case studies show that a creative city is not an objective or ontological reality, but rather a complex and heterogenic "assemblage," in which material, infrastructural and spatial elements become historically entangled with power-laden discourses, narratives and imaginaries about the city and urban actor groups.


Death in Florence

Death in Florence

Author: Paul Strathern

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-08-15

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1605988278

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By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As generous patrons to the likes of Botticelli and Michelangelo, the ruling Medici embodied the progressive humanist spirit of the age, and in Lorenzo de' Medici they possessed a diplomat capable of guarding the militarily weak city in a climate of constantly shifting allegiances. In Savonarola, an unprepossessing provincial monk, Lorenzo found his nemesis. Filled with Old Testament fury, Savonarola's sermons reverberated among a disenfranchised population, who preferred medieval Biblical certainties to the philosophical interrogations and intoxicating surface glitter of the Renaissance. The battle between these two men would be a fight to the death, a series of sensational events—invasions, trials by fire, the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', terrible executions and mysterious deaths—featuring a cast of the most important and charismatic Renaissance figures.In an exhilaratingly rich and deeply researched story, Paul Strathern reveals the paradoxes, self-doubts, and political compromises that made the battle for the soul of the Renaissance city one of the most complex and important moments in Western history.


The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence

The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence

Author: Gene A. Brucker

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-03-08

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 1400847850

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Professor Brucker contends that changes in the social order provide the key to understanding the transition of Florence from a medieval to a Renaissance city. In this book he shows how Florentine politics were transformed from corporate to elitist. He bases his work on a thorough examination of archival material, providing a full socio-political history that extends our knowledge of the Renaissance city-state and its development. The author describes the restructuring of the political system, showing first how the corporate entities that comprised the traditional social order had lost cohesiveness after the Black Death. He traces the process of readjustment that began during the guild regime of 1378-1382, and analyzes the impact of foreign affairs. During the crisis years of the Visconti wars the distinctive features emerged of an elitist regime whose vitality was demonstrated following the death of Giangaleazzo Visconti and whose membership and style the author discusses in detail. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Siena

Siena

Author: Fabrizio Nevola

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780300126785

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Weaving together social, political, economic and architectural history, this book explores the role of key patrons in Siena's urban projects, including Pope Pius II Piccolomini and his family, and the quasi-despot Pandolfo Petrucci.


Street Life in Renaissance Italy

Street Life in Renaissance Italy

Author: Fabrizio Nevola

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2020-11-24

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0300175434

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A radical new perspective on the dynamics of urban life in Renaissance Italy The cities of Renaissance Italy comprised a network of forces shaping both the urban landscape and those who inhabited it. In this illuminating study, those complex relations are laid bare and explored through the lens of contemporary urban theory, providing new insights into the various urban centers of Italy’s transition toward modernity. The book underscores how the design and structure of public space during this transformative period were intended to exercise a certain measure of authority over its citizens, citing the impact of architecture and street layout on everyday social practices. The ensuing chapters demonstrate how the character of public space became increasingly determined by the habits of its residents, for whom the streets served as the backdrop of their daily activities. Highlighting major hubs such as Rome, Florence, and Bologna, as well as other lesser-known settings, Street Life in Renaissance Italy offers a new look at this remarkable era.


Venice's Hidden Enemies

Venice's Hidden Enemies

Author: John Martin

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-09-01

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0520912330

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How could early modern Venice, a city renowned for its political freedom and social harmony, also have become a center of religious dissent and inquisitorial repression? To answer this question, John Martin develops an innovative approach that deftly connects social and cultural history. The result is a profoundly important contribution to Renaissance and Reformation studies. Martin offers a vivid re-creation of the social and cultural worlds of the Venetian heretics—those men and women who articulated their hopes for religious and political reform and whose ideologies ranged from evangelical to anabaptist and even millenarian positions. In exploring the connections between religious beliefs and social experience, he weaves a rich tapestry of Renaissance urban life that is sure to intrigue all those involved in anthropological, religious, and historical studies—students and scholars alike.