Characteristics of royalty were at the centre of the political debate during the years of Macbeth... more Characteristics of royalty were at the centre of the political debate during the years of Macbeth\u2019s creation and exhibition. In the tractate The True law of free monarchies, King James I sustained that monarchy was hereditary and, as a natural part of the divine plan for humanity, its legitimacy could be not discussed. The discussion about the characteristics of royalty had a long story and in England a political speculation about royalty and tyranny arose during the XII century and continued during the first years of the Plantagenet dynasty (1154-1216). From king Henry II\u2019s era to John Lackland\u2019s fall, thinkers and writers drafted the definition of the right kingship and its counterpart: tyranny. The emblems of tyranny were avidity, hate for the nobility and freedom, and disregard for the common and consuetudinary laws. In 1216, the revolt of the barons led to the Magna Charta and turned these speculations in law. Following the twelfth-century description of tyranny, the article compares the aspects of Macbeth\u2019s tyranny with the ones identified by the twelfth-century intellectuals in order to show a longterm process that accompanied this idea from the Plantagenet era to the Shakespeare composition and proposes a contextualization of the opera in the first years of James I regency
The purpose of this essay is to explore Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica and Walter
Map’s ... more The purpose of this essay is to explore Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica and Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium, to assess how the authors treated and described the Mediterranean space, with particular reference to the Holy Land. The selected texts are often cited as typical of the style of literary production that took place at the court of Henry II of England (1154- 1189) and of the strong correspondence that existed between the policies of the English king and the works of his courtiers. The first version of the Topographia Hibernica was written between 1186-1188 and is the first treatise on Ireland composed by a non-Irish author. The De Nugis Curialium, a collection of satirical invectives, folktales, and personal experiences, was written during the latter half of the twelfth century. In their respective texts, Gerald of Wales and Walter Map focus primarily on topics regarding the British Isles. Noticeably, however, both writers make relevant digressions in order to report information about Sicily, Greece and the Holy Land, and that both authors witnessed the arrival of the patriarch of Jerusalem in London. The present article has two goals: first, bearing in mind Henry II’s reluctance as a response to possible crusade, the aim of this analysis is to see if and how the descriptions of the Mediterranean space coincided with Henry II’s reluctance to travel to Jerusalem. The second aim is to show how such descriptions accorded with the structure of both works and, in particular, how they might serve the authors’ specific interests beyond their adherence to Henry II’s policies.
In the XII century the court of Henry II had a leading role in the construction of the idea of co... more In the XII century the court of Henry II had a leading role in the construction of the idea of courtliness and was a propitious laboratory for the weapon of the courtiers: the word. A peculiarity of the cultural production at the Plantagenet court was the use of the literature to translate, fight or exegitize, in literary terms, the conflicts of the ‘Angevin Empire’. A lot of texts are used as medium for others messages, that are hidden under the fine courtly language.The article will analyse a particular case of study: the De nugis curialium of Walter Map. An atypical text, its author was a venomous and typically courtier. His work is a heterogeneous anthology, written in a fine Latin, who concerns all the topics theme of the XIIth century world of the courts. Walter Map tells us about the most incredible stories with the same facility who uses to describe events in which was involved himself. Between fairy tales, knights, tournaments and venomous satyr we can catch also the figures of a lot of kings and queens: images who talk about the capacity of ruling, and also about personal attitudes. The reading of those stories needs to remind the double-nature of the courtly texts, the literary one and the one political, strictly connected with the aspiration of the patron and the writer, The description of royalty in the work of Walter Map asks directly to his own needs and the ones of the Angevin rulers, painting portraits of good and bad kings, real and fantastic ones. The way used by the author to describe Henry II, Luis VII and Henry the Young King, could reveal the ideas of the author, of this patron or, better, which idea of royalties and kings they wanted to propagate.
Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th–13th Century),.Palgrave Macmillan : Cham (The New Middle Ages), 2023
Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England: A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th-13th Ce... more Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England: A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th-13th Century) advances a model for historical study of courtly literature by foregrounding the personal aims, networks, and careers as the impetus for much of the period’s literature. The book takes two authors as case studies – Gerald of Wales and Walter Map – to show how authors not only built their own stories but also used popular narratives and the tools of propaganda to achieve their own, personal goals. The purpose of this study is to overturn the top-down model of political patronage, in which patrons – and particularly royal patrons – set the cultural agenda and dictate literary tastes. Rather, Fabrizio De Falco argues that authors were often representative of many different interests expressed by local groups. To pursue those interests, they targeted specific political factions in the changeable political scenario of Angevin England. Their texts reveal a polycentric view of cultural production and its reception. The study aims to model a heuristic process which is applicable to other courtly texts besides the chosen case-studies.
Traduzione in italiano con testo latino a fronte della Topographia Hibernica di Giraldo Cambrense... more Traduzione in italiano con testo latino a fronte della Topographia Hibernica di Giraldo Cambrense, completato da note storiche e introduzione (pp. 7-48).
Original text in Latin with parallel Italian translation; introduction (pp. 7-48) and critical matter in Italian.
Presentato al II Workshop dei dottorandi in storia medievale Venezia 14-15 settembre 2017, all'in... more Presentato al II Workshop dei dottorandi in storia medievale Venezia 14-15 settembre 2017, all'interno del panel: La cultura in pratica e la pratica della cultura. Le lettere, i letterati e il loro «contesto materiale»
(coordinatore: F. De Falco)
These three panels interrogate the reality of movement and mobility in the Middle Ages adopting a... more These three panels interrogate the reality of movement and mobility in the Middle Ages adopting a longue durée perspective. Considering both a wide range of source material and immediate contexts, the panels are designed to allow discussion between and across both chronological and geographical boundaries but at the same time permit detailed consideration of specific localities and contexts. How did individuals on the ground perceive and understand movement in the Mediterranean world? What does this tell us about the responses of both societies and individuals to those who moved through and between the spheres of a multidimensional Mediterranean? These are the key questions which these three panels will approach and discuss
Characteristics of royalty were at the centre of the political debate during the years of Macbeth... more Characteristics of royalty were at the centre of the political debate during the years of Macbeth\u2019s creation and exhibition. In the tractate The True law of free monarchies, King James I sustained that monarchy was hereditary and, as a natural part of the divine plan for humanity, its legitimacy could be not discussed. The discussion about the characteristics of royalty had a long story and in England a political speculation about royalty and tyranny arose during the XII century and continued during the first years of the Plantagenet dynasty (1154-1216). From king Henry II\u2019s era to John Lackland\u2019s fall, thinkers and writers drafted the definition of the right kingship and its counterpart: tyranny. The emblems of tyranny were avidity, hate for the nobility and freedom, and disregard for the common and consuetudinary laws. In 1216, the revolt of the barons led to the Magna Charta and turned these speculations in law. Following the twelfth-century description of tyranny, the article compares the aspects of Macbeth\u2019s tyranny with the ones identified by the twelfth-century intellectuals in order to show a longterm process that accompanied this idea from the Plantagenet era to the Shakespeare composition and proposes a contextualization of the opera in the first years of James I regency
The purpose of this essay is to explore Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica and Walter
Map’s ... more The purpose of this essay is to explore Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica and Walter Map’s De Nugis Curialium, to assess how the authors treated and described the Mediterranean space, with particular reference to the Holy Land. The selected texts are often cited as typical of the style of literary production that took place at the court of Henry II of England (1154- 1189) and of the strong correspondence that existed between the policies of the English king and the works of his courtiers. The first version of the Topographia Hibernica was written between 1186-1188 and is the first treatise on Ireland composed by a non-Irish author. The De Nugis Curialium, a collection of satirical invectives, folktales, and personal experiences, was written during the latter half of the twelfth century. In their respective texts, Gerald of Wales and Walter Map focus primarily on topics regarding the British Isles. Noticeably, however, both writers make relevant digressions in order to report information about Sicily, Greece and the Holy Land, and that both authors witnessed the arrival of the patriarch of Jerusalem in London. The present article has two goals: first, bearing in mind Henry II’s reluctance as a response to possible crusade, the aim of this analysis is to see if and how the descriptions of the Mediterranean space coincided with Henry II’s reluctance to travel to Jerusalem. The second aim is to show how such descriptions accorded with the structure of both works and, in particular, how they might serve the authors’ specific interests beyond their adherence to Henry II’s policies.
In the XII century the court of Henry II had a leading role in the construction of the idea of co... more In the XII century the court of Henry II had a leading role in the construction of the idea of courtliness and was a propitious laboratory for the weapon of the courtiers: the word. A peculiarity of the cultural production at the Plantagenet court was the use of the literature to translate, fight or exegitize, in literary terms, the conflicts of the ‘Angevin Empire’. A lot of texts are used as medium for others messages, that are hidden under the fine courtly language.The article will analyse a particular case of study: the De nugis curialium of Walter Map. An atypical text, its author was a venomous and typically courtier. His work is a heterogeneous anthology, written in a fine Latin, who concerns all the topics theme of the XIIth century world of the courts. Walter Map tells us about the most incredible stories with the same facility who uses to describe events in which was involved himself. Between fairy tales, knights, tournaments and venomous satyr we can catch also the figures of a lot of kings and queens: images who talk about the capacity of ruling, and also about personal attitudes. The reading of those stories needs to remind the double-nature of the courtly texts, the literary one and the one political, strictly connected with the aspiration of the patron and the writer, The description of royalty in the work of Walter Map asks directly to his own needs and the ones of the Angevin rulers, painting portraits of good and bad kings, real and fantastic ones. The way used by the author to describe Henry II, Luis VII and Henry the Young King, could reveal the ideas of the author, of this patron or, better, which idea of royalties and kings they wanted to propagate.
Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th–13th Century),.Palgrave Macmillan : Cham (The New Middle Ages), 2023
Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England: A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th-13th Ce... more Authors, Factions, and Courts in Angevin England: A Literature of Personal Ambition (12th-13th Century) advances a model for historical study of courtly literature by foregrounding the personal aims, networks, and careers as the impetus for much of the period’s literature. The book takes two authors as case studies – Gerald of Wales and Walter Map – to show how authors not only built their own stories but also used popular narratives and the tools of propaganda to achieve their own, personal goals. The purpose of this study is to overturn the top-down model of political patronage, in which patrons – and particularly royal patrons – set the cultural agenda and dictate literary tastes. Rather, Fabrizio De Falco argues that authors were often representative of many different interests expressed by local groups. To pursue those interests, they targeted specific political factions in the changeable political scenario of Angevin England. Their texts reveal a polycentric view of cultural production and its reception. The study aims to model a heuristic process which is applicable to other courtly texts besides the chosen case-studies.
Traduzione in italiano con testo latino a fronte della Topographia Hibernica di Giraldo Cambrense... more Traduzione in italiano con testo latino a fronte della Topographia Hibernica di Giraldo Cambrense, completato da note storiche e introduzione (pp. 7-48).
Original text in Latin with parallel Italian translation; introduction (pp. 7-48) and critical matter in Italian.
Presentato al II Workshop dei dottorandi in storia medievale Venezia 14-15 settembre 2017, all'in... more Presentato al II Workshop dei dottorandi in storia medievale Venezia 14-15 settembre 2017, all'interno del panel: La cultura in pratica e la pratica della cultura. Le lettere, i letterati e il loro «contesto materiale»
(coordinatore: F. De Falco)
These three panels interrogate the reality of movement and mobility in the Middle Ages adopting a... more These three panels interrogate the reality of movement and mobility in the Middle Ages adopting a longue durée perspective. Considering both a wide range of source material and immediate contexts, the panels are designed to allow discussion between and across both chronological and geographical boundaries but at the same time permit detailed consideration of specific localities and contexts. How did individuals on the ground perceive and understand movement in the Mediterranean world? What does this tell us about the responses of both societies and individuals to those who moved through and between the spheres of a multidimensional Mediterranean? These are the key questions which these three panels will approach and discuss
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Map’s De Nugis Curialium, to assess how the authors treated and described the Mediterranean
space, with particular reference to the Holy Land. The selected texts are often cited as typical
of the style of literary production that took place at the court of Henry II of England (1154-
1189) and of the strong correspondence that existed between the policies of the English king
and the works of his courtiers. The first version of the Topographia Hibernica was written
between 1186-1188 and is the first treatise on Ireland composed by a non-Irish author. The
De Nugis Curialium, a collection of satirical invectives, folktales, and personal experiences,
was written during the latter half of the twelfth century. In their respective texts, Gerald
of Wales and Walter Map focus primarily on topics regarding the British Isles. Noticeably,
however, both writers make relevant digressions in order to report information about Sicily,
Greece and the Holy Land, and that both authors witnessed the arrival of the patriarch of
Jerusalem in London. The present article has two goals: first, bearing in mind Henry II’s
reluctance as a response to possible crusade, the aim of this analysis is to see if and how the
descriptions of the Mediterranean space coincided with Henry II’s reluctance to travel to
Jerusalem. The second aim is to show how such descriptions accorded with the structure of
both works and, in particular, how they might serve the authors’ specific interests beyond
their adherence to Henry II’s policies.
Original text in Latin with parallel Italian translation; introduction (pp. 7-48) and critical matter in Italian.
(coordinatore: F. De Falco)
Map’s De Nugis Curialium, to assess how the authors treated and described the Mediterranean
space, with particular reference to the Holy Land. The selected texts are often cited as typical
of the style of literary production that took place at the court of Henry II of England (1154-
1189) and of the strong correspondence that existed between the policies of the English king
and the works of his courtiers. The first version of the Topographia Hibernica was written
between 1186-1188 and is the first treatise on Ireland composed by a non-Irish author. The
De Nugis Curialium, a collection of satirical invectives, folktales, and personal experiences,
was written during the latter half of the twelfth century. In their respective texts, Gerald
of Wales and Walter Map focus primarily on topics regarding the British Isles. Noticeably,
however, both writers make relevant digressions in order to report information about Sicily,
Greece and the Holy Land, and that both authors witnessed the arrival of the patriarch of
Jerusalem in London. The present article has two goals: first, bearing in mind Henry II’s
reluctance as a response to possible crusade, the aim of this analysis is to see if and how the
descriptions of the Mediterranean space coincided with Henry II’s reluctance to travel to
Jerusalem. The second aim is to show how such descriptions accorded with the structure of
both works and, in particular, how they might serve the authors’ specific interests beyond
their adherence to Henry II’s policies.
Original text in Latin with parallel Italian translation; introduction (pp. 7-48) and critical matter in Italian.
(coordinatore: F. De Falco)