Renaissance Studies Commons^™

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Constantinian Coin Motifs In Ancient Literary Sources, Charles Odahl

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Classical numismatists have long assumed that Roman emperors used the imperial coinage as a medium of propaganda. The obverses advertised the emperor's visages and titles, while the frequently changed reverses announced military victories, peace and prosperity, imperial beneficence and building programs, or religious beliefs, etc. Often beautifully designed, stamped with a much higher and more vivid relief than modern coins, and spread throughout the empire, Roman coins and medallions certainly seem to have been minted and disseminated with the intention that the imperial populace would note the figures and read the inscriptions thereon – not merely exchange them in economic …

Gastronomy And Sexuality: "Table Language" In The Heptaméron, Colette H. Winn

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In his penetrating study on Marguerite de Navarre, Themes, Language and Structure, Marcel Tetel calls attention to the metaphoric usage of food in the Heptaméron. Critics, to date, have failed to pursue this line of inquiry. Readers accustomed to Rabelais's elaborate gastronomic depictions may be disappointed by the extreme sobriety of corresponding scenes in the Hemptaméron. Marguerite eschews the picturesque description of a generously laden table, the exuberance associated with this traditionally jovial event and the gigantism required by the Gargantuan legend in favor of briefer and often less colorful table encounters. Yet relegating these scenes to …

The Anglo-Norman Courtly Lyric, Carol J. Harvey

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Whereas many works of a religious or moral nature survive from the Anglo-Norman era, secular lyric poetry was until quite recently virtually unknown. Isabel S. T. Aspin's Anglo-Norman Political Songs provided the first, and to date the only, readily-accessible modern edition of secular lyrics. This collection of political poems and satires shows that the author of occasional verse is not only interested in singing the praises of the Blessed Virgin Mary or adapting parts of the liturgy into the vernacular; he is moved also to sing of the corruption of state or church, to lament the death of the noble …

The Wife Of Bath And The Scholastic Concept Of Operatio, Joseph E. Grennen

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The loathly lady of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale delivers a lecture to her reluctant swain which is remarkably gracious and persuasive, although hardly unconventional. Her sentiments, which find a parallel in Dante's Convivio, may be summed up in a phrase: Virtue is the true nobility. True virtue, furthermore, is a legacy from Christ, not an inheritance passed on with titles and wealth. The chief difficulty facing a reader is to find a way of reconciling this view with the cynical, maverick personality established for Alice of Bath in her own prologue. We might suppose that Chaucer is here …

The 'Finiguerra' Venus And Her Children: The Iconology Of A Fifteenth-Century Florentine Engraving, Gwendolyn Bryant

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Interpreting Finiguerra's engraving of the planetary Venus and those born under her aegis not only entails an analysis of the engraving itself and other related images, but it calls for a reassessment of the work of Aby Warburg, whose research on this and other series of the planets cleared the way for many subsequent studies. Since Warburg's followers have consistently ignored many of his theoretical concerns, it is essential to outline them briefly if we are to understand his analysis of the 'Finiguerra' Venus.

Sidney's Debt To Machiavelli: A New Look, William R. Drennan

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"I wish not there should be / Graved in mine epitaph a poet's name," asserts Astrophil late in Sidney's sonnet sequence (AS 90.8-9), and on this point at least we may safely assume that Astrophil speaks for Sidney as well. Indeed, recent scholarship emphasizes that Sidney was drawn more to the arena of politics than to the world of letters, a world that he himself called only his "unelected vocation" (Works 3: 3). James M. Osborn, for example, in his Young Philip Sidney 1572-1577, stresses Sidney's patient preparation for and lifelong commitment to the theory and practice of …

Barnabe Googe's Zodiake Of Life: A Translation Reconsidered, Marc Beckwith

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Marcellus Palingenius' Zodiacus Vitae in twelve books (Venice [1535?]) was exceedingly popular in Reformation Europe. In nearly 10,000 lines of Latin hexameters

are conteined twelue seuerall labours, painting out moste liuely, the whole compasse of the world, the reformation of manners, the miseries of mankinde, the pathway to vertue and vice, the eternitie of the Soule, the course of the Heavens, the mysteries of nature, and diuers other circumstances of great learning, and no lesse judgement,

as Barnabe Googe summarized it on the title page of his translation in 1576. The ZV saw over sixty editions as well as translations …

A Moral Voice For The Restoration Lady: A Comparative View Of Allestree And Vives, John A. Thomas

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Following the civil strife of the 1640s and the Interregnum of the 1650s, Anglican England felt the necessity of spiritual housecleaning to tighten its hold on the godly and to ferret out dissenting influences. Evidence of renewed authoritarianism is seen in Richard Allestree's early appointment in the 1660s as a lecturer for the city of Oxford, where his task was to establish the faith and to root out schismatical opinions propagated by "false" teachers of the Interregnum. In 1662 Charles was to pass measures, albeit reluctantly, requiring strict conformity concerning practices in the church not unlike those enforced by Laud. …

On Ferrera And Chivalric/Epic Poetry In Italian Criticism Today, Maristella De P. Lorch

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Gennaro Savarse, Il "Furioso" e la cultura del Rinascimento. Letteratura italiana: Studi e testi 10. Roma: Bulzoni, 1984. 94 p. Lire 7,000.

Riccardo Bruscagli, Stagioni della civiltà estense. Saggi di varia umanità, 25. Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1982. 236 p. Lire 15,000.

Rosanna Alhaique Pettinelli, L'immaginario cavalleresco nel Rinascimento ferrarese. L'Ippogrifo, 29. Roma: Bonacci, 1983. 301 p. Lire 16,000.

Review Essay: David Nicholas, The Domestic Life Of A Medieval City, Francis X. Hartigan

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David Nicholas, The Domestic Life of a Medieval City, University of Nebraska Press, 1985. $26.50

Review Essay: Stephen C. Ferruolo, The Origins Of The University: The Schools Of Paris And Their Critics, 1100-1215, Donald Sullivan

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Stephen C. Ferruolo, The Origins of the University: The Schools of Paris and Their Critics, 1100-1215, Stanford University Press, 1985. $45.00

Review Essay: V. A. Kolve, Chaucer And The Imagery Of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales, Charles R. Smith

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V. A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales, Stanford University Press, 1984. $39.50

Review Essay: David C. Fowler, The Bible In Middle English Literature, Donald Sullivan

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David C. Fowler, The Bible in Middle English Literature, University of Washington Press, 1984. $25.00

Review Essay: Warren Threadgold, Renaissances Before The Renaissance, Gunar Freibergs

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Warren Threadgold, Renaissances Before the Renaissance, Stanford University Press, 1984. $28.50

Review Essay: Hans Baron, Petrarch's "Secretum": Its Making And Its Meaning, Ronnie H. Terpening

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Hans Baron, Petrarch's "Secretum": Its Making and Its Meaning, Medieval Academy of America, 1985. $22.00

Review Essay: David Bergeron, Shakespeare's Romances And The Royal Family, Dorothy C. Jones

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David Bergeron, Shakespeare's Romances and the Royal Family, University of Kansas Press, 1985. $25.00

Full Issue

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No abstract provided.

The Sense Of An Ending In Shakespeare's Early Comedies, Deborah T. Curren Aquino

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About Shakespeare's endings, Samuel Johnson wrote:

in many of his plays the latter part is evidently neglected. When he found himself near the end of his work, and in view of his reward, he shortened the labor to snatch the profit. He therefore remits his efforts where he should most vigorously exert them, and his catastrophe is improbably produced or imperfectly represented. (71-72)

In the twentieth century, Ernest Schanzer has echoed Dr. Johnson's opinion in his commentary on A Midsummer Night's Dream: "For sheer economy and multiplicity of effect it [the first scene] has no equal in any of …

Tasso's First Discourse On The Art Of Poetry As A Guide To The Gerusalemme Liberata, Lawrence F. Rhu

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The relationship between Tasso's early Discorsi dell'arte poetica and his Gerusalemme liberata needs clarification for a variety of reasons. The existence of a later poetics – the Discorsi del poema eroico, which modifies and expands the earlier version – has frequently side-tracked readers into a text that more properly pertains to Tasso's later version of his epic, the Gerusalemme conquistata. The availability of the second poetics in English, while the first remains inaccessible to readers without Italian, has also encouraged this inappropriate pairing. Further, the current vogue of literary theory tends to promote a view of Tasso's poetics …

Review Essay: James Weisheipl, Nature And Motion In The Middle Ages, Richard Harper

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James Weisheipl, Nature and Motion in the Middle Ages, Catholic University of America Press, 1985. $31.95