1.
St Mark's English Church, Florence
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Saint Marks English Church is an Anglican church in Florence, Italy. The church forms part of the chaplaincy of St Marks Florence with St Peters Siena, the chaplain is Father William Lister. The average congregation is about 150, the church ministers to the homeless in Florence. It is also used for music concerts and opera, with a resident opera company. St Marks was founded by the Reverend Charles Tooth as a centre of worship for Anglo-Catholic members of the Anglican Church in Florence and he started a house church at 1 Via dei Serragli in 1877 to teach Anglo-Catholic principles and celebrate the Holy Eucharist daily during the week. In 1880, Tooth purchased a 15th-century palazzo to meet the new congregations needs, J R Spencer Stanhope designed and created the wall and ceiling decorations at his own expense. The first Holy Eucharist was celebrated there on 1 May 1881, although chaplain, the premises were extended by the purchase of 16 Via Maggio in 1906. The church was damaged by the 1966 Flood of the Arno River, resulting in the loss of G F Bodleys 19th-century stencil work on the lower walls, Marks was the second Anglican church to be built in Florence. The British community in Florence has a long history, the chaplaincy began in the late 1820s. The first church, Holy Trinity, opened in the 1840s, rebuilt in the 1890s, Holy Trinity Church on the Via Lamarmara, is today a Waldensian Church. The white marble statue in the niche over the door is Apotheosis of Saint Mark by Jason Arkles. This is the first work by an American sculptor to have a permanent public location in Florence, the building was altered by Tooth, who turned the ground floor into a church with nave, aisles, transept and chancel, about 90 feet long and seating 400. The interior is decorated in the Pre-Raphaelite style and the reaches of the church have floral motifs with, as described by art historian Berenice Schreiner. Citations Official website Previous website at the Wayback Machine
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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
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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
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Church (building)
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A church building, often simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities, particularly worship services. The term in its sense is most often used by Christians to refer to their religious buildings. In traditional Christian architecture, the church is arranged in the shape of a Christian cross. When viewed from plan view the longest part of a cross is represented by the aisle, towers or domes are often added with the intention of directing the eye of the viewer towards the heavens and inspiring church visitors. The earliest identified Christian church was a church founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals, a cathedral is a church, usually Roman Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, housing the seat of a bishop. In standard Greek usage, the word ecclesia was retained to signify both a specific edifice of Christian worship, and the overall community of the faithful. This usage was retained in Latin and the languages derived from Latin, as well as in the Celtic languages. In the Germanic and some Slavic languages, the word kyriak-ós/-ē/-ón was adopted instead, in Old English the sequence of derivation started as cirice, then churche, and eventually church in its current pronunciation. German Kirche, Scottish kirk, Russian церковь, etc. are all similarly derived, according to the New Testament, the earliest Christians did not build church buildings. Instead, they gathered in homes or in Jewish worship places like the Second Temple or synagogues, the earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a house church, the Dura-Europos church, founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals, in addition to being a place of worship, the cathedral or parish church was used by the community in other ways. It could serve as a place for guilds or a hall for banquets. Mystery plays were performed in cathedrals, and cathedrals might also be used for fairs. The church could be used as a place to thresh and store grain, a common architecture for churches is the shape of a cross. These churches also often have a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens. Other common shapes for churches include a circle, to represent eternity, or an octagon or similar star shape, another common feature is the spire, a tall tower on the west end of the church or over the crossing. The Latin word basilica was used to describe a Roman public building
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Convent
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A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers or religious sisters, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion. The term derives via Old French from Latin conventus, perfect participle of the verb convenio, meaning to convene, the original reference was to the gathering of mendicants who spent much of their time travelling. Technically, a monastery or nunnery is a community of monastics, whereas a friary or convent is a community of mendicants, and a canonry a community of canons regular. The terms abbey and priory can be applied to both monasteries and canonries, an abbey is headed by an Abbot, and a priory is a dependent house headed by a Prior. In English usage since about the 19th century the term convent almost invariably refers to a community of women, in historical usage they are often interchangeable, with convent especially likely to be used for a friary. When applied to houses in Eastern Orthodoxy and Buddhism, English refers to all houses of male religious as monasteries. Christian monasticism Enclosed religious orders Herbermann, Charles, ed. Convent, carmelite Monastery of the Sacred Hearts —- an example of a modern-day convent Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Convent
6.
Dominican Order
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Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally carry the letters O. P. after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning of the Order of Preachers. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, the order is famed for its intellectual tradition, having produced many leading theologians and philosophers. The Dominican Order is headed by the Master of the Order, in the year 2000, there were 5,171 Dominican friars in solemn vows,917 student brothers, and 237 novices. By the year 2013 there were 6,058 Dominican friars, a number of other names have been used to refer to both the order and its members. In England and other countries the Dominican friars are referred to as Black Friars because of the black cappa or cloak they wear over their white habits, Dominicans were Blackfriars, as opposed to Whitefriars or Greyfriars. They are also distinct from the Augustinian Friars who wear a similar habit and their identification as Dominicans gave rise to the pun that they were the Domini canes, or Hounds of the Lord. The Dominican Order came into being in the Middle Ages at a time when religion began to be contemplated in a new way, men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a cloister. Instead, they travelled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Out of this emerged two orders of mendicant friars, one, the Friars Minor, was led by Francis of Assisi, the other. Dominics new order was to be an order, trained to preach in the vernacular languages. Rather than earning their living on vast farms as the monasteries had done, at the same time, Dominic inspired the members of his order to develop a mixed spirituality. They were both active in preaching, and contemplative in study, prayer and meditation, the brethren of the Dominican Order were urban and learned, as well as contemplative and mystical in their spirituality. While these traits affected the women of the order, the nuns especially absorbed the latter characteristics, in England, the Dominican nuns blended these elements with the defining characteristics of English Dominican spirituality and created a spirituality and collective personality that set them apart. The orders origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate, indeed, many years after St. Dominic reacted to the Cathars, the first Grand Inquistor of Spain, Tomás de Torquemada, would be drawn from the Dominican Order. As an adolescent, he had a love of theology. During his studies in Palencia, Spain, he experienced a famine, prompting Dominic to sell all of his beloved books. At the age of twenty-four or twenty-five, he was ordained to the priesthood, at that time the south of France was the stronghold of the Cathar or Albigensian heresy, named after the Duke of Albi, a Cathar sympathiser and opponent to the subsequent Albigensian Crusade
7.
Fra Angelico
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Fra Angelico was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having a rare and perfect talent. He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole and Fra Giovanni Angelico, in modern Italian he is called il Beato Angelico, the common English name Fra Angelico means the Angelic friar. In 1982 Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life and he is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed the Angelic. Fra Angelico was born Guido di Pietro at Rupecanina in the Tuscan area of Mugello near Fiesole towards the end of the 14th century, nothing is known of his parents. He was baptized Guido or Guidolino, the earliest recorded document concerning Fra Angelico dates from October 17,1417 when he joined a religious confraternity or guild at the Carmine Church, still under the name of Guido di Pietro. The first record of Angelico as a friar dates from 1423, Fra, a contraction of frater, is a conventional title for a mendicant friar. According to Vasari, Fra Angelico initially received training as an illuminator, possibly working with his older brother Benedetto who was also a Dominican and an illuminator. The former Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence, now a state museum, the painter Lorenzo Monaco may have contributed to his art training, and the influence of the Sienese school is discernible in his work. He had several important charges in the convents he lived in, but this did not limit his art, according to Vasari, the first paintings of this artist were an altarpiece and a painted screen for the Charterhouse of Florence, none such exist there now. Between 1418 and 1436 he was at the convent of Fiesole, where he executed a number of frescoes for the church and the Altarpiece. A predella of the Altarpiece remains intact and is conserved in the National Gallery, London and it shows Christ in Glory surrounded by more than 250 figures, including beatified Dominicans. In 1436, Fra Angelico was one of a number of the friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly built convent or friary of San Marco in Florence, in 1439 Fra Angelico completed one of his most famous works, the San Marco Altarpiece at Florence. The result was unusual for its time, but in this instance, the saints stand squarely within the space, grouped in a natural way as if they were able to converse about the shared experience of witnessing the Virgin in glory. Paintings such as this, known as Sacred Conversations, were to become the major commissions of Giovanni Bellini, Perugino and Raphael. In 1445 Pope Eugene IV summoned him to Rome to paint the frescoes of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament at St Peters, later demolished by Pope Paul III. Vasari claims that at this time Fra Angelico was offered the Archbishopric of Florence by Pope Nicholas V, the story seems possible and even likely. However, if Vasaris date is correct, then the pope must have been Eugene IV and not Nicholas, moreover, the Archbishop in 1446–1459 was the Dominican Antoninus of Florence, canonized by Pope Adrian VI in 1523. In 1447 Fra Angelico was in Orvieto with his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, among his other pupils were Zanobi Strozzi
8.
Girolamo Savonarola
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Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of art and culture. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor and he prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church. In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, while Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medici and, at the friars urging, established a popular republic. In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VIs Holy League against the French and he disobeyed and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him in May 1497, a trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarolas divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned, under torture, Savonarola confessed that he had invented his visions and prophecies. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, Savonarola was born on 21 September 1452, in Ferrara. His grandfather, Michele Savonarola, was a physician and polymath. Savonarolas mother Elena claimed a lineage from the Bonacossi family of Mantua and she and her husband Niccolo had seven children, of whom Girolamo was third. His grandfather was a successful physician who oversaw his education. His family had amassed in his grandfathers footsteps, at some point, however, he abandoned his career intentions. In his early poems, he expresses his preoccupation with the state of the Church and of the world. He began to write poetry of a bent, notably On the Ruin of the World and On the Ruin of the Church. About the same time, he seems to have been thinking about a life in religion, as he later told his biographer, a sermon he heard by a preacher in Faenza persuaded him to abandon the world. True or not, in a letter he wrote to his father when he left home to join the Dominican Order he hints at being troubled by desires of the flesh. There is also a story that on the eve of his departure he dreamed that he was cleansed of such thoughts by a shower of icy water which prepared him for the ascetic life. In the unfinished treatise he left behind, later called De contemptu mundi, or On Contempt for the World, he calls upon readers to fly from this world of adultery, sodomy, murder and envy
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Michelozzo
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Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance. He was a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti in his early years, known primarily for designing Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, he is often overshadowed by his contemporaries Donatello in sculpture and Brunelleschi in architecture. He remained for his biographers a shadowy, active, competent, second-rate figure, Michelozzo was born in Florence in 1396. He was the son of Bartolomeo di Gherardo Borgognone and Antonia, Borgognone was of French origin and arrived in Florence from Burgundy at an unknown date. Borgognone lived and worked in the Santo Croce quarter of Florence as a tailor, Michelozzo had three brothers named Leonardo, Zanobi, and Giovanni. By 1391, Michelozzos family had moved to the San Giovanni quarter, as an engraver, Michelozzo learned how to cast, chase, and gild copper and bronze, two of the metals in which the Medieval and Renaissance goldsmith most commonly worked. He also gained immense precision of hand and a mastery of design in miniature. He later served as one of the consuls of the Guild in 1430, throughout his life, Michelozzo retained the family residence on Via Larga, which was near the Medici Palace and next door to the humanist Bartolomeo Scala. In addition, Michelozzo possessed a house and garden in S. Domino a Brozzi, Michelozzos father died sometime before 1427, and his mother passed sometime between 1433 and 1442. From this, Michelozzo learned how to run a closely supervised shop, how to organize it efficiently, how to train and control assistants, under Donatello, Michelozzo assisted in the building of the sacristy of Santa Trinita, where Ghiberti started to fuse together late-Gothic and antique forms. Michelozzo also became the responsible for the architectural frames of Donatellos sculptures such as the funerary monument of John XXIII. He completely subordinates the architectural setting to his sculpture and makes architecture, so to speak, few historians have disputed Cosimos close relationship to Michelozzo, who was the Medici architect for nearly forty years. Michelozzo was more agreeable and accessible to the advice and desires of Cosimo than the turbulent Brunelleschi, historians have cited this as an unparalleled example of esteem between artist and patron. With great engineering skill Michelozzo shored up, and partly rebuilt, the Palazzo Vecchio, then in a ruinous condition, for Cosimo he designed numerous other buildings, most of them of noteworthy importance. For Giovanni de Medici, Cosimos son, he built a very large villa at Fiesole. Ludwig Heydenreich and Paul Davies argue that all of Michelozzos buildings are works of considerable standing. the most independent architect after Brunelleschi, Michelozzo married Francesca, daughter of Piero di Ambrogio Galligari, in late January or February 1441. At the time of their marriage, she was 20 years old, francescas dowry of 425 florins was about average for an upper-middle-class family at that time
10.
Vallumbrosan Order
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Vall. the Vall. to distinguish themselves from the Benedictines, who use the abbreviation O. S. B. The founder, a Florentine named Gualberto Visdomini, was born in the year 985 or 995, because one of his relatives was murdered, his duty was to avenge the deceased. On his way home, he entered the Benedictine Church at San Miniato to pray, and this story forms the subject of Burne-Joness picture The Merciful Knight, and has been adapted by Shorthouse in John Inglesant. John Gualbert became a Benedictine monk at San Miniato, but left that monastery to lead a perfect life. His attraction was for the cenobitic, and not eremitic life, so after staying for some time with the monks at Camaldoli, he settled at Vallombrosa, mabillon estimates its foundation at a little before 1038. Here, it is said, he and his first companions lived for years as hermits. The chronology of the days of Vallombrosa has been much disputed. The dates given for the founders conversion varying between 1004 and 1039, and a recent Vallumbrosan writer places his arrival at Vallombrosa as early as 1008. The abbess retained the privilege of nominating the superiors, but this right was granted to the monks by pope Victor II, two centuries later, in the time of Alexander IV, the nunnery was united with Vallombrosa in spite of the protests of the nuns. Thus only one monastery, that of San Salvi at Florence, was founded during this period. But when the founder had mitigated his rule somewhat, three monasteries were founded and three others reformed and united with the order during his lifetime. Shortly before this the monastery of S. Salvi had been burned and these events still further increased the reputation of Vallombrosa. After the founders death the order spread rapidly, a papal bull of Urban II in 1090, which took Vallombrosa under the protection of the Holy See, enumerated fifteen monasteries aside from the motherhouse. Twelve more are mentioned in a bull of Paschal II in 1115, by the time of Innocent III they numbered over sixty. All were situated in Italy, except two monasteries in Sardinia, there are no grounds for the legend given by some writers of the order of a great Vallombrosan Congregation in France with an abbey near Paris, founded by king St. Louis. The Vallombrosan Congregation was reformed in the middle of the century by Cassinese Benedictines. In 1485, certain abbeys with that of San Salvi at Florence at their head and it was rebuilt by Abbot Nicolini in 1637, and in 1634 an observatory was established. From 1662–1680 the order was united to the Sylvestrines, in 1808 Napoleon Is troops plundered Vallombrosa, and the monastery lay deserted till 1815
11.
Sylvestrines
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The Sylvestrines are a congregation of monks of the Order of St. Benedict who form the Sylvestrine Congregation. The Sylvestrines use the post-nominal initials O. S. B, the congregation was founded in 1231 by Saint Sylvester Gozzolini. They are members of the Benedictine Confederation, unlike most other congregations of the Order, they do not have any monasteries of nuns. The congregation, though, is led by a general, the only abbot it has. The founder, Saint Sylvester, was born at Osimo near Ancona, as a young man he entered a community of Augustinian canons regular, who served the cathedral, and eventually was professed in that Order and received Holy Orders. About 1227 he left the community to lead an austere, eremitical life, disciples flocked to him, however, and in 1231 he built a hermitage by the mountain of Montefano in the March of Ancona, from which the community took its original name. The community that Sylvester founded followed the Rule of St. Benedict, the congregation was approved in 1247 by Pope Innocent IV, and, at Sylvesters death in 1267, there were eleven Sylvestrine monasteries. At their peak, there were 56 monasteries in the congregation, mostly in Umbria and Tuscany, like all religious communities in Europe, the Sylvestrines suffered throughout the 19th century from the upheavals of the French Revolutionary Army and the later unification of Italy. The community there had about 60 choir monks at that time, as of 2010, there are only three monasteries still functioning in Italy. Sylvestrine saints include the founder, Sylvester Gozzolini, St. Bonfilius, giovanni del Bastonne, and the Bl. Giuseppe and Ugo di Serra San Quirico, for most of its history, the Congregation was confined to Italy. The Ceylon Mission was begun in 1845, their first foundation outside Europe, the Sylvestrines provided many of the clergy for that missionary diocese well into the 20th century. As that industry faded and the population began to move away. They were welcomed into the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1928, where they built their first monastery in the country in 1938, now called St. Benedict of Oxford Priory. They have a house in Clifton, New Jersey, which serves as a shrine to the Holy Face of Jesus. A conventual priory was founded in 1962 in Australia at Arcadia, Sydney, there are now also monasteries in India. In the late 20th century, a foundation was set up in the Philippines and, more recently, in September 2007 Dom Michael Kelly, O. S. B. A monk of the Australian monastery, was elected as the 115th abbot general of the congregation and he has served in that position for twelve years and resides at the motherhouse in Rome
12.
Order of St. Benedict
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Each community within the order maintains its own autonomy, while the order itself represents their mutual interests. Internationally, the order is governed by the Benedictine Confederation, a body, established in 1883 by Pope Leo XIIIs Brief Summum semper, individuals whose communities are members of the order generally add the initials OSB after their names. The monastery at Subiaco in Italy, established by Saint Benedict of Nursia circa 529, was the first of the monasteries he founded. He later founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino, there is no evidence, however, that he intended to found an order and the Rule of Saint Benedict presupposes the autonomy of each community. It was from the monastery of St. Andrew in Rome that Augustine, the prior, at various stopping places during the journey, the monks left behind them traditions concerning their rule and form of life, and probably also some copies of the Rule. Lérins Abbey, for instance, founded by Honoratus in 375, probably received its first knowledge of the Benedictine Rule from the visit of St. Augustine, in Gaul and Switzerland, it supplemented the much stricter Irish or Celtic Rule introduced by Columbanus and others. In many monasteries it eventually displaced the earlier codes. Largely through the work of Benedict of Aniane, it became the rule of choice for monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire, Monastic scriptoria flourished from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. Sacred Scripture was always at the heart of every monastic scriptorium, as a general rule those of the monks who possessed skill as writers made this their chief, if not their sole active work. In the Middle Ages monasteries were founded by the nobility. Cluny Abbey was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910, the abbey was noted for its strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict. The abbot of Cluny was the superior of all the daughter houses, one of the earliest reforms of Benedictine practice was that initiated in 980 by Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese community. The English Benedictine Congregation is the oldest of the nineteen Benedictine congregations, Augustine of Canterbury and his monks established the first English Benedictine monastery at Canterbury soon after their arrival in 597. Many of the sees of England were founded and governed by the Benedictines. Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak, the monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick. Germany was evangelized by English Benedictines, willibrord and Boniface preached there in the seventh and eighth centuries and founded several abbeys. In the English Reformation, all monasteries were dissolved and their lands confiscated by the Crown, during the 19th century they were able to return to England, including to Selby Abbey in Yorkshire, one of the few great monastic churches to survive the Dissolution. St. Mildreds Priory, on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, was built in 1027 on the site of an abbey founded in 670 by the daughter of the first Christian King of Kent, currently the priory is home to a community of Benedictine nuns
13.
Pope Eugene IV
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Pope Eugene IV, born Gabriele Condulmer, was Pope from 3 March 1431 to his death in 1447. He is the last pope to take the name Eugene upon his election, Condulmer was born in Venice to a rich merchant family. He entered a community of Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga in his native city, at the age of twenty-four he was appointed by his maternal uncle, Pope Gregory XII, as Bishop of Siena. In Siena, the political leaders objected to a bishop who was not only 24, therefore, he resigned the appointment, becoming instead his uncles papal treasurer, protonotary and Cardinal Priest of the Basilica of San Clemente. Pope Martin V named him Cardinal Priest of the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere and he also served as papal legate at Picenum in the March of Ancona. Condulmer was quickly elected to succeed Martin V in the conclave of 1431. He was crowned as Eugene IV at St. Peters Basilica on 11 March 1431 and he is described as tall, thin, with a winning countenance, although many of his troubles were owing to his own want of tact, which alienated parties from him. Upon assuming the chair, Eugene IV took violent measures against the numerous Colonna relatives of his predecessor Martin V. This at once involved him in a serious contest with the house of Colonna that nominally supported the local rights of Rome against the interests of the Papacy. By far the most important feature of Eugene IVs pontificate was the struggle between the Pope and the Council of Basel, the final embodiment of the Conciliar movement. On 23 July 1431, his legate Giuliano Cesarini opened the council, canon Beaupère of Besançon, who had been sent from Basle to Rome, gave the pope an unfavourable and exaggerated account of the temper of the people of Basle and its environs. Distrustful of its purposes and emboldened by the attendance, the Pope issued a bull on 18 December 1431 that dissolved the council. The council resisted this expression of papal prerogative, Eugene IVs action gave some weight to the contention that the Curia was opposed to any authentic measures of reform. The council refused to dissolve, instead renewed the resolutions by which the Council of Constance had declared a council superior to the Pope. A compromise was arranged by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who had been crowned emperor at Rome on 31 May 1433 and this situation led also to establishment of an insurrectionary republic at Rome controlled by the Colonna family. The city was restored to obedience by Giovanni Vitelleschi, the militant Bishop of Recanati, in August 1435 a peace treaty was signed at Ferrara by the various belligerents. The Pope moved to Bologna in April 1436 and his condottieri Francesco Sforza and Vitelleschi in the meantime reconquered much of the Papal States. Traditional Papal enemies such as the Prefetti di Vico were destroyed, meanwhile, the struggle with the council sitting at Basel broke out anew
14.
Cosimo de' Medici
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Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici was an Italian banker and politician, the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker, and he was a patron of learning. Cosimo de Medici was born in Florence to Giovanni di Bicci de Medici and he had a twin brother, Damiano, who died shortly after birth. Cosimo also had a brother, Lorenzo the Elder, who was six years his junior. Cosimo inherited both his wealth and his expertise in banking from his father, Giovanni had gone from being a moneylender to joining the bank of his relative, Vieri di Cambio, before founding his own bank, Medici Bank, around 1397. Over the next two decades, the Medici Bank opened branches in Rome, Geneva, Venice, and temporarily in Naples, the branch manager in Rome was a papal depositario generale, managing Church finances in return for a commission. In fifteen years he would make a profit of 290,791 florins, in 1415, Cosimo allegedly accompanied the Antipope John XXIII at the Council of Constance, and in the same year he was named Priore of the Republic. Later he acted frequently as ambassador, showing a prudence for which he became renowned and this gave the Medici family tremendous power, allowing them to threaten defaulting debtors with excommunication, for instance. However, after the Spini Bank went insolvent in 1420, they again secured priority, Giovanni withdrew from the bank in 1420, leaving its leadership to both of his sons. He left them 179,221 florins upon his death in 1429, two-thirds of this came from the business in Rome, while only a tenth came from Florence, even Venice offered better business than Florence. The brothers would earn two-thirds of the profits from the bank, besides the bank, the family owned much land in the area surrounding Florence, including Mugello, the place from which the family originally came. Cosimos power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control votes, as Florence was proud of its democracy, he pretended to have little political ambition and did not often hold public office. Enea Piccolomini, Bishop of Siena and later Pope Pius II, said of him, the man he chooses holds office. He it is who decides peace and war and he is king in all but name. Venice sent an envoy to Florence on his behalf, requested they rescind the order of banishment, when they refused, Cosimo settled down in Venice, his brother Lorenzo accompanying him. Cosimo returned a year later in 1434, to influence the government of Florence. Cosimos time in exile instilled in him the need to squash the factionalism that resulted in his exile in the first place. In order to do this, Cosimo, with the help of favorable priors in the Signoria, the Milanese made a brief attempt at democracy before Sforza finally was acclaimed duke by the city in February 1450
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Palazzo Medici Riccardi
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The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence, the palace was designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo de Medici, head of the Medici banking family, and was built between 1444 and 1484. It was well known for its masonry, which includes architectural elements of rustication. The tripartite elevation used here expresses the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order and this tripartite division is emphasized by horizontal stringcourses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height. Michelozzo di Bartolomeo was influenced in his building of this palace by both classical Roman and Brunelleschian principles, during the Renaissance revival of classical culture, ancient Roman elements were often replicated in architecture, both built and imagined in paintings. In the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the masonry and the cornice had precedents in Roman practice, yet in totality it looks distinctly Florentine. Similarly, the early Renaissance architect Brunelleschi used Roman techniques and influenced Michelozzo, the open colonnaded court that is the center of the palazzo plan has roots in the cloisters that developed from Roman peristyles. The once open corner loggia and shop facing the street were walled in during the 16th century. The new windows are set into what appears to be an infill of the original arched opening. The building reflects the wealth of the Medici family. Then a garden done in the finest of polished marbles, with diverse plants, Cosimo received the young Sforza in the chapel not less ornate and handsome than the rest of the house. Other decorations included two lunettes by Filippo Lippi, depicting Seven Saints and the Annunciation, now at the National Gallery, when the Medici family returned to Florence after their short exile in the early 16th century, they kept a low profile and exercised their power behind the scenes. This is reflected in the exterior of this building, and is said to be the reason why Cosimo de Medici rejected Brunelleschis earlier proposal. The palace was the site of the wedding reception between Ferdinando de Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany and Violante Beatrice of Bavaria in 1689
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San Lorenzo, Florence
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It is one of several churches that claim to be the oldest in Florence, when it was consecrated in 393 it stood outside the city walls. For three hundred years it was the cathedral before the official seat of the bishop was transferred to Santa Reparata. San Lorenzo was also the church of the Medici family. In 1419, Giovanni di Bicci de Medici offered to finance a new church to replace the 11th-century Romanesque rebuilding, though considered a milestone in the development of Renaissance architecture, S. Lorenzo has a complicated building history. Even though it was at least partially built under the direction of Filippo Brunelleschi, the project was begun around 1419, but lack of funding slowed the construction and forced changes to the original design. By the early 1440s, only the sacristy had been worked on as it was being paid for by the Medici, in 1442, the Medici stepped in to take over financial responsibility of the church as well. Brunelleschi died in 1446, however, and the job was handed either to Antonio Manetti or to Michelozzo, scholars are not certain. Though the building was “completed” in 1459 in time for a visit to Florence by Pius II, by the time the building was done, many aspects of its layout, not to mention detailing, no longer corresponded to the original plan. Despite its history, the building is seen as one of the examples of the new style. Its more notable include, the attempt to create a proportional relationship between nave and aisle. The articulation of the structure in pietra serena, the use of an integrated system of column, arches, entablatures. There are significant problems in the design, most, however, already Giorgio Vasari thought that the columns along the nave should have been elevated on plinths. That the pilasters along the wall of the side aisles rest on a floor that is three steps higher than the nave, is considered an error. San Lorenzo is often compared with Santo Spirito, also in Florence, Santo Spirito, which Brunelleschi began somewhat later, is considered to have been constructed more or less in conformity with his ideas, even though Brunelleschi died before most of it was built. The Medici Pope Leo X gave Michelangelo the commission to design a façade in white Carrara marble in 1518, Michelangelo did, however, design and build the internal facade, seen from the nave looking back toward the entrances. It comprises three doors between two pilasters with garlands of oak and laurel and a balcony on two Corinthian columns, in recent years, the association of “Friends of the Elettrice Palatina” and the Comune of Florence re-visited the question of completing the outer facade according to Michelangelos designs. To assist with the debate, a computerized reconstruction was projected onto the plain brick facade in February 2007. As yet, no decision has made on the project
17.
Council of Florence
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At stake was the greater conflict between the Conciliar movement and the principle of papal supremacy. The Council entered a second phase after Emperor Sigismunds death in 1437, Pope Eugene IV convoked a rival Council of Ferrara on 8 January 1438 and succeeded in drawing the Byzantine ambassadors to Italy. The Council of Basel first suspended him, declared him a heretic, the rival Council of Florence concluded in 1445 after negotiating unions with the various eastern churches. This bridging of the Great Schism proved fleeting, but was a coup for the papacy. In 1447, Sigismunds successor Frederick III commanded the city of Basel to expel the Council of Basel, ambrogio Traversari attended the Council of Basel as legate of Pope Eugene IV. Under pressure for reform, Pope Martin V sanctioned a decree of the Council of Constance obliging the papacy to summon general councils periodically. At the expiration of the first term fixed by this decree, due to an epidemic the location transferred almost at once to Siena and disbande, in circumstances still imperfectly known, just as it had begun to discuss the subject of reform. Martin himself, however, died before the opening of the synod, the Council was seated on December 14,1431, at a period when the conciliar movement was strong and the authority of the papacy weak. The Council at Basel opened with only a few bishops and abbots attending and it adopted an anti-papal attitude, proclaimed the superiority of the Council over the Pope and prescribed an oath to be taken by every Pope on his election. On December 18 Martins successor, Pope Eugene IV, tried to dissolve it and open a new council on Italian soil at Bologna, but he was overruled. Sigismund, King of Hungary and titular King of Bohemia, had defeated at the Battle of Domažlice in the fifth crusade against the Hussites in August 1431. Under his sponsorship, the Council negotiated a peace with Calixtine faction of the Hussites in January 1433, Pope Eugene acknowledged the council in May and crowned Sigismund Holy Roman Emperor on May 31,1433. The divided Hussites were defeated in May 1434, in June 1434, the pope had to flee a revolt in Rome and began a ten-year exile in Florence. When the Council was moved from Basel to Ferrara in 1438, some remained at Basel and they elected Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, as Antipope. Driven out of Basel in 1448, they moved to Lausanne, where Felix V, the pope they had elected, the next year, they decreed the closure of what for them was still the Council of Basel. The new council was transferred to Florence in 1439 because of the danger of plague at Ferrara and because Florence had agreed, against future payment, some, perhaps feeling political pressure from the Byzantine Emperor, accepted the decrees of the Council. Others did so by sincere conviction, such as Isidore of Kiev, only Bishop Mark of Ephesus, however, refused to accept the union and became the leader of opposition back home. The Russians, upon learning of the union, angrily rejected it, despite the religious union, Western military assistance to Byzantium was meager, and the fall of Constantinople occurred in May 1453
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Ferrara
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Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 kilometres north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, the town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. For its beauty and cultural importance it has qualified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Modern times have brought a renewal of industrial activity, Ferrara is on the main rail line from Bologna to Padua and Venice, and has branches to Ravenna, Poggio Rusco and Codigoro. Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD, Desiderius pledged a Lombard ducatus ferrariae in 757 to Pope Stephen II. Obizzo II dEste was proclaimed ruler of Ferrara five hundred years later. He also became seignior of nearby Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289, in 1452 the Este rulers were created Dukes of Modena and Reggio, and in 1471 Ferrara also became a duchy. In 1597, when Alfonso II died without heirs, the House of Este lost Ferrara to the Papal States. Ferrara remained a part of the Papal States from 1598 to 1859, with an interruption during the Napoleonic period, in 1859 it became part of the Kingdom of Italy. A fortress was constructed by Pope Paul V on the site of the castle called Castel Tedaldo, at the south-west angle of the town, all of the fortress was dismantled following the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the bricks used for new constructions all over the town. On August 23,1944, the Ferrara synthetic rubber plant was a target of Strategic bombing during World War II, the town is still surrounded by more than 9 kilometres of ancient walls, mainly built in the 15th and 16th-centuries. Along with those of Lucca, they are the best preserved Renaissance walls in Italy, the imposing brick Castello Estense sited in the very centre of the town is iconic of Ferrara. The castle, erected in 1385, is surrounded by a moat, the pavilions on the top of the towers date from the 16th-century refurbishment. The City Hall, renovated in the 18th century, was the residence of the Este family. Close by it is the former Cathedral of San Giorgio, The Romanesque lower part of the main façade, according to a now lost inscription the church had been commissioned by Guglielmo I of Adelardi. The sculpture of the portal was signed by a Nicholaus. The upper part of the main façade, with arcades of pointed arches, dates from the 13th century, the recumbent lions guarding the entrance are copies of the originals, now in the narthex of the church. An elaborate 13th-century relief depicting the Last Judgement is found in the story of the porch
19.
Giorgio Vasari
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Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own, in 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasaris own Mannerist paintings were admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547 he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni and he was consistently employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. He also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio, aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was also successful as an architect. In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, the enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. He also renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, at both he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of The Adoration of the Magi which was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and it was recently restored, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually it is planned to return it to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, in 1562 Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of high Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius IIIs Villa Giulia, the Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists. The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines, and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, Venetian art in particular, is systematically ignored in the first edition. Between the first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the edition gave more attention to Venetian art. Vasaris biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip, with a few exceptions, however, Vasaris aesthetic judgement was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the Lives, according to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term competition in its economic sense
20.
Florin (Italian coin)
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The Florentine florin was a coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 72 grains of pure or fine gold worth approximately 140 modern US dollars. The fiorino doro of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century, in the fourteenth century, a hundred and fifty European states and local coin-issuing authorities made their own copies of the florin. The most important of these was the Hungarian forint, because the Kingdom of Hungary was a source of European gold. The design of the original Florentine florins was the distinctive fleur-de-lis badge of the city on one side, on other countries florins, the inscriptions were changed, and local heraldic devices were substituted for the fleur-de-lis. Later, other figures were often substituted for St. John, on the Hungarian forints, St. John was re-labelled St. Ladislaus, an early Christian king and patron saint of Hungary, and a battle axe substituted for the originals sceptre. Gradually the image became more regal looking, the weight of the original fiorino doro of Florence was chosen to equal the value of one lira in the local money of account in 1252. However, the content of the florin did not change while the money of account continued to inflate, by 1500. The values of other countries money continually varied against each other, Lira History of coins in Italy Soldo Venetian grosso Venetian lira Denaro Lira http, //www. gmmnut. com/gmm/sca/florin. html - See Discussion Philip Grierson. Money and its use in medieval Europe, richard A. Goldthwaite http, //www3. telus. net/Quattrocento_Florence/economy. html BROKEN as of Feb 2011 Money museum, Fiorino dOro
21.
Giambologna
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Giambologna — born Jean Boulogne — was a Flemish sculptor based in Italy, celebrated for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style. Giambologna was born in Douai, Flanders, in 1529, after youthful studies in Antwerp with the architect-sculptor Jacques du Broeucq, he moved to Italy in 1550, and studied in Rome. Giambologna made detailed study of the sculpture of classical antiquity and he was also much influenced by Michelangelo, but developed his own Mannerist style, with perhaps less emphasis on emotion and more emphasis on refined surfaces, cool elegance and beauty. Pope Pius IV gave Giambologna his first major commission, the colossal bronze Neptune, Giambologna spent his most productive years in Florence, where he had settled in 1553. He was interred in a chapel he designed himself in the Santissima Annunziata, Giambologna became well known for a fine sense of action and movement, and a refined, differentiated surface finish. Among his most famous works are the Mercury, poised on one foot, the god raises one arm to point heavenwards, in a gesture borrowed from the repertory of classical rhetoric that is characteristic of Giambolognas maniera. His other most famous work is the Rape of the Sabine Women a marble sculpture which is featured prominently in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florences Piazza della Signoria and this impressive sculpture which includes three full figures was carved from a single piece of marble. Giambologna carved it without a subject in mind, and the name Rape of the Sabine Women was given after it was in place in the Loggia, the sculpture was produced for Francesco Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Another of his marbles, Hercules Slaying a Centaur was also placed in the Loggia dei Lanzi in 1599 and he created allegories strongly promoting Medicean political propaganda, such as Florence defeating Pisa and, less overtly, Samson Slaying a Philistine, for Francesco de Medici. The equestrian statue of Cosimo I de Medici also in Florence, was completed by his studio assistant Pietro Tacca. Giambologna provided as well as sculptures for garden grottos and fountains in the Boboli Gardens of Florence and at Pratolino. For the grotto of the Villa Medicea of Castello he sculpted a series of studies of animals, from life. Small bronze reductions of many of his sculptures were prized by connoisseurs at the time and ever since, italian Art, Florence, Giunti Gruppo Editoriale,2000, ISBN 88-09-01771-4. Giambologna, 1529-1608, sculptor to the Medici, an exhibition organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain etc. catalogue edited by Charles Avery, london, Arts Council of Great Britain,1978, ISBN 0-7287-0180-4. Biography with a portrait on kfki. hu Giambologna on mega. it Model of a River God, archived from the original on 2009-07-09. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12, a Tour of the location of Giambolognas major works in Florence
22.
Neoclassical architecture
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Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro, Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings. In Central and Eastern Europe, the style is referred to as Classicism. Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée, the many graphite drawings of Boullée and his students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links between Boullées ideas and Edmund Burkes conception of the sublime, the baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell, the book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book featured the work of Inigo Jones. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain, at the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic architect earl, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, in 1729, he and William Kent, designed Chiswick House. This House was a reinterpretation of Palladios Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and this severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of the Palladianism. In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of Englands finest examples of Palladian architecture with Holkham Hall in Norfolk, the main block of this house followed Palladios dictates quite closely, but Palladios low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. This classicising vein was also detectable, to a degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for S, by the mid 18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of Classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s, in France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden. A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire, in France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire or Empire. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in St. Petersburg, indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved an audience in the 1760s
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Santi di Tito
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Santi di Tito was one of the most influential and leading Italian painters of the proto-Baroque style – what is sometimes referred to as Counter-Maniera or Counter-Mannerism. He was born in Borgo San Sepolcro, in Tuscany, there is little documentation to support the alleged training under Bronzino or Baccio Bandinelli. From 1558 to 1564, he worked in Rome on frescoes in Palazzo Salviati and he acquired a classical trait, described as Raphaelesque by S. J. This style contrasted with the reigning ornate Roman painterliness of Federico and Taddeo Zuccari or their Florentine equivalents, Vasari, Alessandro Allori, after returning to Florence in 1564, he joined the Accademia del Disegno. He contributed two conventionally Mannerist paintings for the Dukes study and laboratory, the Studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio and this artistic project was partly overseen by Giorgio Vasari. These paintings – the Sisters of Fetonte and Hercules and Iole – like many of those in the studiolo, are stylized and overcrowded, baldinucci recounts that Santi completely rejected the maniera of Bronzino, and embraced a classical Reformist and naturalistic style. Santi died in Florence on July 23,1603, santis mature style is reflected in his masterpiece of the Vision of Saint Thomas Aquinas, also known as Saint Thomas Dedicating His Works to Christ located in the church of San Marco in Florence. The work has an earnest fervor lacking in his earlier mannerist works and this new contra-maniera style finds some echoes in the rising Bolognese Baroque style of the Carracci. Among his pupils were Ludovico Cigoli, the painter of art Reform in late sixteenth. Another pupil named Francesco Mochi became a prominent sculptor in the Baroque style and created, among other pieces, media related to Santi di Tito at Wikimedia Commons
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Fra Bartolomeo
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Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo OP, also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di S. Marco, and his original name Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until his mid-forties, when he travelled to work in various cities, as far south as Rome. He trained with Cosimo Roselli and in the 1490s fell under the influence of Savonarola and he remained friends with Raphael, and they both influenced the other. His portrait of Savonarola remains the most famous image of the reformer, Fra Bartolomeo painted both in oils and fresco, and some of his drawings are pure landscape sketches that are the earliest of this type from Italy. He was born in Savignano di Prato, Tuscany and he received the nickname of Baccio della Porta for his house was near the Gate of San Pier Gattolini. Starting from 1483 or 1484, by recommendation of Benedetto da Maiano and he was one of the greatest painters of his time. In 1490 or 1491 he began a collaboration with Mariotto Albertinelli, in the late 1490s Baccio was drawn to the teachings of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who denounced what he viewed as vain and corrupt contemporary art. Savonarola argued for art serving as a visual illustration of the Bible to educate those unable to read the book. From 1498 is his famous portrait of Savonarola, now in the Museo Nazionale di San Marco in Florence, the following year he entered the convent of San Marco. He renounced painting for several years, not resuming until 1504 when he became the head of the workshop in obedience to his superior. In that year he began a Vision of St. Bernard for Bernardo Biancos family chapel in the Badia Fiorentina, soon thereafter, Raphael visited Florence and befriended the friar. Bartolomeo learned perspective from the younger artist, while Raphael added skills in coloring and handling of drapery, with Raphael, he remained on the friendliest terms, and when he departed from Rome, left in his hands two unfinished pictures which Raphael completed. As the Dominicans did not pay for the work, he took it back to Lucca, also in Lucca, in the October 1509, he painted by Albertinelli an altarpiece with Madonna and Child with Saints for the local cathedral. On November 26,1510 Pier Soderini commissioned him an altarpiece for the Sala del Consiglio of Florence, two years later he finished another altarpiece for the cathedral of Besançon. After a promised Feast of Venus for Duke Alfonso I dEste of Ferrara, of only drawings remain. He died in Florence in 1517, initially, his works showed the influence of Rossellis assistant, Piero di Cosimo, and those of Domenico Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi. After his hiatus from 1500 to 1503, he seemed to change vision, taking from Raphael the representation of light, Fra Bartolomeos figures are generally small and draped. Among his pupils were Cecchino del Frate, Benedetto Ciamfanini, Gabriel Rustici, Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Fra Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. Vol. III, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1911, p.124
25.
Pope Leo XI
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Pope Leo XI, born Alessandro Ottaviano de Medici, was Pope from 1 to 27 April 1605. His pontificate is one of the briefest in history having lasted under a month and he was from the prominent House of Medici originating from Florence. Alessandro Ottoviano de Medici was born in Florence as the son of Francesca Salviati and he was the great-nephew of Pope Leo X. Alessandros father died when he was a child and he was home schooled by a Dominican priest, Vincenzo Ercolano. Medici felt the call to the priesthood but his mother opposed his vocation since he was the male in the family. To discourage this, she sent him to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and he later travelled to Rome in 1560 where he commenced a lifelong friendship and collaboration with Philip Neri, future saint. It was Neri who predicted that he would ascend to the pontificate, medicis mother died in 1566 at which point he continued his studies to become a priest. This led to his ordination on 22 July 1567, Alessandro served as the Florentine ambassador to Pope Pius V from 1569 to 1584 and was later appointed by Pope Gregory XIII as the Bishop of Pistoia in 1573. In March 1573 after the appointment he received consecration in Rome. He was later made the Archbishop of Florence in 1574, Medici was elevated into the cardinalate in 1583 and Pope Sixtus V made the Cardinal-Priest of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, a title he received on 9 January 1584. It was a titular church reverted from its previous name of San Ciriaco alle Terme Diocleziane, in the period after this, he would opt for other titular churches. In 1596 Pope Clement VIII sent him as the legate to France where Maria de Medici was queen. He remained there until 1598 when he received word of his appointment as the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, on 14 March 1605, eleven days after the death of Clement VIII,62 cardinals entered the conclave. Prominent among the candidates for the papacy were the great historian Cesare Baronius, king Henry IV of France is said to have spent 300,000 écus in the promotion of Alessandros candidacy. On 1 April 1605, Cardinal Alessandro de Medici was elected as pope and he chose to be called Leo XI in honor of his uncle Pope Leo X. He was crowned on 10 April 1605 by the protodeacon, Cardinal Francesco Sforza, when he was elected, Leo XI was almost seventy years of age, and he died twenty seven days later. His death came as a result of fatigue and cold in the ceremony of taking possession of the Basilica of St John Lateran and he was called Papa Lampo because his papacy was so short. List of popes List of popes from the Medici family List of popes by length of reign Chisholm, Hugh, catholic Hierarchy, Pope Leo XI Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Medici Leo XI at St Peters Basilica Leo XI. In, Salvador Miranda, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, online at fiu. edu, Website of Florida International University, retrieved 21 November 2011
26.
Domenico Passignano
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For the town in Umbria, see Passignano sul Trasimeno. Domenico Passignano, born Cresti or Crespi, was an Italian painter of a late-Renaissance or Counter-Maniera style that emerged in Florence towards the end of the 16th century. Cresti was born in Passignano, currently a frazione of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa about 30 km south of Florence and he started his works in the stylized Tuscan manner, working with Giovanni Battista Naldini and Girolamo Macchietti. After travelling from Rome to Venice, he came under the influence of Tintorettos style and he had traveled to Venice as an assistant to Federico Zuccari, who had employed him previously in the completion of Vasaris unmemorable frescoes for the Florentine Duomo. He was known to paint with great speed, however, as he used less paint in order to work quickly, as a result of this gift, he was nicknamed Passa Ognuno – a possible play upon the name of his birthplace. In Florence, he painted frescoes of the Translation and Funeral of Saint Antoninus for the Cappella Salviati in San Marco and he painted a Nativity for Luccas Duomo di San Martino. Other works can be found in church of San Frediano in Pisa as fresco and he painted famous portraits of Galileo and Michelangelo. Among his pupils were the brothers Valore, Domenico Casini, Pietro Sozzi, Passignano died at Florence in 1638. Ganymede and Jupiter, University Oklahoma Museum of Art The Allegory of Chastity, Wedding Banquet of Grand Duke Ferdinand I de Medici, Freedberg, Sydney J. Pelican History of Art, ed. Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, a digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
27.
Bernardino Poccetti
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Bernardino Poccetti, also known as Barbatelli, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker of etchings. Born in Florence, he was trained as a decorator of facades and ceilings, enrolling in 1570 in the Florentine painters guild for such work. He is also referred to as, Bernardino Barbatelli or Bernardino delle Grottesche, delle Facciate and he initially worked in the shop of Michele Tosini, and he participated in the broadly shared decoration of the Chiostro Grande of Santa Maria Novella in 1580s. In 1583–85, he helped decorate panegyric frescoes for the Palazzo Capponi and he also completed frescoes in San Pier Maggiore in San Pierino. In 1592–93, he worked on frescoes in the Certosa di Galluzzo relating to Life and he painted scenes from the life of founder of the Convent of the Servites for the Annunziata. He painted scenes from the Life of St. Anthony for San Marco and he frescoed scenes from the Life of Cosimo I as decoration of great Salon of the Pitti Palace. He also labored for other charterhouses in Pisa and Siena and he also painted frescoes, considered his masterpiece, in the Cappella del Giglio in Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi. Among the painters he trained or influenced was Michelangelo Cinganelli, dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. York St. #4, Covent Garden, London, Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18,2007, George Bell and Sons
28.
Francesco Morandini
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Francesco Morandini was an Italian painter active in Florence, working in a Mannerist style. He was also called il Poppi after his native town and he was a pupil of Vincenzo Borghini, and later he was Giorgio Vasaris assistant for many years. He also painted an altarpiece on the Tobias and the Angel for the church of San Francesco in Prato, in 1584–1585, he worked in the Salviati Chapel in San Marco alongside Giovanni Battista Naldini and others, his contribution is a canvas of Christ healing the Lepers. Media related to Poppi at Wikimedia Commons Freedberg, Sydney J. Pelican History of Art, ed
29.
Jacopo da Empoli
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Jacopo da Empoli was an Italian Florentine Reformist painter. Born in Florence as Jacopo Chimenti, he worked mostly in his native city and he apprenticed under Maso da San Friano. Like his contemporary in Counter-Maniera, Santi di Tito, he moved into a style often more crisp, less contorted and he collaborated with Alessandro Tiarini in some projects. His brother, Domenico Chimenti born in Empoli, was also a painter, among his pupils were Felice Ficherelli, Giovanni Battista Brazzè, Giovanni Battista Vanni, and Virgilio Zaballi. Finally, working in a thematic often shunned by Florentine painters, hobbes, James R. Picture collectors manual adapted to the professional man, and the amateur. T&W Boone,29 Bond Street, Digitized by Googlebooks
30.
Francesco Curradi
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Francesco Curradi or Currado was an Italian painter of the style described as Counter-Maniera or Counter-Mannerism, born and active in Florence. Curradi was the son of a jeweller, Taddeo and he trained under Giovanni Battista Naldini and in 1590 matriculated in the Accademia del Disegno, Florence. His first independent works from 1597 to 1598 were for churches in Volterra and he helped paint the frescoes of the Fame Exalting Michelangelo for the Casa Buonarroti. He also executed seven lunettes in the chapel of Villa del Poggio Imperiale with the Story of Mary Magdalen. Curradi painted the Crowning of the Virgin in 1646 for the Benedictine Abbey of Vallombrosa, the Uffizi has two paintings, a Martyrdom of Santa Tecla and a Beatification of the Magdalen. One of his pupils was Cesare Dandini, ralph Nicholson Wornum, ed. Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London, Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Jun 27,2006
31.
Chapter house
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A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which larger meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there, in monasteries, the whole community often met there on a daily basis for readings and to hear the abbot or senior monks talk. When attached to a church, the dean, prebendaries. The rooms may also be used for meetings of various sorts, in medieval times monarchs on tour in their territory would often take them over for their meetings. Synods, ecclesiastical courts and similar meetings often took place in chapter houses, when part of a monastery, the chapter house is generally located on the eastern wing of the cloister, which is next to the church. Since many cathedrals in England were originally monastic foundations, this is a common arrangement there also, elsewhere it may be a separate building. The chapter house comprises a space, in order to hold all the monks of the monastery. Typically there is seating around, often built into, all the walls of the room, often in stone, the seats for the senior members are often larger than the others, and may be raised on a dais. Usually there is one doorway, and though the room is well-lit where the location allows. Many larger chapter houses are designed with vestibules for attendants and those waiting to be called, there is often a fireplace, and altars are found in some examples, sometimes added later. Many medieval rooms use stone vaulting supported by columns in the centre of the space, the shape of the room is usually designed to allow good audibility for speakers from all parts of the room. It may be rectangular, tending towards the square, but octagonal and other near-circular plans are an English speciality, most, like those at Wells Cathedral, Lichfield Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Lacock Abbey have a single central column, from which the high roof vaulting spreads. York Minster has a roof and no central column. Many have elaborate benched arcades round the wall, with crocketed frames for the seats, in some Romanesque or Gothic monasteries, the entrance to the chapter house has an elaborate façade with a door surrounded by highly decorated archivolts, especially when it is a separate building. Many chapterhouses feature elaborate carving or frescos, which include some masterpieces of religious art, in modern settings, the chapterhouse may simply be or use an ordinary office boardroom or meeting room. When it is a building, this often consists of just the single main room. The first meeting place in the morning, after the church services of Prime or Terce. The monks might sit along the length of the walls in strict age-order, but the chapter house is mentioned in the proceedings of the Council of Aachen in 816
32.
Dormitory
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A dormitory or hall of residence, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students. In the United States dorm is the most common term, which comes originally from the Latin word dormitorium, on the other hand, in the United Kingdom the term hall is more usual, especially in a university context. A dormitory can also be a room containing several beds – see Sleeping dormitories. Most colleges and universities provide single or multiple rooms for their students. These buildings consist of such rooms, like an apartment building. The largest dormitory building is Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy, many colleges and universities no longer use the word dormitory and staff are now using the term residence hall or simply hall instead. Outside academia however, the dorm or dormitory is commonly used without negative connotations. Indeed, the words are used regularly in the marketplace as well as routinely in advertising, College and university residential rooms vary in size, shape, facilities and number of occupants. Typically, a United States residence hall holds two students with no toilet. This is usually referred to as a double, often, residence halls have communal bathroom facilities. In the United States, residence halls are segregated by sex, with men living in one group of rooms. Some dormitory complexes are single-sex with varying limits on visits by persons of each sex, for example, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana has a long history of Parietals, or mixed visiting hours. In the early 2000s, dorms that allowed people of opposite sexes to share a room available in some public universities. Some colleges and university coeducational dormitories also feature coeducational bathrooms, most residence halls are much closer to campus than comparable private housing such as apartment buildings. Universities may therefore provide priority to students when allocating this accommodation. Halls located away from university facilities sometimes have extra amenities such as a room or bar. Catered halls may charge for food by the meal or through a termly subscription and they may also contain basic kitchen facilities for student use outside catering hours. Most halls contain a laundry room, as of 2015 there was an expanding market for private luxury off-campus student residences which offered substantial amenities in both the United States and Britain, particularly in London
33.
Piazza San Marco
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Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Marks Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. All other urban spaces in the city are called campi, the Piazzetta is an extension of the Piazza towards the lagoon in its south east corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are considered together. This article relates to both of them, a remark usually attributed to Napoleon calls the Piazza San Marco the drawing room of Europe. The Square is dominated at its end by the great church of St Mark. It is described here by a perambulation starting from the west front of the church, the Piazzetta dei Leoncini is an open space on the north side of the church named after the two marble lions, but now officially called the Piazzetta San Giovanni XXIII. The neo-classic building on the east side adjoining the Basilica is the Palazzo Patriarcale, beyond that is the Clock Tower, completed in 1499, above a high archway where the street known as the Merceria leads through shopping streets to the Rialto, the commercial and financial centre. To the right of the clock-tower is the church of San Basso, designed by Baldassarre Longhena. Mark, high officers of state in the days of the republic of Venice and they were built in the early 16th century. The arcade is lined with shops and restaurants at ground level, turning left at the end, the arcade continues along the west end of the Piazza, which was rebuilt by Napoleon about 1810 and is known as the Ala Napoleonica. It holds, behind the shops, a staircase which was to have led to a royal palace. Turning left again, the arcade continues down the side of the Piazza. Again, the floor has shops and also the Caffè Florian, a famous cafe opened in 1720 by Floriano Francesconi. The upper floors were intended by Napoleon to be a palace for his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais, his viceroy in Venice, at the far end the Procuratie meet the north end of Sansovinos Libreria, whose main front faces the Piazzetta and is described there. The arcade continues round the corner into the Piazzetta, opposite to this, standing free in the Piazza, is the Campanile of St Marks church, rebuilt in 1912 comera, dovera after the collapse of the former campanile on 14 July 1902. Across the Piazza in front of the church are three large mast-like flagpoles with bronze bases decorated in relief by Alessandro Leopardi in 1505. The Venetian flag of St Mark used to fly them in the time of the republic of Venice. The Piazzetta di San Marco is not part of the Piazza, the Piazzetta lies between the Doges Palace on the east and Jacopo Sansovinos Biblioteca which holds the Biblioteca Marciana on the west
34.
Benozzo Gozzoli
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Benozzo Gozzoli was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. He is best known for a series of murals in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi depicting festive, vibrant processions with fine attention to detail and he is considered one of the most prolific fresco painters of his generation. While he was active in Tuscany, he also worked in Umbria. He was born Benozzo di Lese in the village of SantIlario a Colombano around 1421 and he moved with his family, including the painters Francesco, Gerolamo, and Alesso di Benozzo, to Florence in 1427. According to the 16th century Italian biographer Giorgio Vasari, Benozzo Gozzoli was in the part of his career a pupil. Some of the works in the convent of San Marco of Florence were executed by Gozzoli after Fra Angelicos designs, between 1444 and 1447 he collaborated with Lorenzo Ghiberti and his workshop on the Paradise Doors of the Battistero di San Giovanni. On May 23,1447 Gozzoli was with Fra Angelico in Rome, later the pair worked until June 1448 in the Cappella Niccolina for Nicholas V. From 1449 dates a banner with Madonna and Child in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome he executed also, in Santa Maria in Aracoeli, a fresco of St Anthony and Two Angels. Benozzos last collaboration with Angelico is the vault of the Duomo di Orvieto in Umbria, in 1449 he left Angelico, and moved to Umbria. From 1450 is an Annunciation in Narni, signed OPU BENOT DE FLORENT, in the monastery of San Fortunato, near Montefalco, he painted a Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels, and three other works. One of these, the altarpiece representing St Thomas receiving the Girdle of the Virgin, is now in the Lateran Museum and he next painted in the monastery of S. This work was completed in 1452, and is marked by the style of Angelico. In the same church, in the chapel of Saint Jerome, is a fresco by Gozzoli of the Virgin and Saints and he remained at Montefalco probably till 1456, employing Pier Antonio Mezzastris as assistant. Thence he went to Perugia, and painted in a church a Virgin, soon afterwards he returned to his native city Florence, the epicenter of Quattrocento art. Gozzoli incorporated portraits of the Medici family into his fresco The Journey of the Magi, Gozzoli also included his self-portrait in the procession, with his name written around the rim of his cap. His Virgin and Child with Saints of 1461, in the National Gallery, London, in 1464 Gozzoli left Florence for San Gimignano, where he executed some extensive works, in the church of SantAgostino, a composition of St. Here his style combined something of Filippo Lippi with its original elements and he stayed in this city till 1467, and in 1469 began the vast series of mural paintings in the Campo Santo of Pisa with which his name is specially identified. There are twenty-four subjects from the Old Testament, from the Invention of Wine by Noah to the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon and he contracted to paint three subjects per year for about ten ducats each
35.
Library
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A library is a collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a building or room, or a virtual space. Libraries range in size from a few shelves of books to several million items, in Latin and Greek, the idea of a bookcase is represented by Bibliotheca and Bibliothēkē, derivatives of these mean library in many modern languages, e. g. French bibliothèque. The first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in Sumer. Private or personal libraries made up of books appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC. In the 6th century, at the close of the Classical period. A library is organized for use and maintained by a body, an institution. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of librarians who are experts at finding and organizing information, Libraries often provide quiet areas for studying, and they also often offer common areas to facilitate group study and collaboration. Libraries often provide facilities for access to their electronic resources. Modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats, the first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of writing—the clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in temple rooms in Sumer, some dating back to 2600 BC. These archives, which consisted of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, mark the end of prehistory. Things were much the same in the government and temple records on papyrus of Ancient Egypt, the earliest discovered private archives were kept at Ugarit, besides correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized practice-texts for teaching new scribes. There is also evidence of libraries at Nippur about 1900 BC, philosopher Laozi was keeper of books in the earliest library in China, which belonged to the Imperial Zhou dynasty. Also, evidence of catalogues found in some destroyed ancient libraries illustrates the presence of librarians, the Library of Alexandria, in Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. The library was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II, an early organization system was in effect at Alexandria. The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selçuk, Turkey was built in honor of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus by Celsus’ son, the library was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus. Private or personal libraries made up of books appeared in classical Greece in the 5th century BC
36.
Column
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A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member, the term column applies especially to a large round support with a capital and a base or pedestal and made of stone, or appearing to be so. A small wooden or metal support is called a post. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces, other compression members are often termed columns because of the similar stress conditions. Columns are frequently used to support beams or arches on which the parts of walls or ceilings rest. In architecture, column refers to such an element that also has certain proportional. A column might also be an element not needed for structural purposes, many columns are engaged. All significant Iron Age civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean made some use of columns, egyptian columns are famously present in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak, where 134 columns are lined up in 16 rows, with some columns reaching heights of 24 metres. Some of the most elaborate columns in the ancient world were those of the Persians and they included double-bull structures in their capitals. The Hall of Hundred Columns at Persepolis, measuring 70 ×70 metres, was built by the Achaemenid king Darius I, many of the ancient Persian columns are standing, some being more than 30 metres tall. The Minoans used whole tree-trunks, usually turned upside down in order to prevent re-growth, stood on a set in the stylobate. These were then painted as in the most famous Minoan palace of Knossos, the Minoans employed columns to create large open-plan spaces, light-wells and as a focal point for religious rituals. These traditions were continued by the later Mycenaean civilization, particularly in the megaron or hall at the heart of their palaces. Being made of wood these early columns have not survived, but their bases have and through these we may see their use. The Greeks developed the classical orders of architecture, which are most easily distinguished by the form of the column and their Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders were expanded by the Romans to include the Tuscan and Composite orders. Columns, or at least large structural exterior ones, became less significant in the architecture of the Middle Ages. Early columns were constructed of stone, some out of a piece of stone. Monolithic columns are among the heaviest stones used in architecture, other stone columns are created out of multiple sections of stone, mortared or dry-fit together
37.
Nave
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The nave /ˈneɪv/ is the central aisle of a basilica church, or the main body of a church between its western wall and its chancel. It is the zone of a church accessible by the laity, the nave extends from the entry — which may have a separate vestibule — to the chancel and may be flanked by lower side-aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave and it provides the central approach to the high altar. The term nave is from medieval Latin navis, a ship was an early Christian symbol. The term may also have suggested by the keel shape of the vaulting of a church. The earliest churches were built when builders were familiar with the form of the Roman basilica and it had a wide central area, with aisles separated by columns, and with windows near the ceiling. Old St. Peters Basilica in Rome is a church which had this form. It was built in the 4th century on the orders of Roman emperor Constantine I, the nave, the main body of the building, is the section set apart for the laity, while the chancel is reserved for the clergy. In medieval churches the nave was separated from the chancel by the rood screen, medieval naves were divided into bays, the repetition of form giving an effect of great length, and the vertical element of the nave was emphasized. During the Renaissance, in place of dramatic effects there were more balanced proportions, longest nave in Denmark, Aarhus Cathedral,93 metres. Longest nave in England, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans,84 metres, longest nave in Ireland, St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin,91 metres. Longest nave in France, Bourges Cathedral,91 metres, including choir where a crossing would be if there were transepts, longest nave in Germany, Cologne cathedral,58 metres, including two bays between the towers. Longest nave in Italy, St Peters Basilica in Rome,91 metres, longest nave in Spain, Seville,60 metres, in five bays. Longest nave in the United States, Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City, highest vaulted nave, Beauvais Cathedral, France,48 metres high but only one bay of the nave was actually built but choir and transepts were completed to the same height. Highest completed nave, Rome, St. Peters, Italy,46 metres high, abbey, with architectural discussion and groundplans Cathedral architecture Cathedral diagram List of highest church naves
38.
Barrel vault
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A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design, the barrel vault is the simplest form of a vault, effectively a series of arches placed side by side. It is a form of barrel roof, as with all arch-based constructions, there is an outward thrust generated against the walls underneath a barrel vault. There are several mechanisms for absorbing this thrust, one is, of course, to make the walls exceedingly thick and strong - this is a primitive and sometimes unacceptable method. A more elegant method is to two or more vaults parallel to each other, the forces of their outward thrusts will thus negate each other. This method was most often used in construction of churches, where several vaulted naves ran parallel down the length of the building, however, the outer walls of the outermost vault would still have to be quite strong or reinforced by buttressing. The third and most elegant mechanism to resist the lateral thrust was to create an intersection of two barrel vaults at right angles, thus forming a groin vault, Barrel vaults are known from Ancient Egypt, and were used extensively in Roman architecture. They were also used to replace the Cloaca Maxima with a system of underground sewers, other early barrel vault designs occur in northern Europe, Turkey, Morocco, and other regions. In medieval Europe, the vault was an important element of stone construction in monasteries, castles, tower houses. This form of design is observed in cellars, crypts, long hallways, cloisters, Barrel vaulting was known and utilized by early civilizations, including Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, it apparently was not a popular or common method of construction within these civilizations. The Persians and the Romans were the first to make significant architectural use of them, the technique probably evolved out of necessity to roof buildings with masonry elements such as bricks or stone blocks in areas where timber and wood were scarce. The earliest tunnel vaults in Egypt are found at Requagnah and Denderah and these were built with sun-dried brick in three rings over passages descending to tombs, in these cases, as the span of the vault was only two metres. Ancient Romans most probably inherited their knowledge of barrel vaulting from Etruscans, after the fall of the Roman empire, few buildings large enough to require much in the way of vaulting were built for several centuries. In the early Romanesque period, a return to stone barrel vaults was seen for the first great cathedrals, their interiors were dark, due to thick. One of the largest and most famous churches enclosed from above by a vast barrel vault was the church of Cluny Abbey, peters Basilica in Rome, where a huge barrel vault spans the 27 m -wide nave. With a barrel vault design the vectors of pressure result in a force on the crown while the lower portions of the arches realise a lateral force pushing outwards. As an outcome this form of design is subject to failure unless the sides are anchored or buttressed to very heavy building elements or substantial earthwork sidings
39.
Manuscript
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A manuscript is any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some automated way. More recently, it is understood to be a written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts, manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in form, scrolls or in codex format. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations. The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS. ms or ms. for singular, and MSS. mss or mss. for plural are also accepted. The second s is not simply the plural, by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as pp. means pages. Before the invention of printing in China or by moveable type in a printing press in Europe. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls or books, manuscripts were produced on vellum and other parchment, on papyrus, and on paper. In Russia birch bark documents as old as from the 11th century have survived, in India, the palm leaf manuscript, with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, when Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a scriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud. Manuscripts in Tocharian languages, written on leaves, survived in desert burials in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of antiquity are virtually all lost. Originally, all books were in manuscript form, in China, and later other parts of East Asia, woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is the Diamond Sutra of 868, in the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450. Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive, private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. In the Philippines, for example, as early as 900AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus and this type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the document in the hot
40.
Lorenzo il Magnifico
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Lorenzo de Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, who was one of the most powerful and enthusiastic patrons of the Renaissance. Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a magnate, diplomat, politician and patron of scholars and he is well known for his contribution to the art world by sponsoring artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. His life coincided with the phase of Italian Renaissance and his death coincided with the end of the Golden Age of Florence. The fragile peace that he helped maintain among the various Italian states collapsed with his death and he is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence. Lorenzos grandfather, Cosimo de Medici, was the first member of the Medici family to combine running the Medici Bank with leading the Republic of Florence, Cosimo was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and spent a very large portion of his fortune in government and philanthropy. He was a patron of the arts and funded public works, Lorenzos mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was a writer of sonnets and a friend to poets and philosophers of the Medici Academy. She became her sons advisor after the deaths of his father, with his brother Giuliano, he participated in jousting, hawking, hunting, and horse breeding for the Palio, a horse race in Siena. His own horse was named Morello di Vento, Piero sent Lorenzo on many important diplomatic missions when he was still a youth, which included trips to Rome to meet the pope and other important religious and political figures. Lorenzo was described as plain of appearance and was of average height, having a broad frame and short legs, a swarthy skin, squashed nose, short-sighted eyes. Giuliano, on the hand, was regarded as handsome, he was used as a model by Botticelli in his painting of Mars. Lorenzo, groomed for power, assumed a role in the state upon the death of his father in 1469. Lorenzo, like his grandfather, father, and son, ruled Florence indirectly through surrogates in the city councils, threats, payoffs, although Florence flourished under Lorenzos rule, he effectively reigned as a despot, and people had little political freedom. Rival Florentine families inevitably harboured resentments over the Medicis dominance, the most notable of the rival families was the Pazzi, who nearly brought Lorenzos reign to an end right after it began. Alum had been discovered by local citizens of Volterra, who turned to Florence to get backing to exploit this important natural resource. When they realized the value of the mine, the people of Volterra wanted its revenues for their municipal funds rather than having it enter the pockets of their Florentine backers. Thus began an insurrection and secession from Florence, which involved putting to death several opposing citizens, Lorenzo sent mercenaries to suppress the revolt by force, and the mercenaries ultimately sacked the city. Lorenzo hurried to Volterra to make amends, but the incident would remain a dark stain on his record, Giuliano was killed, brutally stabbed to death, but Lorenzo escaped with only a minor wound to the shoulder, having been defended by the poet Politian. That success enabled Lorenzo to secure constitutional changes within the Florentine Republics government, Lorenzo maintained good relations with Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, as the Florentine maritime trade with the Ottomans was a major source of wealth for the Medici
41.
Poliziano
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Angelo Ambrogini, commonly known by his nickname Poliziano, was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scholarship was instrumental in the divergence of Renaissance Latin from medieval norms and his nickname, Poliziano, by which he is chiefly identified to the present day, was derived from the Latin name of his birthplace, Montepulciano. Polizianos works include translations of passages from Homers Iliad, an edition of the poetry of Catullus and commentaries on classical authors and it was his classical scholarship that brought him the attention of the wealthy and powerful Medici family that ruled Florence. He served the Medici as a tutor to their children, and later as a close friend and his later poetry, including La Giostra, glorified his patrons. He used his didactic poem Manto, written in the 1480s, Politian was born as Angelo Ambrogini in Montepulciano, in central Tuscany in 1454. At the age of ten, after the death of his father, Politian began his studies at Florence. There he learned the languages of Latin and Greek. From Marsilio Ficino he learned the rudiments of philosophy, at 13 he began to circulate Latin letters, at 17 he wrote essays in Greek versification, and at 18 he published an edition of Catullus. In 1470 he won the title of homericus adulescens by translating books II-V of the Iliad into Latin hexameters, during this time, Poliziano lectured at the Platonic Academy under the leadership of Marsilio Ficino, at the Careggi Villa. Among Politians pupils could be numbered the chief students of Europe and he also educated students from Germany, England and Portugal. Poliziano covered nearly the whole ground of classical literature during his tenure, and published the notes of his courses upon Ovid, Suetonius, Statius, Pliny the Younger and he also undertook a recension of the text of Justinian IIs Pandects and lectured about it. This recension influenced the Roman code. and considering his achievements to be of merit above Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar and he offered himself to write an epic work giving an account of John IIs accomplishments in navigation and conquests. The king replied in a manner, in a letter of October 23,1491. The epic work regarding Portuguese discoveries was only written almost one hundred years later by Luís de Camões and it is likely that Politian was homosexual, or at least had male lovers, and he never married. Evidence includes denunciations of sodomy made to the Florentine authorities, poems and letters of contemporaries, allusions within his work, the last suggests he was killed by a fever which was exacerbated by standing under the windowsill of a boy he was infatuated with despite being ill. He may also have been a lover of Pico della Mirandola, in 2007, the bodies of Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola were exhumed from St. Scientists under the supervision of Giorgio Gruppioni, a professor of anthropology from Bologna, used current testing techniques to study the mens lives and establish the causes of their deaths. A television documentary is being made of this research, and it was announced that forensic tests showed that both Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola likely died of arsenic poisoning
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