Domenico de'Domenichi (1416-1478) was a Venetian-born humanist active in Venice, Florence and Rome, well-educated in the scholastic tradition. He advised Popes Eugenius IV, Nicholas V, Calixtus II, Pius II, Paul II and Sixtus IV on theological matters. Domenichi provides a look at several urban worlds where Renaissance humanism flourished. Even more significantly, his dual intellectual life as both a humanist within the Renaissance tradition and as a theologian within the more mediaeval scholastic tradition indicates well the complexities of a Renaissance intellectual world critical of the mediaeval past at the same time those traditions flourished in a world far less secular than once believed. Of Domenichi's many works - treating theological, ecclesiopolitical, philosophical, devotional and reform issues -his preaching best confronts and integrates the sometimes incompatible multiplicity of intellectual traditions so much a part of Renaissance Italy.

This study offers a substantial introduction to the world of Catherine of Siena (1347-80), her works and the way her followers responded to her religious leadership and legacy. Although much scholarship has dealt with her visionary reputation, this volume, written by experts in Catherinian studies, highlights her image as a church reformer, peacemaker, preacher, author, holy woman, stigmatic, saint and politically astute person. Furthermore, it assesses the manuscript tradition of works by and about Catherine of Siena. Few overviews of the historical and cultural circumstances of Catherine of Siena exist in English. A Companion to Catherine of Siena, therefore, makes accessible hitherto elusive details of this Sienese saint’s life and works. Contributors include: Allison Clark Thurber, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Blake Beattie, Carolyn Muessig, Diega Giunta, Eliana Corbari, F. Thomas Luongo, George Ferzoco, Heather Webb, Jane Tylus, Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, Silvia Nocentini, and Suzanne Noffke. .

The fifteenth century was a critical juncture for the College of Cardinals. They were accused of prolonging the exile in Avignon and causing the schism. At the councils at the beginning of the period their very existence was questioned. They rebuilt their relationship with the popes by playing a fundamental part in reclaiming Rome when the papacy returned to its city in 1420. Because their careers were usually much longer than that of an individual pope, the cardinals combined to form a much more effective force for restoring Rome. In this book, shifting focus from the popes to the cardinals sheds new light on a relatively unknown period for Renaissance art history and the history of Rome. Dr. Carol M. Richardson has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2008) in the field of History of Arts.

The book offers a renewed study of the life and works of one of the most famous popular preachers and sermon authors of Renaissance Italy, providing a reference work on the figure of Roberto Caracciolo and a reading of his times.

By the second decade of the fifteenth century Venice had established an empire in Italy extending from its lagoon base to the lakes, mountains, and valleys of the northwestern part of the peninsula. The wealthiest and most populous part of this empire was the city of Brescia which, together with its surrounding territory, lay in a key frontier zone between the politically powerful Milanese and the economically important Germans. Venetian governance there involved political compromise and some sensitivity to local concerns, and Brescians forged their distinctive civic identity alongside a strong Venetian cultural presence. Based on archival, artistic, and architectural evidence, Stephen Bowd presents an innovative microhistory of a fascinating, yet historically neglected city. He shows how Brescian loyalty to Venice was repeatedly tested by a succession of disasters: assault by Milanese forces, economic downturn, demographic collapse, and occupation by French and Spanish armies intent on dismembering the Venetian empire. In spite of all these troubles the city experienced a cultural revival and a dramatic political transformation under Venetian rule, which Bowd describes and uses to illuminate the process of state formation in one of the most powerful regions of Renaissance Italy.

Every 3rd issue is a quarterly cumulation.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the tremendous and varied influences exercised by the court of the Valois dukes of Burgundy upon Tudor England and the Hapsburg Empire. The Burgundian agglomeration of territories in the Low Countries inherited by the Hapsburgs was in fact the key to that dynasty's rise to power and the foremost source of its wealth. In itself the achievement of Valois Burgundy was enormous, particularly in political and cultural terms. But of the four Valois dukes, only the final one, Charles the Bold can be seen as truly having set out to create an independent state. Justice, order, sovereignty, and the display of magnificence were the essential features of Burgundian political culture. The court of Charles the Bold reveals the widely varying manifestations of these unifying ideals within a context of state formation. This monograph examines the culture of the first great Northern court of the early modern era, within the context of Charles's attempt to create a sovereign polity uniting both his French and Imperial fiefs.

Abstracts of dissertations available on microfilm or as xerographic reproductions.