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Le recueil et la construction de l’image d’auteur : Ronsard et Herrera, le poète manie la lyre d’Apollon

João Aidar
Renaissance authors often attempt to fashion their authorial image by their arrangement of texts and engravings at the beginning of their books, by giving careful thought to editorial questions, or by attending to the architecture of their works–that is, to the organization of texts within a book. They also tend to ground this self-fashioning by associating themselves with a mythical figure. Two examples of this are Ronsard and Fernando de Herrera, in Les Amours (1552) and Algunas Obras (1582) respectively. This article attempts to show how Ronsard, by integrating references to the mythic Cassandra into the depiction of his beloved, fashions his own image after that of the god who falls in love with the Trojan prophetess. Similarly to Ronsard, Herrera arranges the poems in his book in such a way as to make his voice echo that of Apollo. However, instead of utilizing the love poetry in his collection to achieve this effect, he makes use of texts written in honour of Ferdinand III, the city of Seville, and its artistic heritage.

Allegory of Wavering Faith: Renaming the Law and Gospel (1535) by Georg Lemberger in Light of the Lutheran Ministry of Consolation in Sixteenth-Century Germany

Yu Na Han
A painting by Georg Lemberger (c. 1490–1540) dated 1535 and housed in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg presents a conspicuous variation of the representative Lutheran iconography, the Law and Gospel. The quintessential composition is delineated by the juxtaposition of scenes from the Old and New Testaments set against an unembellished backdrop. In Lemberger’s artistic rendition, however, the positions of the two testaments are inverted and accompanied by a tumultuous landscape in the background. The depictions of the Law and Gospel were conceived as an allegorical representation of faith, elucidating Luther’s doctrine of justificatio sola fide and imparting assurance to observers regarding their individual salvation. In contrast, Lemberger’s revised version portrays human frailty easily falling back into doubts and uncertainty about God and redemption. By giving a visual form to the negative experience the faithful would generally share, the image reminds viewers that they are not alone in such suffering and wondering.

Scriptura Translata, Semper Transferenda: An English Version of Theodore Beza’s Syncretistic Abraham sacrifiant

Robert McCutcheon
Theodore Beza’s 1550 Abraham sacrifiant continues a rich tradition of translation and exegesis of the Akedah in the vibrant context of the humanist Reformation. Beza translates not so much from one language to another, since he takes the Olivetan Bible’s text of Genesis 22 for the argument of his play, but rather fuses two cultures and genres, Biblical narrative and Greek tragedy. His choice entails a crucial tension: a drama of redemption cannot be tragic. In fact, Beza incorporates comic elements from both medieval and classical sources in his work. Nonetheless, his work puts in play Calvinist themes such as saving faith and predestination. A modern translation should be faithful both to Beza’s adaptation of classical forms, such as stichomythia and choral odes, and to his expression of reformed doctrine, in the spirit of Arthur Golding’s near-contemporary English version of 1575. Like Golding’s translation, mine will inevitably adapt form and content to each other, with luck conveying Beza’s literary theology in the process.

L’arte dell’inganno: Machiavelli and the Execution of the Florentine Captain-General Paolo Vitelli

Milos Mitrovic
This article addresses Niccolò Machiavelli’s role in a five-century-long controversy surrounding the execution of the Florentine captain-general Paolo Vitelli in October 1499. The official letters and dispatches Machiavelli wrote shortly before and after the event portrayed Vitelli as a traitor, thus defending the Signoria’s decision to execute the captain. In chapter 12 of The Prince, however, Machiavelli changes his tone, implying that it was not the alleged treason but the captain’s fame and Florentine insecurity that lead to his death. Given that many contemporaries praised Vitelli and seriously doubted his guilt, Machiavelli’s ambivalent positioning requires explanation. By way of the first sustained analysis of the Vitelli affair, this article will shed new light on Machiavelli’s early involvement in Florence’s political machinations. It will show how Machiavelli, as a loyal servant to his beloved Republic, coordinated, defended, and justified in his writings the course of action against Vitelli.

Postulating Trinitarian Orthodoxy in Book 8 of Paradise Lost: Identifying Milton’s “Presence Divine” as the Son, Considering God’s First Conversation with Adam Apart from De Doctrina Christiana

David V. Urban
Recent scholarship that either challenges Milton’s authorship of De Doctrina Christiana or argues that De Doctrina Christiana is Miltonic but should not be used as a gloss upon Paradise Lost opens up the possibility to interpret Milton’s epic without deference to the Antitrinitarian treatise. A close textual analysis of Adam’s interaction with the Presence Divine in Paradise Lost 8.295–499 reveals, first, that the Presence Divine, contrary to the prevailing view of Milton scholarship, is the Son of God as opposed to God the Father. Moreover, Milton’s presentation of the Presence Divine is strikingly Trinitarian—in tension with De Doctrina Christiana and contrary to the received interpretation in Milton scholarship—and notably consistent with orthodox Trinitarian writings concerning the Son of God throughout church history, particularly orthodox reformed writings from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Al Kalak, Matteo. The Heresy of the Brothers: A Heterodox Community in Sixteenth-Century Italy

Lucas Coia

Barthas, Jérémie. Machiavelli costituzionalista: Il progetto di riforma dello Stato di Firenze del 1522

Brian Jeffrey Maxson

Bass, Marisa Anne. The Monument’s End: Public Art and the Modern Republic

Jonathan Locke Hart

Cavicchi, Camilla. Maistre Jan: La carriera di un cantore francese alla corte degli Este di Ferrara (1512–1538)

Maria Galli Stampino

Felici, Lucia. Senza frontiere. L’Europa di Erasmo (1538–1600)

Marie Barral-Baron

Gasch, Stefan, ed. The Munich Court Chapel at 500: Tradition, Devotion, Representation

Luke Bohmer

Greenberg, Marissa, and Rachel Trubowitz, eds. Milton’s Moving Bodies

John S. Garrison

Istasse, Nathaël. Joannes Ravisius Textor (1492/3–1522). Un régent humaniste à Paris à l’aube de la Renaissance

Marie Barral-Baron

Koefoed, Nina J., and Bo Kristian Holm, eds. Reformation and Everyday Life

Hannah Stevenson

Kuhn, John. Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England

Ian McAdam

Lamb, Jonathan P. How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England

Terri Bourus

Lupi, Livia. Painting Architecture in Early Renaissance Italy: Innovation and Persuasion at the Intersection of Art and Architectural Practice

Brian Jeffrey Maxson

Martínez-Osorio, Emiro, and Mercedes Blanco, eds. The War Trumpet: Iberian Epic Poetry, 1543–1639

Enrique Fernández

Midura, Rachel. Postal Intelligence: The Tassis Family and Communications Revolution in Early Modern Europe

Hannah Sparwasser Soroka

Miller, Kathleen, ed. Doctrine and Disease in the British and Spanish Colonial World

Andrew Kettler

Minnich, Nelson H., ed. The Renaissance Papacy 1400–1600

Frank Lacopo

Peters, Julie Stone. Staging Witchcraft before the Law: Skepticism, Performance as Proof, and Law as Magic in Early Modern Witch Trials

Susanne Beiweis

Ross, Shaun. The Eucharist, Poetics, and Secularization from the Middle Ages to Milton

Dan Breen

VanWagoner, Benjamin. Imperial Ventures: Maritime Drama and the Invention of Risk

Hayley Cotter

Books received

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2024 Natalie Zemon Davis Prize / Le prix Natalie Zemon Davis 2024

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