1.
Landini (tractor)
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Landini SpA, headquartered in Fabbrico, Italy, was founded by Giovanni Landini in 1884 to produce agricultural equipment. Landini had just started making tractors in 1925 when Giovanni died preventing the completion of the first prototype tractor, Giovanni Landinis sons took over the business and saw the completion of the tractor project. In 1925 the sons built the first authentic Italian tractor, a 30 hp machine. It was a success and was the forerunner of the range of Landini 40 and 50 hp models which appeared in the mid-1930s and were to become renowmed under the names of Velite, Bufalo. The first production tractors were powered by a 40 hp semi-diesel engine which was a two stroke single-cylinder unit, the company continued to produce semi-diesel engined tractors until 1957. When World War II started, the production stopped, in 1959, the first Landini crawler tractor, the C35 was manufactured, and the company was purchased 100% by Massey Ferguson. In 1973 Landini launched the 500 Series of 2 and 4 wheeled tractors,1980 saw the company diversifying its products as well as specializing. Also in 1980 Landini started work on a vineyard tractor, in 1986 the new vineyard tractor was launched. In 1988, the company launched a series of tractors. In 1989 Landini became a part of ARGO SpA as Massey Ferguson sold 66% of the company, Massey itself was bought by AGCO in 1994, while ARGO purchased more shares of Landini that year. The final 9% of Landini that was owned by AGCO was bought by ARGO in 2000, landini/ARGO continued supplying some tractors to AGCO under a supply agreement. ARGO SpA McCormick Tractors Valpadana List of Italian companies List of tractor manufacturers Company website Argo Spa List of Landini Tractors
2.
Portative organ
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The performer manipulates the bellows with one hand and fingers the keys with the other. The portative organ lacks a reservoir to retain a supply of wind, the instrument was commonly used in European secular music from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. The portative is constructed simply in order to make it as portable as possible, the pipes are arranged on a small rectangular windchest and supplied with wind by one or two bellows placed at the back, in front or at the right side of the instrument. The row of pipes is supported by posts at either end, the simplest style of keyboard on the portative consists of one slider for each pipe. When a slider is pushed in, the corresponding pipe sounds, the slider is restored to its normal position by a horn spring. Some instruments use the reverse of this action, with keys featuring knobs or handles, in principle, the portative is a smaller instrument than the positive organ, which features more ranks of pipes and a larger keyboard. The portative also should not be confused with the regal, a keyboard instrument that contains a rank of short-length reed pipes instead of flue pipes. Towards the middle of the century, miniatures of illuminated manuscripts depict portatives with modern. An example can be seen in the Spanish manuscript known as the Cantigas de Santa Maria and it is evident from the position of the organists thumb in these miniatures that the keys are pressed down to make the notes sound. There are nine pipes and nine keys, which is sufficient for a C-major diatonic scale of one octave with an added B-flat, from the description of these remains by C. F. The small instrument often taken for a syrinx on a medallion of Sallust in the Cabinet Impérial de France in Paris may be meant for a miniature portative. Positive organ Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Schlesinger. Modern portative organs Portative organs, Organetti Virtual portative under GrandOrgue
3.
Squarcialupi Codex
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The Squarcialupi Codex is an illuminated manuscript compiled in Florence, Italy in the early 15th century. It is the single largest primary source of music of the 14th-century Italian Trecento and it consists of 216 parchment folios, organized by composer, with each composers section beginning with a portrait of the composer richly illuminated in gold, red, blue and purple. The manuscript is in condition, and musical pieces are complete. There is also a marked out for Giovanni Mazzuoli which contains no music. The manuscript was almost certainly compiled in Florence at the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, however, more recent evidence about the biography and in particular poor finances of Paolo has his connection to financing the manuscript unlikely. At the end of the 18th century it passed into the ownership of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, the first folio in the codex states, This book is owned by Antonio di Bartolomeo Squarcialupi, organist of Santa Maria del Fiore. On the following pages, added later, are humanistic poems in praise of Squarcialupi. All of the compositions in the codex are secular songs in Italian, ballata, madrigals, and cacce, there are 353 in all, notably absent are Italian pieces by Johannes Ciconia, a northerner transplanted into Italy, and the more innovative compositions of Antonio Zachara da Teramo. Music of the Trecento Rossi Codex Kurt von Fischer, Antonio Squarcialupi, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Kurt von Fischer/Gianluca dAgostino, Sources, MS, Italian Polyphony, 1325-1420, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy, Richard H. Hoppin, ISBN 0-393-09090-6 La Trobe University Library Medieval Music Database
4.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
5.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
6.
Organ (music)
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In music, the organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe divisions, each played with its own keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet using pedals. The organ is an old musical instrument, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman world, subsequently it re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music tradition. Pipe organs use air moving through pipes to produce sounds, since the 16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which can vary widely in timbre and volume. The pipes are divided into ranks and controlled by the use of hand stops, although the keyboard is not expressive as on a piano and does not affect dynamics, some divisions may be enclosed in a swell box, allowing the dynamics to be controlled by shutters. Some organs are enclosed, meaning that all the divisions can be controlled by one set of shutters. Some special registers with free reed pipes are expressive and these instruments vary greatly in size, ranging from a cubic yard to a height reaching five floors, and are built in churches, synagogues, concert halls, and homes. Small organs are called positive or portative, increasingly hybrid organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electronic additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially when the lowest of the pipes can be replaced, non-piped organs include the reed organ or harmonium, which like the accordion and harmonica use air to excite free reeds. Electronic organs or digital organs, notably the Hammond organ, generate electronically produced sound through one or more loudspeakers, mechanical organs include the barrel organ, water organ, and Orchestrion. These are controlled by means such as pinned barrels or book music. Little barrel organs dispense with the hands of an organist and bigger organs are powered in most cases by a grinder or today by other means such as an electric motor. The pipe organ is the grandest musical instrument in size and scope, along with the clock, it was considered one of the most complex human-made mechanical creations before the Industrial Revolution. Pipe organs range in size from a short keyboard to huge instruments with over 10,000 pipes. A large modern organ typically has three or four keyboards with five each, and a two-and-a-half octave pedal board. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart called the organ the King of instruments, some of the biggest instruments have 64-foot pipes, and it sounds to an 8 Hz frequency fundamental tone. For instance, the Wanamaker organ, located in Philadelphia, USA, has sonic resources comparable with three simultaneous symphony orchestras, most organs in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia can be found in Christian churches. The introduction of organs is traditionally attributed to Pope Vitalian in the 7th century
7.
Jacopo del Casentino
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Jacopo del Casentino was an Italian painter, active mainly in Tuscany in the first half of the 14th century. Very little is known about this artist other than that he came from Casentino. Giorgio Vasari incorrectly identified him as a member of the Landini family, Vasari also incorrectly placed his origins in Arezzo. It is likely he received his training in Florence in the milieu of the Master of St Cecilia and his career appears to have been confined to the first half of the 14th century. Casentino specialized in small devotional altars commissioned for private worship, Casentino popularized these altars throughout Italy along with artists such as Bernardo Daddi. His work shows the influence of Giotto, with whom Daddi apprenticed, Casentino may have spent time in Giottos workshop and have been a pupil of another Giotto follower, Taddeo Gaddi. Casentino also showed an influence from the Sienese School of painting, the later Gothic style Casentino painted in was also influenced by the Sienese painters Pietro Lorenzetti and his brother Ambrogio. Media related to Jacopo del Casentino at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Cristoforo Landino
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Cristoforo Landino was an Italian humanist and an important figure of the Florentine Renaissance. From a family with ties to the Casentino, Landino was born in Florence in 1424, Landinos wife Lucrezia was a member of the Alberti family. In 1458 Landino replaced Cristoforo Marsuppini as the chair of rhetoric and his students, seeking a more renowned teacher, initially opposed Landinos appointment, but he nevertheless remained and became an important part of the cultural and intellectual life of Florence. Landino was a member of the Platonic Academy founded by Marsilio Ficino in Florence and he was the tutor of Lorenzo de Medici and his brother Giuliano. Landino also held office, first as chancellor of the Guelf party. Landino died in 1498 in a villa in Borgo alla Collina and he championed the use of vernacular Italian. He wrote three works framed as philosophical dialogues, De anima, De vera nobilitate, and the Disputationes Camaldulenses, in the Disputationes several humanists compare the merits of the active and the contemplative life. As the lady Xandra Landino published three volumes of Latin poems and they were dedicated in 1458 to Piero de Medici. He also prepared many letters and orations, which were published long after his death in Italian in Venice, of special importance to the Renaissance, Landino prepared commentaries on the Aeneid and The Divine Comedy. To promote the use of vernacular Italian, Landino held lectures on Petrarch and translated and published Plinys Historia naturalis, among his pupils was historian Andrea Cambini. Chatfield, Mary P. Cristoforo Landino, Poems, formulario de Epistole Vulgar Missiue & Responsiue & Altri Fiori de Ornati par Lamenti / Composta per Bartolomeo Miniatore. From the Collections at the Library of Congress Poliziano Marsilio Ficino Bernuzzi, Cristoforo Landino, in Contemporaries of Erasmus. Thomas B Deutscher and Peter G Bietenholz, Toronto, University of Toronto Press,2003. Tradition and Innovation in Cristoforo Landino’s Glosses on Astrology in His Comento sopra la comedia, Italian Studies,58, pieper, Christoph, Elegos redolere Vergiliosque sapere, Cristoforo Landinos Xandra zwischen Liebe und Gesellschaft. Xx,356 S. Cristoforo Landino at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
9.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
10.
Fiesole
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Fiesole is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence,8 kilometres northeast of that city. Both the Harvard University and Georgetown University maintain centers for Renaissance studies in Fiesole, the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is set in the slopes of Fiesole. Since the 14th century the city has always considered a getaway for the upper class of Florence. Fiesole was probably founded in the 9th-8th century BC, as it was an important member of the Etruscan confederacy, the first recorded mention on the town dates to 283 BC, when the town, then known as Faesulae, was conquered by the Romans. In pagan antiquity it was the seat of a school of augurs. Sulla colonized it with veterans, who afterwards, under the leadership of Gaius Mallius, Fiesole was the scene of Stilichos great victory over the Germanic hordes of the Vandals and Suebi under Radagaisus in 406. During the Gothic War the town was several times besieged, in 539 Justinus, the Byzantine general, captured it and razed its fortifications. Dante reflects this rivalry in his Divine Comedy by referring to the beasts of Fiesole, by the 14th century, rich Florentines had countryside villas in Fiesole, and one of them is the setting of the frame narrative of the Decameron. Boccaccios poem Il Ninfale fiesolano is an account of the origins of the community. Robert Browning mentions “sober pleasant Fiesole” several times in his poem Andrea Del Sarto, palazzo Comunale of the 14th century. The cathedral of Fiesole, containing the shrine of St. Romulus, martyr, according to legend the first Bishop of Fiesole, the old cathedral became a Benedictine abbey, which passed into the hands of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. It once possessed a library, long since dispersed. The abbey was closed in 1778, the room in the bishops palace where Carmelite bishop St. Andrew Corsini lived and died. The little church of the Primerana in the square, where the same saint was warned by Our Lady of his approaching death. Built in 996 and further expanded in medieval times, has maintained the Gothic presbytery from that period and it received a new façade in the late 16th century, with graffito decoration by Ludovico Buti. The interior, on a hall, has a 13th-century panel portraying Madonna with Child. In the transept are two marble bas-reliefs by Francesco da Sangallo, and a terracotta from Andrea della Robbias workshop, the church of S. Alessandro, with the shrine of St. Alexander, bishop and martyr. The Monastery of San Francesco on the crest of the hill, with the cells of St. Bernardine of Siena, San Girolamo, the home of Venerable Carlo dei Conti Guidi, founder of the Hieronymites of Fiesole
11.
Lute
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The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance. It is also an instrument, especially in vocal works. The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist or lutist, the words lute and oud possibly derive from Arabic al-ʿud. Recent research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests ʿud may in turn be an Arabized version of the Persian name rud and it has equally been suggested the wood in the name may have distinguished the instrument by its wooden soundboard from skin-faced predecessors. Gianfranco Lotti suggests the wood appellation originally carried derogatory connotations because of proscriptions of all music in early Islam. Lutes are made almost entirely of wood, the soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood. In all lutes the soundboard has a single decorated sound hole under the strings called the rose. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of a vine or a decorative knot. Robert Lundberg, in his book Historical Lute Construction, suggests ancient builders placed bars according to ratios of the scale length. He further suggests the inward bend of the soundboard is an adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenists right hand more space between the strings and soundboard. Soundboard thickness varies, but generally hovers between 1.5 and 2 mm, some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to produce desirable sonic results. The lute belly is almost never finished, but in cases the luthier may size the top with a very thin coat of shellac or glair to help keep it clean. After joining the top to the sides, a half-binding is usually installed around the edge of the soundboard, the half-binding is approximately half the thickness of the soundboard and is usually made of a contrasting color wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be precise to avoid compromising structural integrity. The back or the shell is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs. There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength, the neck is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Unlike most modern stringed instruments, the fretboard is mounted flush with the top
12.
Psaltery
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A psaltery is a stringed instrument of the zither family. The psaltery of Ancient Greece is a harp-like instrument, the psaltery was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound production. In the Christian era, a psaltery consisting of a soundboard with several pre-tuned strings that are usually plucked came into use and it was also known by the name canon from the Greek word κανών, which means rule, principle, and also mode. The modern Greek folk instrument is called by its diminutive, kanonaki, the instrument is usually small enough to be portable, its shape and range vary. From the 12th through the 15th centuries, psalteries are widely seen in manuscripts, paintings and they vary widely in shape and the number of strings. In the 19th century, several related zithers came into use, notably the guitar zither, in the 20th century, the bowed psaltery came into wide use. It is set up in a format so that the end portion of each string can be bowed. Similar instruments include the large cimbalom and the smaller dulcimer, both played using small hammers to hit the strings. Gusli Kantele Nevel Psalterium Santur Zither Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Psaltery, Psaltery Discussion of psalteries, with image from the exhibition Making Musical Instruments, The making of musical instruments in Canada by the Canadian Museum of Civilisation
13.
Bandura
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A bandura is a Ukrainian, plucked string, folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments had 5 to 12 strings and similar to the lute, in the 20th century, the number of strings increased initially to 31 strings,56 strings and up to 68 strings on modern chromaticism concert instruments. Musicians who play the bandura are referred to as bandurists, in the 19th – early 20th century traditional bandura players, often blind, were referred to as kobzars. A number of other court bandurists of Ukrainian ethnicity have also recorded in medieval Polish documents. The term kobza was used as a synonym for bandura. The use of the term kobza pre-dates the first known use of the term bandura, Kobza was first mentioned in a Polish chronicle in 1313, having been introduced into the Ukrainian language sometime in the 12–13th century. It is thought to have Turkic pedigree, the less used term kobza-bandura refers to the dual origins of the instrument. However, it is cumbersome and is used in spoken language. The term bandore or bandora can also be found referring to this instrument. The term made its way into usage through early 20th century Soviet Ukrainian-English and Russian-English dictionaries, the term bandura is also occasionally used when referring to a number of other Eastern European string instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy and the five string guitar. The use of stringed instruments by the inhabitants of the lands that now constitute Ukraine dates back to 591. In that year, Byzantine Greek chronicles mention Bulgar warriors who travelled with lute-like instruments they called kitharas, there are iconographic depictions of lute-like instruments in the 11th-century frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, once the capital of a vast medieval kingdom of the Rus. The instrument became popular in the courts of the nobility in Eastern Europe, there are numerous citations mentioning the existence of Ukrainian bandurists in both Russia and Poland. Empress Elisabeth of Russia had a marriage to her Ukrainian court bandurist. After the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, the instrument continued to be played by wandering, the invention of an instrument combining organological elements of lute and psaltery is sometimes credited to Francesco Landini, an Italian lutenist-composer during the trecento. Filippo Villani writes in his Liber de civitatis Florentiae, invented a new sort of instrument, a cross between lute and psaltery, which he called the serena serenarum, an instrument that produces an exquisite sound when its strings are struck. Rare iconographic evidence reveals that such instruments were still in use in Italy ca, in the Hetman state in left-bank Ukraine, the bandura underwent significant transformations with the development of a professional class of itinerant blind musicians called kobzars
14.
Petrarch
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Francesco Petrarca, commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarchs rediscovery of Ciceros letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance, Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarchs works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch would be later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarchs sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and he is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the Dark Ages. This standing back from his time was possible because he straddled two worlds—the classical and his own modern day, Petrarch was born in the Tuscan city of Arezzo in 1304. He was the son of Ser Petracco and his wife Eletta Canigiani and his given name was Francesco Petracco. The name was Latinized to Petrarca, Petrarchs younger brother was born in Incisa in Val dArno in 1307. Dante was a friend of his father, Petrarch spent his early childhood in the village of Incisa, near Florence. He spent much of his life at Avignon and nearby Carpentras. He studied law at the University of Montpellier and Bologna with a lifelong friend, because his father was in the profession of law he insisted that Petrarch and his brother study law also. Petrarch however was interested in writing and Latin literature and considered these seven years wasted. Additionally he proclaimed that through legal manipulation his guardians robbed him of his small property inheritance in Florence and he protested, I couldnt face making a merchandise of my mind, as he viewed the legal system as the art of selling justice. Petrarch was a letter writer and counted Boccaccio among his notable friends to whom he wrote often. After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon in 1326 and this work gave him much time to devote to his writing. With his first large work, Africa, an epic in Latin about the great Roman general Scipio Africanus. On April 8,1341, he became the poet laureate since antiquity and was crowned by Roman Senatori Giordano Orsini. He traveled widely in Europe, served as an ambassador, and has called the first tourist because he traveled just for pleasure. During his travels, he collected crumbling Latin manuscripts and was a mover in the recovery of knowledge from writers of Rome
15.
Peter I of Cyprus
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Peter I of Cyprus or Pierre I de Lusignan was King of Cyprus and titular King of Jerusalem from his fathers abdication on 24 November 1358 until his own death in 1369. He was also Latin King of Armenia from either 1361 or 1368 and he was the second son of Hugh IV of Cyprus, the first by his second wife Alice of Ibelin. He was also invested as titular Count of Tripoli when young and he was the greatest King of Cyprus on a military basis, where he had great success. He was unable to complete many plans, due to dispute that culminated in his assassination at the hands of three of his own knights. Soon after 28 June 1342 he married Eschive de Montfort, only daughter and heiress of Honfroy de Montfort, Constable of Cyprus and Titular Lord of Toron, eschiva died before 1350 while Peter was still a teenager and the marriage was childless. Hughs heir apparent was his first born son, Guy, who had married Marie of Bourbon, in 1349 he traveled secretly to Europe with his brother John. This upset their father who sent ships to find his sons, when they were brought back, he imprisoned them for leaving without his permission. Upon the expulsion of the Holy Roman Empire from Palestine a hundred years before, Peter understood the importance of his kingdom, and believed that his mission was to fight Islam. He had ambitions to retake the Kingdom of Jerusalem to which the house of Lusignan yet pretended, Peter was crowned as Titular King of Jerusalem in Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Famagusta on 5 April 1360, succeeding his father. Neighboring Muslim powers were potentially a threat to Cyprus, the last Christian Crusader strongholds on the mainland of the Near East having been wiped out in 1291. At the moment a new Islamic power had come to the fore. In addition, they were primarily a power, and for the moment the remaining Latin Christian entities in the region could hold their own on the seas. Along with the Knights of Saint John the kings Cyprus were the inheritors of Crusading tradition, Peter founded the Chivalric Order of the Sword in 1347, which was dedicated to the recovery of Jerusalem. The royal family were in fact the kings of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Reduced as they were, this Crusader heritage continued in the form of sea-born raids, unlike his father, Peter decided to embrace this tradition and began with in a raid on Korikos, a fortified harbour in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. His primary focus of activity was along the coast of Asia Minor, in January 1360, the residents of Korikos sent their representatives to Cyprus to ask for protection, since their city was threatened by the Turks. Peter sent some of his men led by the knight Roberto de Luisignan, the Turks were unable to break the Cypriot siege of Korikos. The siege of Korikos, was seen as a threat by Muslim leaders of Asia Minor and they allied against Peter and they attacked Cyprus with many ships but Peter obtained aid from the Knights of Saint John from Rhodes
16.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
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Motet
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In western music, a motet is a mainly vocal musical composition, of highly varied form and style, from the late medieval era to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music, according to Margaret Bent, a piece of music in several parts with words is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. In the early 20th century, it was believed the name came from the Latin movere. The Medieval Latin for motet is motectum, and the Italian mottetto was also used, if the word is from Latin, the name describes the movement of the different voices against one another. Today, however, the French etymology is favoured by reference books, in fact, the troped clausulas that were the forerunner of the motet were originally called motelli, soon replaced by the term moteti. The earliest motets arose in the 13th century from the organum tradition exemplified in the Notre Dame school of Léonin and Pérotin, the motet probably arose from clausula sections, usually strophic interludes, in a longer sequence of organum, to which upper voices were added. Usually the clausula represented a sequence in Latin which was sung as a discant over a cantus firmus. The motet took a definite rhythm from the words of the verse, the main exception is the conductus motet, in which the parts proceed in essentially homophonic rhythms. The practice of discant over a cantus firmus marked the beginnings of counterpoint in Western music, from these first motets arose a medieval tradition of secular motets. It is suspected that, for the sake of intelligibility, in performance the cantus firmus, among the trouvères, Robert de Reins La Chievre and Richart de Fournival composed motets. While it grew out of the isorhythmic motet, the Renaissance composers of the motet generally abandoned the use of a repeated figure as a cantus firmus. During this time, however, the use of cantus firmi in works such as the parody mass tended to stretch the cantus firmus out to great lengths compared to the multivoice descant above it. This tended to obscure the rhythm supplied by the cantus firmus that had been apparent in the medieval isorhythmic motet. The cascading, passing chords created by the interplay between multiple voices, and the absence of a strong or obvious beat, are the features that distinguish medieval, the texts of antiphons were frequently used as motet texts. This is the sort of composition that is most familiarly designated by the term motet, in essence, these motets were sacred madrigals. The language of the text was the feature, if it is Latin, it is a motet, if the vernacular. Religious compositions in vernacular languages were often called madrigali spirituali, spiritual madrigals, secular motets continued to be written, however. These motets typically set a Latin text in praise of a monarch, commemorating some public triumph, nevertheless, the themes of courtly love often found in the medieval secular motet were banished from the Renaissance motet
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Doge of Venice
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The Doge of Venice, sometimes translated as Duke, was the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice for 1,100 years. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-states aristocracy, commonly the man selected as Doge was the shrewdest elder in the city. The doge was neither a duke in the sense, nor the equivalent of a hereditary duke. The title doge was the title of the senior-most elected official of Venice and Genoa, a doge was referred to variously by the titles My Lord the Doge, Most Serene Prince, and His Serenity. After a deadlocked tie at the election of 1229, the number of electors was increased from forty to forty-one, new regulations for the elections of the doge introduced in 1268 remained in force until the end of the republic in 1797. Their object was to minimize as far as possible the influence of great families. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine, the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, the twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, none could be elected but by at least twenty-five votes out of forty-one, nine votes out of eleven or twelve, or seven votes out of nine electors. A detailed description of this process, and the procession that followed, is preserved in Martin Da Canales work Les Estoires de Venise. This practice came to an end in 1423, after the election of Francesco Foscari, the doges normally ruled for life. After a doges death, a commission of inquisitori passed judgment upon his acts, the official income of the doge was never large, and from early times holders of the office remained engaged in trading ventures. These ventures kept them in touch with the requirements of the grandi, from 7 July 1268, during a vacancy in the office of doge, the state was headed ex officio, with the style vicedoge, by the senior consigliere ducale. One of the duties of the doge was to celebrate the symbolic marriage of Venice with the sea. This was done by casting a ring from the state barge, in its earlier form this ceremony was instituted to commemorate the conquest of Dalmatia by Doge Pietro II Orseolo in 1000, and was celebrated on Ascension Day. It took its later and more magnificent form after the visit of Pope Alexander III, on state occasions the Doge was surrounded by an increasing amount of ceremony, and in international relations he had the status of a sovereign prince. The doge took part in processions, which started in the Piazza San Marco. The doge would appear in the center of the procession, preceded by civil servants ranked in ascending order of prestige, from the 14th century onwards, the ceremonial crown and well-known symbol of the doge of Venice was called corno ducale, a unique kind of a ducal hat. Every Easter Monday the doge headed a procession from San Marco to the convent of San Zaccaria where the abbess presented him a new camauro crafted by the nuns, the Doges official costume also included golden robes, slippers and a sceptre for ceremonial duties
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Servite Order
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The Servite Order is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. Its objects are the sanctification of its members, preaching the Gospel, the members of the Order use O. S. M. as their post-nominal letters. The male members are known as Servite Friars or Servants of Mary, the Order of Servants of Mary is a religious family that embraces a membership of friars, contemplative nuns, a congregation of active sisters and lay groups. The Servites lead a community life in the tradition of the mendicant orders and these men are known as the Seven Holy Founders, they were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888. These seven were, Buonfiglio dei Monaldi, Giovanni di Buonagiunta, Amadeus of the Amidei, Ricovero dei Lippi-Ugguccioni, Benedetto dell Antella, Gherardino di Sostegno and they belonged to seven patrician families of that city. As a reflection of the spirit of the times, it had been the custom of these men to meet regularly as members of a religious society established in honor of Mary. From the beginning, the members of the Order dedicated themselves to Mary under her title of Mother of Sorrows, dedicating their devotion to the mother of Jesus, they adopted Marys virtues of hospitality and compassion as the orders hallmarks. The distinctive spirit of the order is the sanctification of its members by meditation on the Passion of Jesus and the Sorrows of Mary, the Bishop of Florence approved the Friar Servants of Mary as a religious Order sometime between the years 1240 and 1247. The Servants decided to live by the Rule of St. Augustine, by 1250 there were a number of Servants who were ordained to the priesthood, thus creating an Order with priests as well as brothers. Pope Alexander IV, favored a plan for the amalgamation of all following the Rule of St. Augustine. This was accomplished in March 1256, and about the time a Rescript was issued confirming the Order of the Servites as a separate body with power to elect a general. Within five years two new provinces were added, Romagna and Lombardy, St. Philip Benizi was elected general on 5 June 1267, and afterwards became the great propagator of the order. In the year 1276 Pope Innocent V in a letter to St. Philip declared the order suppressed, St. Philip proceeded to Rome, but before his arrival there Innocent V had died. His successor lived but five weeks, finally Pope John XXI, decided that the order should continue as before. It was not definitively approved until Pope Benedict XI issued the Bull Dum levamus, of the seven founders, St. Alexis alone lived to see their foundation raised to the dignity of an order. Pope Boniface IX granted the Servites the power to confer degrees on 30 January 1398. The new foundation enjoyed considerable growth in the following decades, even in the thirteenth century there were houses of the order in Germany, France, and Spain. The disturbances during the Protestant Reformation caused the loss of many Servite convents in Germany, the Convent of Santa Maria in Via was the second house of the order established in Rome, San Marcello al Corso had been founded in 1369
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Trecento
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The Trecento refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history. Commonly the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history, important sculptors included two pupils of Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio and Tino di Camaino, and Bonino da Campione. The Trecento was also famous as a time of heightened literary activity, dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio were the leading writers of the age. Dante produced his famous La divina commedia, a summation of the medieval worldview, in music, the Trecento was a time of vigorous activity in Italy, as it was in France, with which there was a frequent interchange of musicians and influences. Antiquity and the Middle Ages, From Ancient Greece to the 15th Century, media related to 14th-century in Italy at Wikimedia Commons
