Conference programs & announcements by Ingrid Rowland
Papers by Ingrid Rowland
The Afterlife of a Roman Town, 2014
Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, 2020
Visualizing the Past in Italian Renaissance Art , 2021
La miseria sovente è piedistallo della Gloria. Destitution is often the pedestal of Glory.
A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance
A book called a "companion" may either be a small, thematically focused encyclopedia, like the Ox... more A book called a "companion" may either be a small, thematically focused encyclopedia, like the Oxford Companion to English Literature and the other Oxford Companions which have followed it, or a collection of essays meant to give an introductory overview of a subject, like the Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism and its many stable-mates. This book is of the latter kind, but is about twice the length of the Cambridge volumes; it is a collection of twenty-eight articles, running to just over five hundred pages of text, followed by another fifty pages of consolidated bibliography and index. It appears, then, to expect a slightly more sophisticated, or at least more ambitious, readership than the "student reader" at which some of the Cambridge Companions are aimed. A way to think further about the kind of reader to whom the book might be a companion is to ask another question: in what sense is it a companion to the Renaissance? The five sections into which it is divided suggest an answer. The first is geographically arranged, with articles on Italy, Europe in general, the views from western Asia and from Spanish America, and "the historical geography of the Renaissance" (a typically brilliant piece by Peter Burke). The second deals with "worlds and ways of power": government, law, violence, civility, kinship, gender, "the myth of Renaissance individualism." Next comes "social and economic worlds": the upper classes, the lower classes, the European economy, the Renaissance and the world economy. Then a long section on "cultural worlds" covers "subcultures," "high culture" (in fact restricted to humanism), religion, art, literature, political thought, and science. Finally, "anti-worlds," or what might more portentously have been called "the dark side of the Renaissance," are covered in articles on disease and hunger, "Renaissance bogeymen" (rather an artsy piece by Linda Woodbridge on vagrants and other objects of fear and suspicion), violence and warfare, witchcraft and magic, and "illicit worlds," especially stigmatizable sexual behaviour. All these topics are tied together by a scintillating introductory essay by the editor, in which he makes an eloquent case for the usefulness and indeed nobility of the concept of a "Renaissance," and comments on the place of each essay in the overall scheme of the book and on the merits of each; Ruggiero has the gift of pointing alluringly to the most interesting implications even of the least remarkable pieces. The contributors' approaches are diverse, and this has its advantages. Moreover, the articles are not simply factual summaries: they all have their own arguments, and many of them suggest places where the present state of knowledge is inadequate, so that the book is rich in suggestions for further research. Some, though, are more concerned than others with presenting basic factual information. So, on the one hand, John A. Marino's "Economic encounters and the world economy" is rich in, although by no means limited to, dates and statistics, and John M. Najemy's "Political ideas" gives helpful summaries of the contributions of a number of Renaissance writers to the development of political thought, while, on
and complicated pieces of literature accessible to nonspecialist readers in effective ways. While... more and complicated pieces of literature accessible to nonspecialist readers in effective ways. While, undoubtedly, much of the stylistic flair and artistic playfulness can never be adequately translated, Paul Gwynne’s highly readable prose version preserves the content and the urgency of Benci’s fast-paced narrative. As a reader not trained in the classical tradition, I found Gwynne’s commentary to be a helpful addition to his English text. While Gwynn devotes some attention to basic historical events, most of his remarks (398–681) pertain to matters of style. He provides detailed references to parallel passages in ancient epics in addition to highlighting more-recent poetic production that Benci would have been familiar with. This allows even nonspecialist readers to appreciate the playfulness and wit of Benci’s poetry. Situating a readable translation within a detailed network of classical and post-classical references seems, to this reader, to be an effective way of bringing nonspecialist readers as close to the original text as possible. Jesuit Neo-Latin poetry seems to be one of the few remaining frontiers of Jesuit scholarship. It is under-studied yet fascinating. It is also full of peculiar challenges, not least linguistically. But with masterful presentations of Jesuit Latin poetry such as this, it is now possible for Benci—and, hopefully soon, a range of other equally important authors—to become more prominent among Jesuit scholars.
Harvard University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2014
The scholarly career of the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) com binée! Egyptology an... more The scholarly career of the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) com binée! Egyptology and naturai philosophy into a single encyclopédie system. Explaining that system to a vast public through his Muséum on the grounds of the Jesuits' Collegio Romano and through his voluminous publications con stituted his own highly distinctive version of the Jesuit mission to «comfort souls» with the prospect of Christian salvation. Gifted himself with prophétie vision, Kircher nonetheless saw such phenomena as essentially rational ex pressions of divine and naturai law, just as he regarded his scholarly work as its own variety of poetry, inspired by the Muses. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them front the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Luke 16: 29-31 Among the myriad skills professed by the German Jesuit Atha nasius Kircher (1602-1680), the composition of poetry is con
Common Knowledge, 2015
In the year 1165 since the Incarnation of our lord Jesus Christ, fourteenth indiction, during the... more In the year 1165 since the Incarnation of our lord Jesus Christ, fourteenth indiction, during the reign of our lord the magnificent king William.
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Conference programs & announcements by Ingrid Rowland
Papers by Ingrid Rowland