A Companion to Medieval Genoa introduces non-specialists to recent scholarship on the vibrant and... more A Companion to Medieval Genoa introduces non-specialists to recent scholarship on the vibrant and source-rich medieval history of Genoa.
Edited and introduced by Carrie Beneš.
Medieval Manuscripts, Their Makers and Users: A Special Issue of Viator in Honor of Richard and Mary Rouse, 2011
Civic foundation legends were ubiquitous in medieval Italy, invented and repeated by those cities... more Civic foundation legends were ubiquitous in medieval Italy, invented and repeated by those cities’ medieval inhabitants to augment civic honor and social prestige. Historians have traditionally dismissed accounts such as Hercules’ founding of Florence or the Trojans’ foundation of Genoa as simple medieval credulity, but recent attention to origin myths as expressions of social identity has brought the genre into new focus. Scholars have most often investigated such legends at a specific time and place; the present essay takes a broader approach in focusing on five catalogues of civic origins assembled in the first half of the fourteenth century by the authors Riccobaldo da Ferrara, Benzo d’Alessandria, Armannino da Bologna, Guglielmo da Pastrengo, and Giovanni Villani. These catalogues demonstrate not only the variety of ways that individual authors and scribes assessed and organized the available data, but also how they shared ideas as participants in late medieval Italy’s wide-ranging intellectual networks.
The well-known classical abbreviation SPQR has acquired many spurious expansions over the centuri... more The well-known classical abbreviation SPQR has acquired many spurious expansions over the centuries. One version popular with resentful locals in the early nineteenth century was soli preti qui rregneno, or “only priests reign here” in the local dialect; and even today non-Romans like to claim it means sono pazzi, questi Romani, or “they're crazy, these Romans.” The more canonical explanation is that SPQR stands for senatus populusque Romanus, “the Roman Senate and people,” which was the traditional description of the state in imperial as well as republican ancient Rome. The phrase is attested in classical authors such as Cicero, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus; it appears in numerous official acts and in Augustus's Res gestae. The popularity of the abbreviation beyond that of the phrase from which it derives is most likely the result of its use in epigraphy and numismatics, since senatus populusque Romanus appeared in initial form, that is, SPQR, in monumental inscriptions throughout the city, as well as on the Roman coinage.
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd Series, 2009
Most Italian cities of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries vaunted legendary founders, often ... more Most Italian cities of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries vaunted legendary founders, often of classical origin, as part of their ideological arsenal; such a founder was perceived to improve a city's prestige and diminish that of its neighbors on a regional, peninsular, or even continental scale. Nonetheless, late medieval Genoa's dominant role in the Mediterranean economy—combined with its serious internal divisions—meant that its citizens’ efforts at community self-definition and legitimation in this period were chiefly directed inward instead of outward. The promotion of the cult of Genoa’s mythical founder Janus in precisely this period aimed to persuade the Genoese away from factionalism by recalling a long-distant but unified unspoiled past. This essay contextualizes the Genoese adoption of Janus as one of many “civic improvements” attempted between 1257 and 1312, an era often considered the height of the medieval commune.
In the early 1830s, the founders of Rienzi, Mississippi, named their new town after the fourteent... more In the early 1830s, the founders of Rienzi, Mississippi, named their new town after the fourteenth-century Roman demagogue Cola di Rienzo (or Rienzi). In doing so they took part in a contemporary trans-continental craze for Cola and everything for which he stood—which they saw as republicanism, anti-Catholicism, and the rights of the individual against tyranny and privilege. Luminaries from Voltaire to Byron championed his cause, making Cola a minor celebrity: an appropriate hero for a small group of Protestant settlers in the American South, but also the inspiration for political groups and individuals across the United States and Europe. Tourists to Rome could even visit Cola di Rienzo’s house, a medieval structure along the Tiber that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century itineraries featured prominently along with the usual monuments of classical and papal Rome. This article traces Cola di Rienzo’s evolution as a symbolic figure—from unsuccessful rebel to protonationalist revolutionary—through the fortunes of his so-called house. Its concrete presence in Rome gave substance and focus to his legend across Europe, even though it had never belonged to him.
CFP for the 22nd biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, to take pla... more CFP for the 22nd biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, to take place 12–14 March 2020 in Sarasota, Florida. Inquiries to info@newcollegeconference.org.
CFP for a series of sessions to be held at Leeds IMC in 2018 on Jacopo da Varagine in historical ... more CFP for a series of sessions to be held at Leeds IMC in 2018 on Jacopo da Varagine in historical context.
A Companion to Medieval Genoa introduces non-specialists to recent scholarship on the vibrant and... more A Companion to Medieval Genoa introduces non-specialists to recent scholarship on the vibrant and source-rich medieval history of Genoa.
Edited and introduced by Carrie Beneš.
Medieval Manuscripts, Their Makers and Users: A Special Issue of Viator in Honor of Richard and Mary Rouse, 2011
Civic foundation legends were ubiquitous in medieval Italy, invented and repeated by those cities... more Civic foundation legends were ubiquitous in medieval Italy, invented and repeated by those cities’ medieval inhabitants to augment civic honor and social prestige. Historians have traditionally dismissed accounts such as Hercules’ founding of Florence or the Trojans’ foundation of Genoa as simple medieval credulity, but recent attention to origin myths as expressions of social identity has brought the genre into new focus. Scholars have most often investigated such legends at a specific time and place; the present essay takes a broader approach in focusing on five catalogues of civic origins assembled in the first half of the fourteenth century by the authors Riccobaldo da Ferrara, Benzo d’Alessandria, Armannino da Bologna, Guglielmo da Pastrengo, and Giovanni Villani. These catalogues demonstrate not only the variety of ways that individual authors and scribes assessed and organized the available data, but also how they shared ideas as participants in late medieval Italy’s wide-ranging intellectual networks.
The well-known classical abbreviation SPQR has acquired many spurious expansions over the centuri... more The well-known classical abbreviation SPQR has acquired many spurious expansions over the centuries. One version popular with resentful locals in the early nineteenth century was soli preti qui rregneno, or “only priests reign here” in the local dialect; and even today non-Romans like to claim it means sono pazzi, questi Romani, or “they're crazy, these Romans.” The more canonical explanation is that SPQR stands for senatus populusque Romanus, “the Roman Senate and people,” which was the traditional description of the state in imperial as well as republican ancient Rome. The phrase is attested in classical authors such as Cicero, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus; it appears in numerous official acts and in Augustus's Res gestae. The popularity of the abbreviation beyond that of the phrase from which it derives is most likely the result of its use in epigraphy and numismatics, since senatus populusque Romanus appeared in initial form, that is, SPQR, in monumental inscriptions throughout the city, as well as on the Roman coinage.
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd Series, 2009
Most Italian cities of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries vaunted legendary founders, often ... more Most Italian cities of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries vaunted legendary founders, often of classical origin, as part of their ideological arsenal; such a founder was perceived to improve a city's prestige and diminish that of its neighbors on a regional, peninsular, or even continental scale. Nonetheless, late medieval Genoa's dominant role in the Mediterranean economy—combined with its serious internal divisions—meant that its citizens’ efforts at community self-definition and legitimation in this period were chiefly directed inward instead of outward. The promotion of the cult of Genoa’s mythical founder Janus in precisely this period aimed to persuade the Genoese away from factionalism by recalling a long-distant but unified unspoiled past. This essay contextualizes the Genoese adoption of Janus as one of many “civic improvements” attempted between 1257 and 1312, an era often considered the height of the medieval commune.
In the early 1830s, the founders of Rienzi, Mississippi, named their new town after the fourteent... more In the early 1830s, the founders of Rienzi, Mississippi, named their new town after the fourteenth-century Roman demagogue Cola di Rienzo (or Rienzi). In doing so they took part in a contemporary trans-continental craze for Cola and everything for which he stood—which they saw as republicanism, anti-Catholicism, and the rights of the individual against tyranny and privilege. Luminaries from Voltaire to Byron championed his cause, making Cola a minor celebrity: an appropriate hero for a small group of Protestant settlers in the American South, but also the inspiration for political groups and individuals across the United States and Europe. Tourists to Rome could even visit Cola di Rienzo’s house, a medieval structure along the Tiber that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century itineraries featured prominently along with the usual monuments of classical and papal Rome. This article traces Cola di Rienzo’s evolution as a symbolic figure—from unsuccessful rebel to protonationalist revolutionary—through the fortunes of his so-called house. Its concrete presence in Rome gave substance and focus to his legend across Europe, even though it had never belonged to him.
CFP for the 22nd biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, to take pla... more CFP for the 22nd biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, to take place 12–14 March 2020 in Sarasota, Florida. Inquiries to info@newcollegeconference.org.
CFP for a series of sessions to be held at Leeds IMC in 2018 on Jacopo da Varagine in historical ... more CFP for a series of sessions to be held at Leeds IMC in 2018 on Jacopo da Varagine in historical context.
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Edited and introduced by Carrie Beneš.
Edited and introduced by Carrie Beneš.