Padua

Padova, ubicata nell’area nord-est della Penisola italica, snodo di collegamento tra il nord e il sud dell’Europa, ha una continuità insediativa di circa tre millenni: dalla protostoria (fine IX-inizio VIII sec. a.C.) sino ai giorni nostri.
Patavium nasce come centro abitato sulle sponde dell’antico fiume Medoacus, che permetteva il passaggio e lo sviluppo del commercio sia verso l’entroterra sia verso il mare; una città protetta da questo corso d’acqua, ma vulnerabile, essendo situata in una pianura soggetta a esondazioni.
Fin dall’epoca preromana, grazie alla sua posizione geografica e al suo stretto rapporto con il mare Adriatico, l’abitato accresce la sua ricchezza tramite scambi commerciali grazie alla facilità dei collegamenti. Pomponio Mela, geografo latino, la definì opulentissima e Strabone, geografo greco, la considerò come una delle città più belle e popolose dell’Impero romano.
Roma estese il proprio dominio su Padova per sei secoli, assoggettando la città non tramite una conquista militare, ma attraverso una sorta di protettorato, mediante le alleanze stabilite con l’aristocrazia locale, portatrice di propri usi e costumi.

A short work about the towers and the castle built along the river Brenta between Padua and Venice from 11th to 15th century. The papers include a short digression about the archaeological risks connected to the remains of this medieval structure.

Cette thèse sonde le rôle politique des fresques astrologiques situées dans la salle des tribunaux du Palazzo della Ragione (1218-1219) de Padoue. Peint possiblement d’abord par Giotto au temps de la Commune au XIVe siècle, le cycle astrologique est reconstruit à la suite d’un incendie, sous l’occupation vénitienne, au XVe siècle. L’objectif est précisément de comprendre en quoi l’œuvre constitue un outil politique. Le cycle astrologique façonne-t-il un discours politique dans le but de maintenir une identité padouane? Ou encore, les fresques opèrent-elles un pouvoir sur les individus qui habitent la cité de Padoue? Grâce aux approches historiques, historiographiques, anthropologiques, sociologiques et féministes, ce projet de recherche explore les effets de la matière picturale et des iconographies astrologiques sur le corps social padouan. Il appert que l’œuvre d’art, orientée en fonction des quatre points cardinaux, célèbre une identité mythique associée à la Commune, façonne une typologie des individus idéaux et dicte des codes de conduites aux hommes et aux femmes, afin de les accompagner dans leur quête du Salut éternel. En sommes, la thèse prouve que le cycle astrologique de Padoue était au XVe siècle considéré comme une « œuvre talisman », dotée d’une « agentivité céleste », c’est-à-dire capable d’émettre des effets bénéfiques (ou non) sur les corps spectateurs.

The conscious and strategic employment of motifs and contents derived from classical antiquity made in fourteenth-century Padua by the Lords of the city, the Carrara (1338-1405), and members of their entourage, is a widely aknowledged cultural phenomenon. In line with a tradition inaugurated in Padua in the thirteenth century by local intellectuals and humanists such as Lovato Lovati, who established the mythical foundation of the city, instituting Antenor, Aeneas’s companion in the flight from Troy, as its founder, the Carrara nourished the enthusiasm further. The desire to know and to emulate the splendour and achievements of the ancients generated a passionate commitment, not exempt from political purports. In fact, the Carrara presented themselves as heirs and successors of the ancients, hence exploiting classical antiquity as both a marker and an agent of cultural, political and social identity. In this respect, one of the most significant examples is the decoration of the Sala Virorum Illustrium in the family palace, where portraits of Roman Emperors and Heroes based on the anthology composed by Petrarch, were presented alongside portraits of members of the Carrara household. Equally notable is the ‘cesariale’, i.e. imperial, dress that Francesco the Elder da Carrara wore on special occasions, together with the numerous commissions of artworks, paintings and illuminated manuscripts, that visualize themes from antiquity. Moreover, the Carrara and their fellows are known to have collected antique and Roman artefacts, including bronze statuettes and medals.
In this context of passionate homage to classical antiquity, of appropriation of ancient culture for identity purposes, how can the representation of saints destroying Roman statues of idols, which is so frequent in paintings commissioned by the Carrara and members of their inner circle, be explained? Examples can be found in the most important cycles of the second half of the Trecento, including the palatine chapel of the Carrara, the Oratory of St George, the chapel of St James in the Basilica del Santo, and the main chapel of the Church of the Eremitani.
This paper sheds new light on this neglected phenomenon, arguing that the unusual reiteration of images of this kind shall be read as a flag of Christian orthodoxy. It will show that these images were intended to establish and visually communicate the existing boundary between a legitimate appropriation and revival of classical traditions, which was pursued for political and cultural purposes, and its inappropriate use when it came to the religious sphere. In so doing, this paper will investigate complex phenomena related not only to Padua under the Carrara, but more generally to other important centres for humanism and classical tradition, opening research paths that have remained unexplored thus far.
In order to reach its goals, this paper will delve into comparative sets of materials, including archival records, historical sources, texts of sermons and preachings, together with the extent artworks.

Il contributo ripercorre criticamente quanto è stato inferito dallo studio e interpretazione delle fonti scritte e di eventuali elementi materiali ancora esistenti circa i danni subiti e le riparazioni effettuate in epoca medievale nelle città di Venezia e Padova in seguito al terremoto del 3 gennaio 1117. Il riesame degli scarsi dati disponibili e l’analisi delle ipotesi storiografiche ha condotto alla revisione di talune proposte permettendo di avanzare ipotesi alternative, in particolare riguardo al rifacimento di alcuni mosaici della laguna veneziana (basilica di San Marco; cattedrale di Torcello) e al cantiere di ricostruzione del duomo di Padova. PROVIDED FOR NON-COMMERCIAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION OR COMMERCIAL USE.

Renaissance scholars are regarded as primarily responsible for several emendations to the text of Catullus, which barely survived the middle ages through a single, corrupted witness: the studies so far focused on the major names of the time and their public diatribes on such a challenging text. There were, however, scholars who worked privately, such as Francesco Buzzacarini, a fifteenth-century Paduan humanist who intensively collated, corrected and emended his manuscript of Catullus, now in Venice. His work witnesses unmistakable use of older manuscript sources, now lost, as well as certain readings only known today from later printed editions. He is often mentioned by other, more famous scholars, some of whom show acquaintance with him through private letters. This paper, therefore, aims to show the contribution that this case study may give to the understanding of Renaissance philological practices and scholarly environments from the perspective of a lesser-known humanist.

The purpose of the present article is to provide a picture of the translucent enamelled goldsmithery present in the Paduan territory and produced in a time span that includes most of the 14th and 15th centuries, thus involving the Paduan Gothic, Late Gothic and, partly, Renaissance goldsmithery. The analysed artifacts are goldsmith’s objects belonging to different categories, mainly of liturgical nature. This study touches upon many aspects of these artifacts, from the style of the illustrated plaques to their formal typologies and the complex variety of the translucent ornamentations. The research brings to light a continuity in the use of the technique until at least the end of the 15th century.

Una panoramica generale che prende in considerazione lo stato attuale della ricerca sulla Riforma a Padova, nella società laica ed ecclesiastica, secola e regolare. Alcuni esempi.

An overview that considers the current state of research on the Reformation in Padua, among the laity and the Church,  secular and regular clergy. Some studied cases.

Abstract. The emergence of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had in medicine an important field of development thanks especially to the work of Santorio Santori (1561-1636). Mostly known for his contribution to the study of metabolism, Santorio was a pioneer in the use of quantification and developed several types of instruments, among which was a device called pulsilogium that represents the first instrument of precision in the history of medicine. First mentioned in 1602 by a colleague of Santorio in Padua, the instrument possibly constituted a source of inspiration for Galileo and sparked an entire path of experiments in seventeenth-century Europe. Santorio presented his inventions in a series of rough engravings in his Commentaria in primam Fen primi libri Canonis Avicennae (Venice 1625) promising soon to publish another book called De instrumentis medicis: a task that, unfortunately, he was never able to fulfil. As a consequence, many descriptions related to Santorio’s instruments are partial or too general to provide a proper understanding of their mechanism. In order to understand the exact application of Santorio’s ideas to physiology, their reconstruction represents an essential task for any historian and philosopher of science. Relying on a new assessment of Santorio’s works, newly discovered documentary proofs as well as on experimentation carried out at the University of Exeter, we present here for the first time the key principles that led to the historically accurate reconstruction of the pulsilogium A2. The results are possibly of some importance in the history of science, as, unlike all previous scholars, we can now prove that the pulsilogium represented a moment of transition and departure from the late Aristotelian physics towards Galileo’s mechanics and that, despite the latter’s discoveries, it continued to be used not to obtain an absolute measurement of the pulse rate, but to record its ‘latitude’.

Review article of: Zuleika Murat, Guariento. Pittore di corte, maestro del naturale, con una presentazione di Cristina Guarnieri, Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2016.
A critical summary of the chapters and the catalogue raisonné is followed by general considerations of the book’s subtitle (‘court painter, master of the natural’). It is doubtful whether Guariento truly was a court artist: according to the documents he was never called ‘familiaris’ of the Paduan court of the Da Carrara, and he never received a regular stipend. It can also be questioned whether ‘naturalism’ is the main characteristic of the painter’s work. Guariento is rather the representative of an exuberant high Gothic style.

This paper examines one aspect of the two-way cultural traffic between London and Padua: how the city of Padua figured in debates about the nature of masculinity in early modern London, especially its theatres. Invariably known primarily for its university—noted by Coryat and Moryson, a tourist attraction for Chaucer, Sidney, and Milton—the name " Padua " became synonymous with " erudition. " While learnedness was in theory a positive quality, the place of learnedness in a declining honor culture and its complex role in constituting masculinity remained a contentious subject. English writers by turns envied or scorned the learning acquired in Italy, and invocations of Padua and its link to rapier fencing resulted in a series of contradictory figures in the drama of Shakespeare and Webster: doctors, pedants, enlightened philosophers, lovers, murderers for hire.

Il presente articolo ha come oggetto d’indagine una particolare sezione inedita del ricchissimo Medagliere del Museo Bottacin di Padova, creata da Carlo Kunz (1815-1888), primo curatore di tale istituto, e costituita da tutte le monete a suo parere di dubbia autenticità che egli individuò ed espunse dalla collezione principale. Attraverso l’illustrazione del lavoro di analisi e catalogazione effettuato su tali esemplari, al fine di determinarne l’effettiva falsità, è possibile affermare come tale sezione costituisca un esteso panorama di quello che è stato, da una parte, il fenomeno del fervente collezionismo numismatico a partire dalla seconda metà dell’800 e, dall’altra, l’impulso che esso ebbe sulla coeva pratica della falsificazione.

The current article focuses on a peculiar and unpublished section of the vast coins collection of the Bottacin Museum in Padua, created by Carlo Kunz (1815-1888), the institute’s first curator, and consisting of all the coins that in his opinion were of dubious authenticity, which he identified and removed from the main collection. By exploring the analysis and cataloguing work carried out on these specimens to confirm if they were actually fake, it is possible to affirm that this section constitutes an extensive view on the phenomenon of fervent numismatic collecting that started from the second half of the 19th century, on one hand, and the impetus it had on the contemporary practice of counterfeiting, on the other.

This essay contends that Donatello's High Altar at the Santo in Padua represents the Immaculate Virgin, reflecting a controversial doctrine of burgeoning interest in fifteenth-century Italy that she was exempted from original sin prior to the first moment of her conception. It ties the altar and scenes on the surrounding choir screen to a sermon promoting the Virgin's immaculacy by Francesco della Rovere (later Sixtus IV), spoken in Padua in 1448 while the altar was being erected. It further connects the liturgical ensemble with bulls by Sixtus IV and liturgical offices sponsored by him after he was elected pope.