1.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
2.
Pierre Subleyras
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Pierre Subleyras was a French painter, active during the late-Baroque and early-Neoclassic period, mainly in Italy. Subleyras was born in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, France and he left France in 1728, having carried off the French Academys grand prix, which carried scholarship for study in Rome. Cardinal Valenti Gonzaga next obtained for him the order for Saint Basil & Emperor Valens (also known as the Mass of St. Basil, another masterpiece is his painting of St. Camillo De Lellis coming to the rescue of the diseased at the hospital of the Holy Spirit. He was a remarkably incisive portraitist, as evident from the portrait of Pope Benedict XIV or of the obese Cardinal Valenti Gonzaga. The pope himself commanded two great paintings, the Marriage of St Catherine and the Ecstasy of St Camilla, which he placed in his own private apartments, Subleyras shows greater individuality in his curious genre pictures, which he produced in considerable number. In his illustrations of La Fontaine and Boccaccio his true relation to the modern era comes out, exhausted by overwork, Subleyras tried a change to Naples, but returned to Rome at the end of a few months to die. His wife, the miniature painter, Maria Felice Tibaldi, was sister to Isabella. Media related to Pierre Subleyras at Wikimedia Commons Subleyras, Pierre, painter, draughtsman, printmaker
3.
Pope Clement XII
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Pope Clement XII, born Lorenzo Corsini, was Pope from 12 July 1730 to his death in 1740. Clement presided over the growth of a surplus in the papal finances, in his 1738 bull In eminenti apostolatus, he provides the first public papal condemnation of Freemasonry, helping bring about the Catholic Churchs longstanding opposition to the order. Lorenzo Corsini was born in Florence in 1652 as the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano and his wife Elisabetta Strozzi, both of his parents belonged to the old Florentine nobility. He was a distant relative of Saint Andrea Corsini, Corsini studied at the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome and also at the University of Pisa where he earned a doctorate in both civil law and canon law. Corsini practiced law under the direction of his uncle, Cardinal Neri Corsini. After the death of his uncle and his father, in 1685, Corsini, now thirty-three, corsini’s home on the Piazza Novona, was the center of Rome’s scholarly and artistic life. In 1690 he was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and chosen nuncio to Vienna. He did not proceed to the court, because Leopold I. In 1696, Corsini was appointed treasurer-general and governor of the Castel SantAngelo and he advanced still further under Pope Benedict XIII, who made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a judicial branch of the Roman Curia. He was successively appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli, under Benedict XIII, the finances of the Papal States had been delivered into the hands of Cardinal Niccolò Coscia and other members of the curia, who had drained the financial resources of the see. Clement XII was one of the oldest men to be elected pope, as a Corsini, with his mother a Strozzi, the new pope represented a family in the highest level of Florentine society, with a cardinal in every generation for the previous hundred years. His first moves as Pope Clement XII were to restore the papal finances and he demanded restitution from the ministers who had abused the confidence of his predecessor. The chief culprit, Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, was fined and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Papal finances were improved through reviving the public lottery, which had been suppressed by the severe morality of Benedict XIII. A competition for the majestic façade of the San Giovanni in Laterano was won by architect Alessandro Galilei, the façade he designed is perhaps more palatial than ecclesiastic, and was finished by 1735. Clement XII erected in that ancient basilica a magnificent chapel dedicated to his 14th century kinsman and he restored the Arch of Constantine and built the governmental palace of the Consulta on the Quirinal. He purchased from Cardinal Alessandro Albani for 60,000 scudi a famous collection of statues, inscriptions, etc. and he paved the streets of Rome and the roads leading from the city, and widened the Corso. He began the triumphant Baroque Fontana di Trevi, one of the ornaments of Rome
4.
Pope Clement XIII
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Pope Clement XIII, born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was Pope from 6 July 1758 to his death in 1769. He was consecrated on 16 July 1758 and his pontificate was overshadowed by the constant pressure to suppress the Society of Jesus but despite this, he championed their order and also proved to be their greatest defender at that time. These efforts ultimately bore little fruition, born to Giovanni Battista Rezzonico and Vittoria Barbarigo, his brother was Aurelio. He received a Jesuit education in Bologna and later studied at the University of Padua where he obtained his doctorate in canon law, from there, he travelled to Rome where he attended the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles. Rezzonico became the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura and remained in position from 1716 to 1718 when he was appointed as the Governor of Fano. He was then ordained to the priesthood on 23 December 1731 in Rome, Pope Clement XII appointed him to the cardinalate in 1737 as the Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola in Carcere and also filled various important posts in the Roman Curia. Rezzonico was chosen as Bishop of Padua in 1743 and he received consecration in Rome by Pope Benedict XIV himself. Rezzonico visited his diocese on frequent occasions and reformed the way that the diocese ran and he was the first to do this in five decades. He later opted to become the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in 1747, Pope Benedict XIV died of gout in 1758 and the College of Cardinals gathered at the papal conclave in order to elect a successor. Direct negotiations between the factions resulted in the proposal for the election of Rezzonico. On the evening of 6 July 1758, Rezzonico received 31 votes out of a possible 44 and he selected the pontifical name of Clement XIII in honor of Pope Clement XII, who elevated him to the cardinalate. Rezzonico was crowned as pontiff on 16 July 1758 by the protodeacon, in the same year, the Rezzonico family celebrated Ludovico Rezzonicos marriage into the powerful Savorgnan family. Rezzonico was notorious for his rampant nepotism throughout his pontificate, notwithstanding the meekness and affability of his upright and moderate character, he was modest to a fault and generous with his extensive private fortune. Clement XIIIs pontificate was repeatedly disturbed by disputes respecting the pressures to suppress the Jesuits coming from the progressive Enlightenment circles of the philosophes in France. Clement XIII placed the Encyclopédie of DAlembert and Diderot on the Index, more unexpected resistance came from the less progressive courts of Spain, the Two Sicilies, and Portugal. In 1758 the reforming minister of Joseph I of Portugal, the Marquis of Pombal, expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, in 1760, Pombal sent the papal nuncio home and recalled the Portuguese ambassador from the Vatican. Louis XVs ministers could not permit such an abrogation of French law, in Spain, they appeared to be safe, but Charles III of Spain, aware of the drawn-out contentions in Bourbon France, decided on a more peremptory efficiency. Much the same fate awaited them in the territories of the Bourbon Duke of Parma and Piacenza, in 1768, Clement XIII issued a strong protest against the policy of the Parmese government
5.
Pope Benedict XIII
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Pope Benedict XIII, born Pietro Francesco Orsini, was Pope from 29 May 1724 to his death in 1730. He took the name of Vincenzo Maria Orsini, OP, when he became a Dominican friar, in the process towards sainthood, his cause for canonization opened in 1755, but it was soon closed. It was re-opened on 21 February 1931, but it was closed again in 1940. It was opened once more on 17 January 2004, with the official process commencing in 2012 and he now has the posthumous title of Servant of God. He was born in Gravina in Puglia to Ferdinando III Orsini, duke of Gravina and he also had a brother, Domenico. He was a member of the Orsini of Rome, the third and he entered the Dominican Order and received the name of Vincenzo Maria. He was named, by Pope Clement X, the Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto on 22 February 1672, later he was bishop of Manfredonia, bishop of Cesena and he remained a close friend of a local mystic, Serafina di Dio. Upon the death of Pope Innocent XIII in 1724, a conclave was convoked to elect a successor, there were four divisions in the College of Cardinals and there were no clear candidates. At the conclave, Orsini was considered one of the papabile, Orsini was then proposed to be elected because he led a modest, austere life, considered to be a pastor. Orsini refused to be elected prior to the ballot, explaining that he was unworthy of it. After three hours of persuasion, he surrendered to the will of the cardinals and on 29 May 1724 and he chose the regnal name of Benedict XIII in honour of Pope Blessed Benedict XI because he was also of the Dominican Order. On 4 June 1724, he was crowned by Benedetto Pamphili, on the following 24 September, he took possession of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. At first, he called himself Benedict XIV, but afterwards altered the title to Benedict XIII, the new pope caused considerable embarrassment to his aides by his constant affinity for adding personal touches to official ceremonies. For example, he prostrated himself at the door of St. Peters Basilica to kiss the floor, the cortège of cardinals had no idea whether they should do the same or stand until the pope rose. The crowd behind, who thought he had collapsed, pushed and pressed to get a view, causing many accidents. Another instance was when he refused to be carried in the Sedia gestatoria, a man not of wordly matters, he endeavoured to put a stop to the decadent lifestyles of the Italian priesthood and of the cardinalate. He also abolished the lottery in Rome, a man fond above all of asceticism and religious celebrations, according to Cardinal Lambertini he did not have any idea about how to rule. According to Montesquieu, All the money of Rome go to Benevento. as the Beneventani direct weakness, Benedict XIII beatified Bernardine of Feltre in 1728 and also beatified Peter Fourier on 20 January 1730
6.
Bologna
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Bologna is the largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of an area of about one million. The first settlements back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been a centre, first under the Etruscans. Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is also an important transportation crossroad for the roads and trains of Northern Italy, where many important mechanical, electronic and nutritional industries have their headquarters. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city, Bologna is home to numerous prestigious cultural, economic and political institutions as well as one of the most impressive trade fair districts in Europe. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, the city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country, after a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, the Germanic conquerors formed a district called addizione longobarda near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786, traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university. The university originated as a centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca among its students, the medical school is especially famous. In the 12th century, the families engaged in continual internecine fighting. Troops of Pope Julius II besieged Bologna and sacked the artistic treasures of his palace, in 1530, in front of Saint Petronio Church, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII. Then a plague at the end of the 16th century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, the population later recovered to a stable 60, 000–65,000. However, there was also great progress during this era, in 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the Palazzo dei Banchi were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the centre of the University
7.
Emilia-Romagna
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Emilia-Romagna is an administrative Region of Northeast Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. It has an area of 22,446 km2, and about 4.4 million inhabitants, Emilia-Romagna is one of the wealthiest and most developed regions in Europe, with the third highest GDP per capita in Italy. Bologna, its capital, has one of Italys highest quality of life indices, the name Emilia-Romagna is a legacy of Ancient Rome. Emilia derives from the via Aemilia, the Roman road connecting Rome to northern Italy, completed in 187 B. C. and named after the consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Romagna derives from Romània, the name of the Eastern Roman Empire applied to Ravenna by the Lombards when the western Empire had ceased to exist, before the Romans took control of present-day Emilia-Romagna, it had been part of the Etruscan world and then that of the Gauls. During the first thousand years of Christianity trade flourished, as did culture and religion, afterwards the University of Bologna—arguably the oldest university in Europe—and its bustling towns kept trade and intellectual life alive. After the referendum of 2006, seven municipalities of Montefeltro were detached from the Province of Pesaro, the municipalities are Casteldelci, Maiolo, Novafeltria, Pennabilli, San Leo, SantAgata Feltria and Talamello. On 20 and 29 May 2012 two powerful earthquakes hit the area and they killed at least 27 people and caused churches and factories to collapse. The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless, the region of Emilia-Romagna consists of nine provinces and covers an area of 22,446 km2, ranking sixth in Italy. Nearly half of the consists of plains while 27% is hilly. The regions section of the Apennines is marked by areas of flisch, badland erosion, the mountains stretch for more than 300 km from the north to the south-east, with only three peaks above 2,000 m – Monte Cimone, Monte Cusna and Alpe di Succiso. The plain was formed by the retreat of the sea from the Po basin. Almost entirely marshland in ancient times, its history is characterised by the work of its people to reclaim. All the rivers rise locally in the Apennines except for the Po, the northern border of Emilia-Romagna follows the path of the river for 263 km. Emilia Romagna has been a populated area since ancient times. Inhabitants over the centuries have radically altered the landscape, building cities, reclaiming wetlands, all these transformations in past centuries changed the aspect of the region, converting large natural areas to cultivation, up until the 1960s. The trend then changed, and agricultural lands began giving way to residential and industrial areas, the increase of urban-industrial areas continued at very high rates until the end of the 2010s. In the same period, hilly and mountainous areas saw an increase in the registration of semi-natural areas, land use changes can have strong effects on ecological functions
8.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
9.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bologna
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The Archdiocese of Bologna is a Roman Catholic archbishopric in northern Italy, with the archiepiscopal seat in Bologna Cathedral. The current Archbishop is Matteo Zuppi since 2015, the archdiocese has the following suffragans, diocese of Imola diocese of Faenza-Modigliana archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio. The bishopric of Bologna was founded in the 3rd century and raised to the level of an archbishopric on 10 December 1582, the following is a list of the bishops and archbishops of Bologna from 313 to the present day. P
10.
Christendom
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The term cristendom existed in Old English, but it had the sense now taken by Christianity. The current sense of the word of lands where Christianity is the dominant religion emerges in Late Middle English, English Christianity equalling German Christentum, French christianisme. The reason is the fragmentation of Western Christianity at that time both in theological and in political respect. Christendom as a term is thus meaningful in the context of the Middle Ages, and arguably during the European wars of religion. The Christian world is known collectively as the Corpus Christianum. The Christian polity, embodying a less secular meaning, can be compatible with the idea of both a religious and a body, Corpus Christianum. The Corpus Christianum can be seen as a Christian equivalent of the Muslim Ummah, the word Christendom is also used with its other meaning to frame-true Christianity. In its most broad term, it refers to the worlds Christian majority countries, unlike the Muslim world, which has a geo-political and cultural definition that provides a primary identifier for a large swath of the world, Christendom is more complex. For example, the Americas and Europe are considered part of Christendom and it is also less geographically cohesive than the Muslim world, which stretches almost continuously from North Africa to South Asia. There is a common and nonliteral sense of the word that is much like the terms Western world, when Thomas F. Connolly said, There isnt enough power in all Christendom to make that airplane what we want. In the beginning of Christendom, early Christianity was a spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st-century Jewish sect. The post-apostolic period concerns the time roughly after the death of the apostles when bishops emerged as overseers of urban Christian populations, the earliest recorded use of the terms Christianity and Catholic, dates to this period, the 2nd century, attributed to Ignatius of Antioch c. Early Christendom would close at the end of persecution of Christians after the ascension of Constantine the Great and the Edict of Milan in AD313. Christendom has referred to the medieval and renaissance notion of the Christian world as a sociopolitical polity, in this period, members of the Christian clergy wield political authority. This model of relations was accepted by various Church leaders. The Church gradually became an institution of the Empire. Emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica of 380, the Byzantine Empire was the last bastion of Christendom. Christendom would take a turn with the rise of the Franks, on Christmas Day 800 AD, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne resulting in the creation of another Christian king beside the Christian emperor in the Byzantine state
11.
Vatican Museums
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The Vatican Museums are the museums of the Vatican City and are located within the citys boundaries. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display, and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze di Raffaello decorated by Raphael, are on the route through the Vatican Museums. In 2013, they were visited by 6 million people, which combined makes it the 6th most visited art museum in the world, there are 54 galleries, or sale, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the very last sala within the Museum. It is one of the largest museums in the world, in 2017, the Museums official website and social media presence was completely redone, in accord with current standards and appearances for modern websites. Pope Julius II sent Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were working at the Vatican, on their recommendation, the pope immediately purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner. The pope put the sculpture of Laocoön and his sons on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery, the Museum Christianum was founded by Benedict XIV, and some of the Vatican collections formed the Lateran Museum, which Pius IX founded by decree in 1854. The Museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006 by permanently opening the excavations of a Vatican Hill necropolis to the public, on 1 January 2017 Barbara Jatta became the Director of the Vatican Museums, replacing Antonio Paolucci who had been director since 2007. The art gallery was housed in the Borgia Apartment until Pope Pius XI ordered construction of a proper building, the new building, designed by Luca Beltrami, was inaugurated on 27 October 1932. The museum has paintings including, Giottos Stefaneschi Triptych Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Opere di Misericordia Raphaels Madonna of Foligno, Oddi Altarpiece, the group of museums includes several sculpture museums surrounding the Cortile del Belvedere. The museum takes its name from two popes, Clement XIV and Pius VI, the pope who brought the museum to completion, Clement XIV came up with the idea of creating a new museum in Innocent VIIIs Belvedere palace and started the refurbishment work. Pope Clement XIV founded the Pio-Clementino museum in 1771, and originally it contained the Renaissance, the museum and collection were enlarged by Clements successor Pius VI. Today, the museum works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Some notable galleries are, Greek Cross Gallery, with the porphyri sarcophagi of Constance and Saint Helen, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great. Sala Rotonda, shaped like a miniature Pantheon, the room has impressive ancient mosaics on the floors, Gallery of the Statues, as its name implies, holds various important statues, including Sleeping Ariadne and the bust of Menander. It also contains the Barberini Candelabra, Gallery of the Busts, Many ancient busts are displayed. Cabinet of the Masks, The name comes from the mosaic on the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana, along the walls, several famous statues are shown including the Three Graces. One wove the thread of life, second nurtured it, third cut it. The center piece is Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men, sala degli Animali, So named because of the many ancient statues of animals
12.
Polymath
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A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas, such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. The term was first used in the 17th century, the related term, the term is often used to describe great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment who excelled at several fields in science and the arts. In the Italian Renaissance, the idea of the polymath was expressed by Leon Battista Alberti and this term entered the lexicon during the twentieth century and has now been applied to great thinkers living before and after the Renaissance. Renaissance man was first recorded in written English in the early 20th century and it is now used to refer to great thinkers living before, during, or after the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci has often described as the archetype of the Renaissance man. These polymaths had an approach to education that reflected the ideals of the humanists of the time. A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play an instrument, write poetry. The idea of an education was essential to achieving polymath ability. At this time, universities did not specialize in specific areas but rather trained students in an array of science, philosophy. This universal education gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship toward becoming a master of a specific field, aside from Renaissance man as mentioned above, similar terms in use are Homo Universalis and Uomo Universale, which translate to universal person or universal man. The related term generalist—contrasted with a used to describe a person with a general approach to knowledge. The term Universal Genius or Versatile Genius is also used, with Leonardo da Vinci as the prime example again. The term seems to be used especially when a person has made lasting contributions in at least one of the fields in which he was involved. When a person is described as having knowledge, they exhibit a vast scope of knowledge. This designation may be anachronistic, however, in the case of such as Eratosthenes whose reputation for having encyclopedic knowledge predates the existence of any encyclopedic object. One whose accomplishments are limited to athletics would not be considered a polymath in the sense of the word. An example is Howard Baker, who was called a sporting polymath by the Encyclopedia of British Football for winning high jump titles and playing cricket, football, many polymaths from across the centuries have their roots in medical applications. One of the well known polymaths, Leonardo da Vinci, was known for his immense interest in human anatomical structure
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Healy, Patrick (1907). "Pope Benedict XIV". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. 2. New York: Robert Appleton. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
