- Dipartimento di Studi Storici
Università degli Studi di Milano
Via Festa del Perdono, 7
20122 - Milano
Italia
Research Interests: Economic History, Historical Demography, Renaissance Studies, Urban History, Medieval urban history, and 9 moreThe Italian communes and signories (1300-1450), Late Medieval History, Sforza family, History of Milan, Italian communes, Renaissance Milan, History of the Milanese Duchy, Ducato di Milano, and MIlan under Visconti and Sforza
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Il saggio mette a fuoco la vicenda dei Canossa alla fine del XIV secolo con lo scopo di mostrare come sia cambiato nel corso del tempo il rapporto fra la sfera economica e quella politica nelle formazioni signorili. Se nei secoli centrali... more
Il saggio mette a fuoco la vicenda dei Canossa alla fine del XIV secolo con lo scopo di mostrare come sia cambiato nel corso del tempo il rapporto fra la sfera economica e quella politica nelle formazioni signorili. Se nei secoli centrali del medioevo la signoria rurale era stata soprattutto il mezzo attraverso cui un grande proprietario era riuscito a drenare nuove e ulteriori risorse dai contadini dipendenti, alla fine del Trecento il rapporto fra economia e politica pare essersi invertito: la leva economica, mantenuta ora volutamente abbassata (con bannalità moderate e censi contenuti) appare infatti funzionale al mantenimento di un potere signorile sempre più a rischio per la mobilità degli uomini e per l’offensiva di attori esterni (altri signori, la città di Reggio, il principe).
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The World Upside Down: Mice Besieging Cats. An Iconographic Theme between Divertissement and Political Conflict (Middle Ages-Modern Age) · The representation of the mundus inversus – in literature, in figures, in rituals – is common to... more
The World Upside Down: Mice Besieging Cats. An Iconographic Theme between Divertissement and Political Conflict (Middle Ages-Modern Age) · The representation of the mundus inversus – in literature, in figures, in rituals – is common to various civilisations, rarely constituting a mere divertissement. The essay focuses on Europe in the late Middle Ages and the Old Regime and examines the development of one iconographic theme in particular, that of mice besieging a cat castle. The objective is twofold : on the one hand, to explore its communicative and performative potential, with regard to the contexts of production and fruition ; on the other hand, to grasp in a diachronic perspective the changes in its use. From this point of view, the evolution in the strategic use of this image has proved to be a veritable litmus test of the processes of social and institutional stiffening accompanying the transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. If up until the early 16th century the cat castle besieged by rats was a political allegory that the subjects could use to challenge the authority, after that time it took on a more conservative function, well emphasised by cartouches and texts denouncing the absurdity of the world upside down, or announcing the victory of the cats and the consequent restoration of the natural order.
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Through the analysis of some case-studies this paper aims to unveil an unknown genre of defamatory painting, which involved milites and condottieri. Contrary to common belief, city-states and urban lords were not the only ones to make use... more
Through the analysis of some case-studies this paper aims to unveil an unknown genre of defamatory painting, which involved milites and condottieri. Contrary to common belief, city-states and urban lords were not the only ones to make use of images to pillory people, since the military also resorted to “pittura infamante” to settle their accounts. This essay investigates the analogies and discrepancies between public (or official) rituals and military customs. In addition, it traces some regional differences, linking them to the diverse political context.
Research Interests: Military History, Iconography, Medieval History, Italian Renaissance Art, The Italian communes and signories (1300-1450), and 12 moreMedieval and Renaissance Studies, Iconology, Mercenaries in Medieval and Rennaissance Italy, Medieval Art History, Iconografia, Condottiere, 15th Century Florence, Renaissance Florence, Italian communes, Ducato di Milano, MIlan under Visconti and Sforza, and Pittura Infamante
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Research Interests: Italian Studies, Renaissance Studies, Lombardy (Late Middle Ages), Early Modern Italy, The Italian communes and signories (1300-1450), and 5 moreLate Medieval History, late medieval and early modern history of European nobility and courts, Renaissance Milan, Ducato di Milano, and MIlan under Visconti and Sforza
This essay engages with the earliest medieval urban panegyric (or laus civitatis) in Italy, the Versum de Mediolano civitate (739). Thanks to a fresh approach, which lies at the intersection between linguistics and history, Gamberini... more
This essay engages with the earliest medieval urban panegyric (or laus civitatis) in Italy, the Versum de Mediolano civitate (739). Thanks to a fresh approach, which lies at the intersection between linguistics and history, Gamberini provides a reappraisal of the crucial passage in which the anonymous author hints at the link between the Lombard king Liutprand and the city of Milan. In so doing Gamberini unveils one of the Versum’s ultimate goals: to portray Milan’s greatness on the grounds of Liutprand’s Milanese origins.
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Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Aristotle, Greek Language, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, and 13 moreMedieval Latin Literature, History of Florence, History of Political Thought, Aristotle's Commentators, Medieval philology, The Italian communes and signories (1300-1450), Medieval And Humanistic Philology, Aristotle's Politics, Humanistic Latin Literature, Aristoteles, Renaissance Florence, Leonardo Bruni, and MIlan under Visconti and Sforza
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Das Herzogtum Mailand, die italienischen Staaten und die aktuelle Forschungsdiskussion – eine historiographische Bilanz, in Kulturtransfer im Spätmittelalter: Die Visconti und der deutsche Südwesten. (Hgg.) P. Rückert, S. Lorenz, R. Kretzschmar, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern, 2008, pp. 89-102more
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Come ben sapevano i predicatori medievali, delle due grandi leve del comportamento umano - la paura del castigo e la speranza del premio - la più efficace era la prima. Di qui, allora, lo sviluppo di immagini dell'Inferno che fra Tre e... more
Come ben sapevano i predicatori medievali, delle due grandi leve del comportamento umano - la paura del castigo e la speranza del premio - la più efficace era la prima. Di qui, allora, lo sviluppo di immagini dell'Inferno che fra Tre e Quattrocento sono sempre più complesse e crude, così da turbare gli animi e smuovere le coscienze. Ma in che direzione? E a quale scopo? La domanda è assai meno scontata di quanto non possa apparire. Dal momento, infatti, che gli exempla negativi avevano senso solo in funzione di quelli positivi, il grande teatro dei reprobi si prestava anche ad una lettura al contrario, in cui le figure dei peccatori, lungi dal costituire solo un terribile ammonimento, indirizzavano il fedele verso atteggiamenti speculari e opposti a quelli puniti. La critica si faceva insomma proposta, complici le scelte iconografiche di artisti e committenti (comunità, privati, confraternite, ordini religiosi, ecc.), che attraverso il tema dell'Inferno potevano esprimere i propri ideali di convivenza civile