Rivista di Letteratura Storiografica Italiana, 2021
A Singular Marriage Proposal for Elizabeth I: Nicholas Sander and the Cutting Weapon of Satire.
... more A Singular Marriage Proposal for Elizabeth I: Nicholas Sander and the Cutting Weapon of Satire.
This article focuses on a satirical letter to Elizabeth I preserved in the Florentine State Archives. Disguised as a flattering and gallant marriage proposal (from the Antichrist!), this text – which has not been the object of any previous research – stands out as a vitriolic attack against the Queen of England dating from 1570/1571, a critical time when Catholic initiatives to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots where supported by the excommunication bull issued by Pius v against the English monarch. The content and the textual features of the letter point to Nicholas Sander as its author. A brilliant and sharp writer, Sander was a leading figure among the English Catholic exiles in Louvain and the author of the earliest and most famous historical account of the Anglican schism and the Tudor dynasty.
Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string fea... more Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string features mysteriously and prominently, this article aims to explore the origins of the symbolism of the lute with a broken string from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, and to highlight how a symbol can be progressively constructed along its transitions through various cultures. In doing so, philosophical, literary and iconographic sources have been taken into account in order to unveil the hidden but solid connection that links the enigmatic musical instrument staged in Holbein’s masterpiece with its most distant ‘sources’ - rooted in Greek and Roman classical antiquity - and with those chronologically closer to it. Special attention is placed on the re-elaboration and re-interpretation of those same sources in Fifteenth-century Italian Culture and, in particular, on the Florentine Humanists’ political use and re-shaping of a classical metaphor: that of a composite harmony (or of the lack of it) associated with the idea of good (or bad) government.
Il Liuto, Rivista della Socierà del Liuto, X, 2015
Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string fea... more Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string features mysteriously and prominently, this article aims to explore the origins of the symbolism of the lute with a broken string from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, and to highlight how a symbol can be progressively constructed along its transitions through various cultures. In doing so, philosophical, literary and iconographic sources have been taken into account in order to unveil the hidden but solid connection that links the enigmatic musical instrument staged in Holbein’s masterpiece with its most distant ‘sources’ - rooted in Greek and Roman classical antiquity - and with those chronologically closer to it. Special attention is placed on the re-elaboration and re-interpretation of those same sources in Fifteenth-century Italian Culture and, in particular, on the Florentine Humanists’ political use and re-shaping of a classical metaphor: that of a composite harmony (or of the lack of it) associated with the idea of good (or bad) government.
Rivista di Letteratura Storiografica Italiana, 2021
A Singular Marriage Proposal for Elizabeth I: Nicholas Sander and the Cutting Weapon of Satire.
... more A Singular Marriage Proposal for Elizabeth I: Nicholas Sander and the Cutting Weapon of Satire.
This article focuses on a satirical letter to Elizabeth I preserved in the Florentine State Archives. Disguised as a flattering and gallant marriage proposal (from the Antichrist!), this text – which has not been the object of any previous research – stands out as a vitriolic attack against the Queen of England dating from 1570/1571, a critical time when Catholic initiatives to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots where supported by the excommunication bull issued by Pius v against the English monarch. The content and the textual features of the letter point to Nicholas Sander as its author. A brilliant and sharp writer, Sander was a leading figure among the English Catholic exiles in Louvain and the author of the earliest and most famous historical account of the Anglican schism and the Tudor dynasty.
Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string fea... more Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string features mysteriously and prominently, this article aims to explore the origins of the symbolism of the lute with a broken string from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, and to highlight how a symbol can be progressively constructed along its transitions through various cultures. In doing so, philosophical, literary and iconographic sources have been taken into account in order to unveil the hidden but solid connection that links the enigmatic musical instrument staged in Holbein’s masterpiece with its most distant ‘sources’ - rooted in Greek and Roman classical antiquity - and with those chronologically closer to it. Special attention is placed on the re-elaboration and re-interpretation of those same sources in Fifteenth-century Italian Culture and, in particular, on the Florentine Humanists’ political use and re-shaping of a classical metaphor: that of a composite harmony (or of the lack of it) associated with the idea of good (or bad) government.
Il Liuto, Rivista della Socierà del Liuto, X, 2015
Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string fea... more Starting with the world famous Ambassadors by Hans Holbein, where a lute with a broken string features mysteriously and prominently, this article aims to explore the origins of the symbolism of the lute with a broken string from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, and to highlight how a symbol can be progressively constructed along its transitions through various cultures. In doing so, philosophical, literary and iconographic sources have been taken into account in order to unveil the hidden but solid connection that links the enigmatic musical instrument staged in Holbein’s masterpiece with its most distant ‘sources’ - rooted in Greek and Roman classical antiquity - and with those chronologically closer to it. Special attention is placed on the re-elaboration and re-interpretation of those same sources in Fifteenth-century Italian Culture and, in particular, on the Florentine Humanists’ political use and re-shaping of a classical metaphor: that of a composite harmony (or of the lack of it) associated with the idea of good (or bad) government.
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This article focuses on a satirical letter to Elizabeth I preserved in the Florentine State Archives. Disguised as a flattering and gallant marriage proposal (from the Antichrist!), this text – which has not been the object of any previous research – stands out as a vitriolic attack against the Queen of England dating from 1570/1571, a critical time when Catholic initiatives to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots where supported by the excommunication bull issued by Pius v against the English monarch.
The content and the textual features of the letter point to Nicholas Sander as its author. A brilliant and sharp writer, Sander was a leading figure among the English Catholic exiles in Louvain and the author of the earliest and most famous historical account of the Anglican schism and the Tudor dynasty.
This article focuses on a satirical letter to Elizabeth I preserved in the Florentine State Archives. Disguised as a flattering and gallant marriage proposal (from the Antichrist!), this text – which has not been the object of any previous research – stands out as a vitriolic attack against the Queen of England dating from 1570/1571, a critical time when Catholic initiatives to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots where supported by the excommunication bull issued by Pius v against the English monarch.
The content and the textual features of the letter point to Nicholas Sander as its author. A brilliant and sharp writer, Sander was a leading figure among the English Catholic exiles in Louvain and the author of the earliest and most famous historical account of the Anglican schism and the Tudor dynasty.