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Full-Text Articles in History

The Renaissance Plutocracy Of Cosimo De’ Medici: How He Used Patronage To His Advantage In 15th Century Florence, Victoria L. Schultz Dec 2023

The Renaissance Plutocracy Of Cosimo De’ Medici: How He Used Patronage To His Advantage In 15th Century Florence, Victoria L. Schultz

The Exposition

This paper provides a detailed account of Cosimo de' Medici's patronage practices and the impact they had on the political and cultural landscape of Renaissance Florence. Cosimo consolidated power and influence in Florence, positioning himself as the city's preeminent political and cultural figure. This paper will examine the ways Cosimo leveraged his wealth and connections to establish a Renaissance plutocracy in Florence with a focus on his use of patronage to gain and maintain power.


A Presence Of P____ And W__Th, Riley Wilson Jun 2023

A Presence Of P____ And W__Th, Riley Wilson

Masters Theses

This body of work examines the involvement of association as it relates to our cultural interpretations of natural phenomena. Flowers and animals, both real and imagined, have been used as symbols for human morality since the beginning of human history. Two sources with which I drew inspiration from are medieval bestiaries and the Victorian practice of flower language. By combining elements from these references, I aim to pair this idea about the human need for classification with my own considerations about my identity. In combination, I also aim to highlight the responsibility that is intrinsic to curiosity. When faced with …


A Medieval Pirate's Life: The Role Of Piracy In Medieval Life Versus Its Role In Modern Historiography, Leah Lam Apr 2023

A Medieval Pirate's Life: The Role Of Piracy In Medieval Life Versus Its Role In Modern Historiography, Leah Lam

History ETDs

Medieval piracy is a mysterious phenomenon that is interwoven within the politics, culture, economic histories of the Middle Ages. Its presence throughout the Middle Ages is not questioned, yet it is rarely researched thoroughly. The subject of medieval piracy falls prey to the biases and assumptions that modern historians carry towards piracy as a whole, making the subject be under researched and improperly utilized. In this thesis, I will be highlighting the role that piracy played in medieval life and the way that modern historiography has neglected it. To do so thoroughly, I have pulled examples from different times, regions, …


Gender, Sex, And The Body In Medieval Armenia, Ashley Bozian Jan 2023

Gender, Sex, And The Body In Medieval Armenia, Ashley Bozian

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates textual representation of the body, gender, and sexuality in Armenian chronicles produced between the fifth and eleventh centuries CE. In so doing, it reconstructs the development of Armenian somatology between Zoroastrian and Islamic suzerainties. Specifically, the dissertation examines the modalities by which the body functioned to medieval Armenian cognition as the locus of identity and alterity through the deployment of such devices as the following, to each of which is devoted a chapter: masculinity, femininity, archetypes of sexual morality, legislation of sexual conduct, sexual experientiality (in both temporal and eschatological dimensions), anatomy, and violence. As such, the …


Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift Jan 2023

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …