Renaissance Studies Commons^™

Delno C. West Award

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The West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

Recipient of the Delno C. West Award for 2019

Corinne Wieben

Front Matter

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No abstract provided.

“We Are Perpetually Moralists:” Samuel Johnson And Renaissance Epistemology, Brandon Schneeberger

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This article discusses how new Renaissance epistemological views shaped the important eighteenth-century critic Samuel Johnson. I argue that Johnson emphasizes conversation as an important element of epistemology, pushing against what was an over-emphasize on book learning perpetuated by educators such as Peter Ramus. The rise in print-culture led to a shift in epistemology, in which knowledge could be seen as linear, codified, or fixed. While Johnson works both within and against these new epistemological trends, I argue that his criticism of John Milton’s poetry can be appreciated more fully if Johnson’s own reservations about print culture are kept in mind. …

The Fiscal Policy Of Richard Iii Of England, Alex Brayson

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Influenced by the “new” fiscal historiographical agenda of the 1990s, this article pioneers a radical reconstruction of the Yorkist-era royal budget. This demonstrates that the increased role of demesne revenues managed by the royal chamber in financing total expenditures under Edward IV, which was famously applauded by B. P. Wolffe, signally failed to provide for long-term fiscal stability. The removal of Edward’s French pension in 1483 led to a substantial deficit which compelled Richard III to contravene his brother’s pledge to “live of his own”. Richard’s sustained attempts, during 1483-4, to resurrect and revise controversial late Lancastrian attempts to secure …

“Sapere Videre” How A Spreadsheet Helps “Knowing How To See” Royal Power On Display In England’S Counties, 1277 To 1642, James H. Forse

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Using a spreadsheet tracking touring in England’s counties by entertainers attached to members of England’s royal families suggests that such activity was wide-spread dating from the time of Edward III, and that those entertainers may have served to “advertise” royal power.

Stricken By Terror: Seeing And Knowing In Late Medieval Criminal Case Records, Corinne Wieben

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Medieval legal records frequently feature parties and lawyers willing to stretch the truth and weave tales that fulfill statutory requirements and promote their cases, but what happens when defendants testify against themselves? When Giambono of Matraia, a monk from the monastery of San Ponziano in Lucca, appeared before Lucca’s episcopal court in 1356, he found himself facing charges of adultery, robbery, and murder. After four witnesses testified against him, Giambono confessed. When all seemed lost, Ser Giovanni Folchini, a well-known Lucchese notary, appeared as Giambono’s legal representative and claimed his client’s confession was false, since “he said these things while …

[Review Of] "In Centro Et Oculis Urbis Nostre": La Chiesa E Il Monastero Di San Zaccaria. Bernard Aikema, Massimo Mancini, And Paola Modesti, Eds. Chiese Di Venezia 4. Venice: Marcianum Press, 2016. Xii + 426 Pp., Johanna D. Heinrichs

Architecture Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

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No abstract provided.

The Jacobean Peace The Irenic Policy Of James Vi And I And Its Legacy, Roger B. Manning

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King James VI and I furnishes the example of an early modern monarch who pursued a policy of peace that worked to his disadvantage. This irenic policy arose more from circumstances than conviction. As king of Scotland, he had learned to distrust the violent and warlike members of the Scots nobility, and diplomacy and conciliation were the only instruments he had to deal with these ruffians. Despite aspersions upon his manhood, he led attempts to suppress their rebellion, and when he succeeded as king of England, he possessed more military experience than any English monarch since Henry VII. Those of …

“Where Have You Vanished?” Aelred Of Rievaulx’S Lamentation On The Death Of Simon, Anna Harrison

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In his lamentation on the death of his friend, Simon, Aelred responds to a centuries-long suspicion about grief by mounting an apology for mourning that is in keeping with a larger Cistercian trend. Aelred’s chief preoccupation in the lamentation is, however, to emphasize the productivity of grief, both for the living and for the dead. Aelred associates the desire to reunite with the beloved dead with stimulating the mourner’s desire for heaven as location for the longed-for reunion, and he conceives of the pain associated with bereavement as payment for the sins of the deceased.

Strategies For Addressing Student Learning Objectives In The Renaissance And Reformation Classroom: Tone, Historical Context, And Kinetic Learners, Vincent V. Patarino Jr.

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Like other higher education institutions, Colorado Mesa University has fully embraced modern assessment goals and strategies, especially SLOs (Student Learning Objectives). In HIST 350, Renaissance and Reformation, I focus on two: use of primary sources and historical context. Meeting these objectives with aural and visual learners is met using traditional PowerPoint, laden with images of art and architecture. What about kinetic learners? How does one comprise their learning strengths? When analyzing documents, discerning tone is especially challenging, given our social media age. One strategy is to have students work in groups of two, taking turns reading each other’s emotions. Through …

Delno C. West Award

Quidditas

The West Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a senior scholar at the annual conference.

Recipient of the West Award for 2018

Anna Harrison

Allen D. Breck Award

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The Breck Award recognizes the most distinguished paper given by a junior scholar at the annual conference.

Recipient of the Breck Award for 2018

Alani Hicks Bartlett

[Review Of] Lateinische Musterprosa Und Sprachpflege Der Neuzeit (17.–Anfang Des 19. Jhs.): Ein Wörterbuch. Oleg Nikitinski. Leiden: Brill, 2017., Terence Tunberg

Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disintegration, Adynata>/I>, And The Failures Of Memory In Petrarch’S Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, Alani Hicks-Bartlett

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In Francesco Petrarch’s Canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, the first sonnet, the canzone “I’vo pensando,” and the collection’s last canzone constitute a triptych that investigates the importance and potential of memory and commemoration. In the three poems, one of Petrarch’s primary concerns is not just commemorating his beloved, as critics often understand, but that he may not be properly remembered after his death. Yet, rather than looking towards his contemporaries or the future, as his desire for commemoration would suggest, Petrarch curiously focuses his gaze on the past, ardently seeking approval and validation from the classical authors he values greatly. …

“What Is He Whose Grief Bears Such An Emphasis?” Hamlet’S Development Of A Mourning Persona, Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey

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Long viewed by scholars as destructive to his selfhood and detrimental to his swift execution of revenge, Hamlet’s concern with the outward expression of his grief actually plays an integral part in his struggles to forge a mourning identity in the wake of his father’s death. The Shakespearean prince’s attempts to faithfully perform his interior bereavement, I contend, are challenged by his father’s command to enact his mourning through outward revenge, which at first seems contrary to Hamlet’s hope to discover a mourning persona consonant with his grief. By the conclusion of the drama, though, Hamlet embraces mourning as part …

The Evolution Of Personal Pledging For The Freemen Of Norwich, 1365-1441, Ruth H. Frost

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This paper examines the evolution of the personal pledging system used by newly admitted freemen, or citizens, of Norwich between 1365 and 1441. It argues that in the late fourteenth century new freemen chose their own sureties, and a large, diverse body of men acted as their pledges. The personal pledging system changed early in the fifteenth century, however, and from 1420 to 1441 civic office holders, particularly the sheriffs, served as the vast majority of pledges. This alteration to the pledging system coincided with changes to the structure and composition of Norwich’s government, and it paralleled a decrease in …

Stewarding Treason: Political Instability In Amis And Amiloun, Maia Farrar

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When the unnamed steward in the medieval romance Amis and Amiloun attempts to join the knights’ brotherhood and prevent Amis from defiling the duke’s daughter, he is simultaneously lauded for his fidelity and reviled as a “fals feloun.” Medieval stewards are defined by their status as assistants to the king’s interests, and yet if the narrative or scholarship remember him at all, it is as the stereotypical “fals steward” who betrays his post. This article considers the implications to the political body when the “traitor” has a superior legal political standing than the protagonist(s). The work legitimizes the traitor by …

In Memoriam: Boyd H. Hill, Jr.

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Professor Boyd Howard Hill, Jr., died at the age of 87 on July 2nd, 2018, at his home in Longmont, Colorado. Boyd was a medieval historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1964-2001. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published important articles and books on pre-modern anatomy, physiology, comparative history, diplomatics, and Ottonian Germany. He was also the general editor of a text for courses in western civilization. On a personal note for the authors of this article, Boyd was an influential mentor, guiding us first …

Reacting To The Past And Subversive Play: Pushing Boundaries In Pedagogy, Ginger L. Smoak

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This piece examines the Reacting to the Past role-playing pedagogy in light of subversive play. Subversive play can allow the students an opportunity to explore ideas and roles outside of their social norms and realities. Designed to produce an emotional reaction, it increases the tension between the “rules” of society and the classroom and those of the game. Reacting to the Past asks students to inhabit a role and speak, write, and influence through critical analysis of primary documents and persuasive speeches. Through Immersive Dynamics, this gamified pedagogy allows players to discover new perspectives by seeing an event though another’s …