The Sources of Civil Society in Italy Putnam explains the successful democratic performance of re... more The Sources of Civil Society in Italy Putnam explains the successful democratic performance of regional governments in northern and central Italy since 1970, as opposed to the poor record of those in the South, as the product of an abiding tenacity of civic traditions. His analysis presupposes some fundamental historical questions: "Why did the North and South get started on such divergent paths in the eleventh century?" The hierarchical Norman regime in the South is perhaps readily explained as the consequence of conquest by an unusually effective force of foreign mercenaries. More problematical and potentially more interesting are the origins of the communal republics. How did the inhabitants of north-central Italy ªrst come to seek collaborative solutions to their Hobbesian dilemmas? The response to that question must await further research, not least because historians report that the answer seems lost in the mists of the Dark Ages. Our interpretation, however, highlights the unique importance of trying to pierce those mists. 1 This essay is an attempt to grope through the historical mists. Although the vast cultural chasm between us and the early Middle Ages makes it difªcult to ask modernist questions of a decidedly archaic society, the so-called Dark Ages are not a cipher. A great deal can be discovered about the process of building civil societies in northern Italy. Even more important, the construction of civil society-as Putnam posits in his more recent work on social capital-was not so much an event as a process, the inner dynamics of which is clearly discernable in later periods, and the process was not always evolutionary. It was punctuated by dramatic moments of rapid political change.
FORTY YEARS AGO when I was writing a dissertation in Italian Renaissance history, it was almost u... more FORTY YEARS AGO when I was writing a dissertation in Italian Renaissance history, it was almost unthinkable for a young American historian to venture into the seventeenth century. While working in the archives in Venice, I noticed how rich the documentation for the seventeenth century was, but it seemed daring enough to concentrate on the sixteenth rather than the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. The paradigm of the Renaissance for historians was all about the rise and fall of republicanism, the institutions and political culture that nourished the Florence of Bruni and Machiavelli. Florence and Tuscany were the epicenters of scholarship. Despotic Naples mattered hardly at all. Genoa and Venice attracted a few economic historians. The other cities of north-central Italy mattered as examples of the evolution of communal institutions to be measured against the Florentine paradigm. The agenda was still that of the great German historians of Italy: Robert Davidsohn, Hans Baron, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Nicolai Rubenstein, and Felix Gilbert. To them the story was over by 1530. The seeming consensus was that the Italian wars of 1494–1530 heralded the centuries of Italian decadence as Croce labeled them, a period characterized by Catholic intolerance, the hegemony of foreign princes, demographic decline, enfeeblement of international trade, Mannerism in the arts, and the emigration of the intellectual action to north of the Alps. By the late sixteenth century, the spirit of the Renaissance had flown from Florence to Stratford-upon-Avon. There were exceptions, of course. In a series of books—most famously Florence in the Forgotten Centuries, 1527–1800: A History of Florence and Florentines in the Age of the Grand Dukes (Chicago, 1973)—Eric Cochrane argued for the
... 2l'erhaps the most notable among the large number of studies that re... more ... 2l'erhaps the most notable among the large number of studies that reflect this point of view are those by Hans Baron, The Crisis n/ the Early ltalian Renaissance, and by William J. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty. ...
In the far southeastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire, in the province of Friuli, a burst of v... more In the far southeastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire, in the province of Friuli, a burst of violence took place during the Carnival of 1511. Armed mobs incited by one of the two regional factions systematically murdered dozens of noblemen and their retainers, while villagers across the province sacked castles and slaughtered aristocrats. This outbreak is the focus that Edward Muir uses in his stunning new book, Mad Blood Stirring, to illustrate the nature of violence and vendetta in the Friuli, and to frame his analysis of why this ...
Throughout years of research and writing, I have enjoyed the unstinting support of family members... more Throughout years of research and writing, I have enjoyed the unstinting support of family members, teachers, colleagues, librarians, and archivists. Without their help this book would be meager in spirit and data. I am deeply grateful to them all. Several institutions have aided my research and writing. A Fulbright Fellowship sponsored a year of research in Vicenza, and a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation allowed a summer in Venice. A summer faculty grant from the University of Maryland Baltimore County gave me the opportunity to complete primary research. During a year's leave funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, I was able to pursue secondary studies and, finally, to write up a mass of notes into book form. Without that support this project could never have been undertaken. Julius Kirshner of the University of Chicago first suggested Vicenza as a case subject for the study of Venetian territorial expansion. His guidance has been particularly valuable in fostering historiographic sensitivity and textual accuracy, and his moral support has provided constant encouragement. The late Eric Cochrane of the same university was a true friend and mentor. His own passion for the Renaissance was an inspiration for my work, and his research and writing set standards to which I can only aspire. Richard Goldthwaite of the Johns Hopkins University pointed out several useful secondary works and kept me up to date especially with Tuscan monographs. The Veneto is an extraordinarily friendly region for historical studies. The professional hospitality and personal warmth of those engaged in Venetian research has been gratifying. Senior scholars such as Gaetano Cozzi, Reinhold Mueller, and Gherardo Ortalli of Venice, Paolo Sambin and Giorgio Cracco of Padua, Giorgio Borelli of Verona, and Giorgio Chittolini of Milan suggested sources and lines of enquiry, provided information on related topics, and welcomed me into that lively community. Archivists and librarians in many cities were patient in explaining manuscript holdings and most cooperative in making documents available. The staff of the Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana in Vicenza, above all Dottoressa F. M. Galante, Giovanni Dal Lago, and Vll vm Acknowledgmen/5 Renato Zironda, fulfilled my requests with skill and forbearance. Ugo Solda, formerly of the Vicentine state archives, revealed some of the valuable yet ill-catalogued resources of that rich repository. Four young scholars merit special thanks. John Law of Swansea, Gian Maria Varanini of Verona, and Michael Knapton and Claudio Povolo of Vicenza gave freely of their time and friendship in assisting my research. Their unparalleled knowledge of sources immensely facilitated my entry into a complicated field, and their own studies provided invaluable points of comparison and perspective. This book is dedicated to my family, which gave me a deep appreciation of the past, supported my choice of a historical career, and provided the moral and material support for the long haul of research and writing. The late Augustus and Julia Farnsworth encouraged further education and facilitated particularly my graduate studies. Thomas and Patricia Crawford shared their love for the Veneto and provided a marvelous base from which to work. My parents, Edward and Anne MacBurney, instilled in me a love for learning and for European culture. To them, as to my in-laws and grandparents, I owe my vocation. Anne Crawford Grubb introduced me to Italy and directed my attention to the Renaissance. She has been my companion in tourism and study for many years, and her passion for Italian culture has enriched my own. Without her patience and unfailing support, the pleasure of historical discovery would have been seriously dampened.
tion, from the king’s flight onward, factionalism between political groups exacerbated fears of i... more tion, from the king’s flight onward, factionalism between political groups exacerbated fears of internal conspiracy. Although other historians have underscored these same factors leading toward the Terror, Tackett does far more than reiterate circumstances or revolutionary dynamics. With his nuanced portrait of revolutionary mentalité, he renders the terrorists’ own terror more real and inserts a crucial new interpretive layer that helps to overcome the stale debate about whether “ideology” or “circumstances” spawned the Terror. He also demonstrates the analytical power of the “history of the emotions” when grounded in deeply textured evidence and context.
The first comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe, this new and expanded edition ar... more The first comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe, this new and expanded edition argues that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. Edward Muir discusses wide-ranging themes such as rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, and the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches. The new edition examines the impact on the European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.
This essay is based upon the methodological assumption that by examining an exceptional event in ... more This essay is based upon the methodological assumption that by examining an exceptional event in an exceptional place one can unmask the hidden assumptions of the mundane and quotidian. The problem is to determine what the idea of community could have meant in north Italian towns and villages during the Renaissance. Depositions about a brawl in an otherwise insignificant small town provide an opportunity to examine how the idea of community was crystallized in three ways: community as social interaction in an institutional guise, community as a certain kind of space, and community as a process of social exclusion
This article describes the life and collection of the famous historian Leopold von Ranke, whose c... more This article describes the life and collection of the famous historian Leopold von Ranke, whose collection is now housed in the Syracuse University Special Collections. Von Ranke was instrumental in developing what he saw as the most objective form of history possible, adhering to primary sources and straying from moral judgments. The thousands of documents that make up the Ranke Library are an invaluable source for the study of history.
The Sources of Civil Society in Italy Putnam explains the successful democratic performance of re... more The Sources of Civil Society in Italy Putnam explains the successful democratic performance of regional governments in northern and central Italy since 1970, as opposed to the poor record of those in the South, as the product of an abiding tenacity of civic traditions. His analysis presupposes some fundamental historical questions: "Why did the North and South get started on such divergent paths in the eleventh century?" The hierarchical Norman regime in the South is perhaps readily explained as the consequence of conquest by an unusually effective force of foreign mercenaries. More problematical and potentially more interesting are the origins of the communal republics. How did the inhabitants of north-central Italy ªrst come to seek collaborative solutions to their Hobbesian dilemmas? The response to that question must await further research, not least because historians report that the answer seems lost in the mists of the Dark Ages. Our interpretation, however, highlights the unique importance of trying to pierce those mists. 1 This essay is an attempt to grope through the historical mists. Although the vast cultural chasm between us and the early Middle Ages makes it difªcult to ask modernist questions of a decidedly archaic society, the so-called Dark Ages are not a cipher. A great deal can be discovered about the process of building civil societies in northern Italy. Even more important, the construction of civil society-as Putnam posits in his more recent work on social capital-was not so much an event as a process, the inner dynamics of which is clearly discernable in later periods, and the process was not always evolutionary. It was punctuated by dramatic moments of rapid political change.
FORTY YEARS AGO when I was writing a dissertation in Italian Renaissance history, it was almost u... more FORTY YEARS AGO when I was writing a dissertation in Italian Renaissance history, it was almost unthinkable for a young American historian to venture into the seventeenth century. While working in the archives in Venice, I noticed how rich the documentation for the seventeenth century was, but it seemed daring enough to concentrate on the sixteenth rather than the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. The paradigm of the Renaissance for historians was all about the rise and fall of republicanism, the institutions and political culture that nourished the Florence of Bruni and Machiavelli. Florence and Tuscany were the epicenters of scholarship. Despotic Naples mattered hardly at all. Genoa and Venice attracted a few economic historians. The other cities of north-central Italy mattered as examples of the evolution of communal institutions to be measured against the Florentine paradigm. The agenda was still that of the great German historians of Italy: Robert Davidsohn, Hans Baron, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Nicolai Rubenstein, and Felix Gilbert. To them the story was over by 1530. The seeming consensus was that the Italian wars of 1494–1530 heralded the centuries of Italian decadence as Croce labeled them, a period characterized by Catholic intolerance, the hegemony of foreign princes, demographic decline, enfeeblement of international trade, Mannerism in the arts, and the emigration of the intellectual action to north of the Alps. By the late sixteenth century, the spirit of the Renaissance had flown from Florence to Stratford-upon-Avon. There were exceptions, of course. In a series of books—most famously Florence in the Forgotten Centuries, 1527–1800: A History of Florence and Florentines in the Age of the Grand Dukes (Chicago, 1973)—Eric Cochrane argued for the
... 2l'erhaps the most notable among the large number of studies that re... more ... 2l'erhaps the most notable among the large number of studies that reflect this point of view are those by Hans Baron, The Crisis n/ the Early ltalian Renaissance, and by William J. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty. ...
In the far southeastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire, in the province of Friuli, a burst of v... more In the far southeastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire, in the province of Friuli, a burst of violence took place during the Carnival of 1511. Armed mobs incited by one of the two regional factions systematically murdered dozens of noblemen and their retainers, while villagers across the province sacked castles and slaughtered aristocrats. This outbreak is the focus that Edward Muir uses in his stunning new book, Mad Blood Stirring, to illustrate the nature of violence and vendetta in the Friuli, and to frame his analysis of why this ...
Throughout years of research and writing, I have enjoyed the unstinting support of family members... more Throughout years of research and writing, I have enjoyed the unstinting support of family members, teachers, colleagues, librarians, and archivists. Without their help this book would be meager in spirit and data. I am deeply grateful to them all. Several institutions have aided my research and writing. A Fulbright Fellowship sponsored a year of research in Vicenza, and a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation allowed a summer in Venice. A summer faculty grant from the University of Maryland Baltimore County gave me the opportunity to complete primary research. During a year's leave funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, I was able to pursue secondary studies and, finally, to write up a mass of notes into book form. Without that support this project could never have been undertaken. Julius Kirshner of the University of Chicago first suggested Vicenza as a case subject for the study of Venetian territorial expansion. His guidance has been particularly valuable in fostering historiographic sensitivity and textual accuracy, and his moral support has provided constant encouragement. The late Eric Cochrane of the same university was a true friend and mentor. His own passion for the Renaissance was an inspiration for my work, and his research and writing set standards to which I can only aspire. Richard Goldthwaite of the Johns Hopkins University pointed out several useful secondary works and kept me up to date especially with Tuscan monographs. The Veneto is an extraordinarily friendly region for historical studies. The professional hospitality and personal warmth of those engaged in Venetian research has been gratifying. Senior scholars such as Gaetano Cozzi, Reinhold Mueller, and Gherardo Ortalli of Venice, Paolo Sambin and Giorgio Cracco of Padua, Giorgio Borelli of Verona, and Giorgio Chittolini of Milan suggested sources and lines of enquiry, provided information on related topics, and welcomed me into that lively community. Archivists and librarians in many cities were patient in explaining manuscript holdings and most cooperative in making documents available. The staff of the Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana in Vicenza, above all Dottoressa F. M. Galante, Giovanni Dal Lago, and Vll vm Acknowledgmen/5 Renato Zironda, fulfilled my requests with skill and forbearance. Ugo Solda, formerly of the Vicentine state archives, revealed some of the valuable yet ill-catalogued resources of that rich repository. Four young scholars merit special thanks. John Law of Swansea, Gian Maria Varanini of Verona, and Michael Knapton and Claudio Povolo of Vicenza gave freely of their time and friendship in assisting my research. Their unparalleled knowledge of sources immensely facilitated my entry into a complicated field, and their own studies provided invaluable points of comparison and perspective. This book is dedicated to my family, which gave me a deep appreciation of the past, supported my choice of a historical career, and provided the moral and material support for the long haul of research and writing. The late Augustus and Julia Farnsworth encouraged further education and facilitated particularly my graduate studies. Thomas and Patricia Crawford shared their love for the Veneto and provided a marvelous base from which to work. My parents, Edward and Anne MacBurney, instilled in me a love for learning and for European culture. To them, as to my in-laws and grandparents, I owe my vocation. Anne Crawford Grubb introduced me to Italy and directed my attention to the Renaissance. She has been my companion in tourism and study for many years, and her passion for Italian culture has enriched my own. Without her patience and unfailing support, the pleasure of historical discovery would have been seriously dampened.
tion, from the king’s flight onward, factionalism between political groups exacerbated fears of i... more tion, from the king’s flight onward, factionalism between political groups exacerbated fears of internal conspiracy. Although other historians have underscored these same factors leading toward the Terror, Tackett does far more than reiterate circumstances or revolutionary dynamics. With his nuanced portrait of revolutionary mentalité, he renders the terrorists’ own terror more real and inserts a crucial new interpretive layer that helps to overcome the stale debate about whether “ideology” or “circumstances” spawned the Terror. He also demonstrates the analytical power of the “history of the emotions” when grounded in deeply textured evidence and context.
The first comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe, this new and expanded edition ar... more The first comprehensive study of rituals in early modern Europe, this new and expanded edition argues that between about 1400 and 1700 a revolution in ritual theory took place that utterly transformed concepts about time, the body, and the presence of spiritual forces in the world. Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. Edward Muir discusses wide-ranging themes such as rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, and the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches. The new edition examines the impact on the European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.
This essay is based upon the methodological assumption that by examining an exceptional event in ... more This essay is based upon the methodological assumption that by examining an exceptional event in an exceptional place one can unmask the hidden assumptions of the mundane and quotidian. The problem is to determine what the idea of community could have meant in north Italian towns and villages during the Renaissance. Depositions about a brawl in an otherwise insignificant small town provide an opportunity to examine how the idea of community was crystallized in three ways: community as social interaction in an institutional guise, community as a certain kind of space, and community as a process of social exclusion
This article describes the life and collection of the famous historian Leopold von Ranke, whose c... more This article describes the life and collection of the famous historian Leopold von Ranke, whose collection is now housed in the Syracuse University Special Collections. Von Ranke was instrumental in developing what he saw as the most objective form of history possible, adhering to primary sources and straying from moral judgments. The thousands of documents that make up the Ranke Library are an invaluable source for the study of history.
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