1.
Piero di Cosimo
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Piero di Cosimo, also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was a Florentine painter of the Italian Renaissance. Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the subjects have an individual. He trained under Cosimo Roselli, whose daughter he married, and he was also influenced by Early Netherlandish painting, and busy landscapes feature in many works, often forests seen close at hand. Several of his most striking secular works are in the landscape format used for paintings inset into cassone wedding chests or spalliera headboards or panelling. He was apparently famous for designing the temporary decorations for Carnival, from him, most probably, Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds and he journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. Inspired to the Vitruvius account of the evolution of man, Pieros mythical compositions show the presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire. The multitudes of nudes in these shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Pieros art. He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the trees of his orchard, he lived, wrote Vasari. The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Pieros morose elder years, the Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi, and the Holy Family, at Dresden, illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola. With the exception of the background in Rossellis fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, Vasari gave Pieros date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522, madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari tempera and oil on panel, St. Louis Art Museum, media related to Piero di Cosimo at Wikimedia Commons Italian Paintings, Florentine School, a collection catalog containing information about di Cosimo and his works
2.
Genoa
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Genoa is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015,594,733 people lived within the administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of Genoa, over 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera. Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba due to its glorious past, part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2006. The citys rich history in notably its art, music. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, Niccolò Paganini, Giuseppe Mazzini, Genoa, which forms the southern corner of the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle of north-west Italy, is one of the countrys major economic centres. The city has hosted massive shipyards and steelworks since the 19th century, the Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, is among the oldest in the world and has played an important role in the citys prosperity since the middle of the 15th century. Today a number of leading Italian companies are based in the city, including Fincantieri, Selex ES, Ansaldo Energia, Ansaldo STS, Edoardo Raffinerie Garrone, Piaggio Aerospace, the Genoa area has been inhabited since the fifth or fourth millennium BC. In ancient times this area was frequented and inhabited by Ligures, Phoenicians, Phocaeans, Greeks, and Etruscans. The city cemetery, dating from the 6th and 5th centuries BC, testifies to the occupation of the site by the Greeks, but the fine harbour probably saw use much earlier, perhaps by the Etruscans. In the 5th century BC was founded the first oppidum at the foot of the today called the Castle Hill which now is inside the medieval old town. The ancient Ligurian city was known as Stalia, so referred to by Artemidorus Ephesius and Pomponius Mela, Ligurian Stalia was overshadowed by the powerful Marseille and Vada Sabatia, near modern Savona. Stalia had an alliance with Rome through a foedus aequum in the course of the Second Punic War, the Carthaginians accordingly destroyed it in 209 BC. The town was rebuilt and, after the Carthaginian Wars ended in 146 BC. it received municipal rights, the original castrum thenceforth expanded towards the current areas of Santa Maria di Castello and the San Lorenzo promontory. Trades included skins, wood, and honey, goods were shipped to the mainland, up to major cities like Tortona and Piacenza. Among the archeological remains from the Roman period, an amphitheatre was also found, another theory traces the name to the Etruscan word Kainua which means New City and still another from the Latin word ianua, related to the name of the God Janus, meaning door or passage. The latter is in reference to its position at the centre of the Ligurian coastal arch. The Latin name, oppidum Genua, is recorded by Pliny the Elder as part of the Augustean Regio IX Liguria, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths occupied Genoa
3.
Porto Venere
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Porto Venere is a town and comune located on the Ligurian coast of Italy in the province of La Spezia. It comprises the three villages of Fezzano, Le Grazie and Porto Venere, and the three islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto, in 1997 Porto Venere and the villages of Cinque Terre were designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The ancient Portus Veneris is believed to back to at least the middle of the 1st century BC. It has been said that the name refers to a temple to the goddess Venus which was sited on the promontory where the church of Peter the Apostle now stands, the name has also been linked to that of the hermit Saint Venerius. In Roman times the city was essentially a fishing community, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Porto Venere became the base of the Byzantine fleet in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, but was destroyed by the Lombards in 643 AD. Later, it was a frequent target of Saracen raids, first indications of the existence of a castle date from 1113, and in 1161 the walls were erected. Porto Venere became a fiefdom of a family from Vezzano before passing to Genoa in the early 12th century, from 13 June 1805 to 1814 it was included in the Department of the Apennines. In 1815 it was incorporated in the Kingdom of Sardinia, according to the decisions of the Congress of Wien of 1814, the municipal Coat of arms was approved by the special decree of the Head of the Government dated 19 April 1933. In addition to the emblem and banner of the city is the cross of St and this objective is also mentioned in the municipal charter. The village lies at the end of a peninsula, which, breaking away from the jagged coastline of the Riviera di Levante. Bordered to the north by the municipality of La Spezia and south, is about 14 kilometres north of La Spezia and 117 kilometres east of Genoa. There is a system with the sewer grates and pumps that push the waste into a subsea pipeline that comes out to about 200 metres beyond the toe of St. Peter. The strong current and high depth of discharge, about 35 metres, the beaches of the area are tourist attraction. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with almost no heat in summer. However, rainfall can be abundant, especially in autumn and spring. In the municipal area, the station is located on Island of Palmaria, where data can be considered similar to those occurring in Porto Venere. The area of Portovenere-Palmaria Island is the point behind in the Ligurian Sea between the Isle of Elba and the islands of Hyères, France. Hence also the role in the history of seafaring
4.
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
5.
Italians
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Italians are a nation and ethnic group native to Italy who share a common culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a native tongue. The majority of Italian nationals are speakers of Standard Italian. Italians have greatly influenced and contributed to the arts and music, science, technology, cuisine, sports, fashion, jurisprudence, banking, Italian people are generally known for their localism and their attention to clothing and family values. The term Italian is at least 3,000 years old and has a history that goes back to pre-Roman Italy. According to one of the common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú. 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 Etruscan civilization reached its peak about the 7th century BC, but by 509 BC, when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan monarchs, its control in Italy was on the wane. By 350 BC, after a series of wars between Greeks and Etruscans, the Latins, with Rome as their capital, gained the ascendancy by 272 BC, and they managed to unite the entire Italian peninsula. This period of unification was followed by one of conquest in the Mediterranean, in the course of the century-long struggle against Carthage, the Romans conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Finally, in 146 BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, with Carthage completely destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, octavian, the final victor, was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman emperor. After two centuries of rule, in the 3rd century AD, Rome was threatened by internal discord and menaced by Germanic and Asian invaders. Emperor Diocletians administrative division of the empire into two parts in 285 provided only temporary relief, it became permanent in 395, in 313, Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity, and churches thereafter rose throughout the empire. However, he moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople. The last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 by a Germanic foederati general in Italy and his defeat marked the end of the western part of the Roman Empire. During most of the period from the fall of Rome until the Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861, Odoacer ruled well for 13 years after gaining control of Italy in 476. Then he was attacked and defeated by Theodoric, the king of another Germanic tribe, Theodoric and Odoacer ruled jointly until 493, when Theodoric murdered Odoacer. Theodoric continued to rule Italy with an army of Ostrogoths and a government that was mostly Italian, after the death of Theodoric in 526, the kingdom began to grow weak
6.
Amerigo Vespucci
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Colloquially referred to as the New World, this second super continent came to be termed Americas, deriving its name from Americus, the Latin version of Vespuccis first name. Amerigo Vespucci was born and raised in Florence on the Italian Peninsula and he was the third son of Ser Nastagio Vespucci, a Florentine notary, and Lisabetta Mini. The father of Ser Nastagio Vespucci had the name Amerigo Vespucci also, Amerigo Vespucci was educated by his uncle, Fra Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar of the monastery of San Marco in Florence. Vespucci acquired the favor and protection of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici who became the head of the business after the elder Lorenzos death in 1492, just around this time, Vespucci was engaged as the executor of Giannotto Berardi, an Italian merchant who had recently died in Seville. Vespucci organized the fulfillment of Berardis outstanding contract with the Castilian crown to provide twelve vessels for the Indies, after these were delivered, Vespucci continued as a provision contractor for Indies expeditions, and is known to have secured beef supplies for at least one of Columbus voyages. At the invitation of king Manuel I of Portugal, Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the first of these voyages he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought, the expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to Vespucci were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the new continent America after the feminine Latin version of Vespuccis first name. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, in 1508, the position of chief of navigation of Spain was created for Vespucci, with the responsibility of planning navigation for voyages to the Indies. Two letters attributed to Vespucci were published during his lifetime, mundus Novus was a Latin translation of a lost Italian letter sent from Lisbon to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. It describes a voyage to South America in 1501–1502, mundus Novus was published in late 1502 or early 1503 and soon reprinted and distributed in numerous European countries. Lettera di Amerigo Vespucci delle isole nuovamente trovate in quattro suoi viaggi, printed in 1504 or 1505, it claimed to be an account of four voyages to the Americas made by Vespucci between 1497 and 1504. A Latin translation was published by the German Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 in Cosmographiae Introductio, Vespucci even developed a rudimentary, but fairly accurate method of determining longitude. In the 18th century, three unpublished familiar letters from Vespucci to Lorenzo de Medici were rediscovered, one describes a voyage made in 1499–1500 which corresponds with the second of the four voyages. Another was written from Cape Verde in 1501 in the part of the third of the four voyages. The third letter was sent from Lisbon after the completion of that voyage, some have suggested that Vespucci, in the two letters published in his lifetime, was exaggerating his role and constructed deliberate fabrications. However, many now believe that the two letters were not written by him but were fabrications by others based in part on genuine letters by Vespucci. It was the publication and widespread circulation of the letters that might have led Waldseemüller to name the new continent America on his map of 1507 in Lorraine
7.
Sandro Botticelli
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Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticellis posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, since then, among Botticellis best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera. Botticelli was born in the city of Florence in a house in the Via Nuova, BorgOgnissanti, Vasari reported that Botticelli was initially trained as a goldsmith by his brother Antonio. By 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, many of his works have been attributed to the elder master. Influenced also by the monumentality of Masaccios painting, it was from Lippi that Botticelli learned a more intimate, by 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop. The Adoration of the Magi for Santa Maria Novella, contains the portraits of Cosimo de Medici, his sons Piero and Giovanni, the quality of the scene was hailed by Vasari as one of Botticellis pinnacles. In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned Botticelli and other prominent Florentine, the iconological program was the supremacy of the Papacy. Sandros contribution included the Temptations of Christ, the Punishment of the Rebels, thus Vasari characterized the first printed Dante with Botticellis decorations, he could not imagine that the new art of printing might occupy an artist. Recent scholarship suggests otherwise, the Primavera was painted for Lorenzos townhouse in Florence, by 1499, both had been installed at Castello. In these works, the influence of Gothic realism is tempered by Botticellis study of the antique, but if the painterly means may be understood, the subjects themselves remain fascinating for their ambiguity. The complex meanings of these continue to receive widespread scholarly attention, mainly focusing on the poetry. The works do not illustrate particular texts, rather, each relies upon several texts for its significance, of their beauty, characterized by Vasari as exemplifying grace and by John Ruskin as possessing linear rhythm, there can be no doubt. The pictures feature Botticellis linear style emphasized by the soft continual contours, in 1491 he served on a committee to decide upon a façade for the Cathedral of Florence. For this reason, persisting in his attachment to that party, Botticelli biographer Ernst Steinmann searched for the artists psychological development through his Madonnas. In the deepening of insight and expression in the rendering of Marys physiognomy, Botticelli was already little employed in 1502. In 1504 he was a member of the appointed to decide where Michelangelos David would be placed. After his death, his reputation was eclipsed longer and more thoroughly than that of any other major European artist and his paintings remained in the churches and villas for which they had been created and his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were upstaged by those of Michelangelo. The English collector William Young Ottley, however, had brought Botticellis The Mystical Nativity to London with him in 1799 after buying it in Italy, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood incorporated elements of his work into their own
8.
John Ruskin
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John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and his writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin also penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters, the elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society and he also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. He was hugely influential in the half of the 19th century. After a period of decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability, from the 1850s he championed the Pre-Raphaelites who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues, Unto This Last marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, in 1871, he began his monthly letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain, published under the title Fors Clavigera. In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society, as a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today. Ruskin was the child of first cousins. His father, John James Ruskin, was a sherry and wine importer founding partner and de facto manager of Ruskin, Telford. John James was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a mother from Glenluce and his wife, Margaret Cox, née Cock, was the daughter of an aunt on the English side of the family and a publican in Croydon. She had joined the Ruskin household when she became companion to John Jamess mother, John James had hoped to practice law, but was instead articled as a clerk in London. His father, John Thomas Ruskin, described as a grocer, was an inadequate businessman, to save the family from bankruptcy, John James, whose prudence and success were in stark contrast to his father, took on all debts, settling the last of them in 1832. John James and Margaret were engaged in 1809, but opposition to the union from John Thomas, Ruskin was born at 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London, south of St Pancras railway station. His childhood was characterised by the influences of his father and mother. John James Ruskin helped to develop his sons Romanticism and they shared a passion for the works of Byron, Shakespeare and especially Walter Scott
9.
Republic of Genoa
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It began when Genoa became a self-governing commune within the Regnum Italicum, and ended when it was conquered by the French First Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic. Corsica was ceded to France in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768, before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian city-states during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city, however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. The Adorno, Campofregoso, and other merchant families all fought for power in this Republic, as the power of the consuls allowed each family faction to gain wealth. The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria and Piedmont, Sardinia, Corsica, through Genoese participation on the Crusades, Genoese colonies were established in the Middle East, in the Aegean, in Sicily and Northern Africa. The collapse of the Crusader States was offset by Genoa’s alliance with the Byzantine Empire, as Venices relations with the Byzantine Empire were temporarily disrupted by the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath, Genoa was able to improve its position. Genoa took advantage of opportunity to expand into the Black Sea and Crimea. Internal feuds between the families, the Grimaldi and Fieschi, the Doria, Spinola, and others caused much disruption. However, this prosperity did not last, the Black Death was imported into Europe in 1347 from the Genoese trading post at Caffa in Crimea, on the Black Sea. Following the economic and population collapse, Genoa adopted the Venetian model of government, the wars with Venice continued, and the War of Chioggia -- where Genoa almost managed to decisively subdue Venice—ended with Venices recovery of dominance in the Adriatic. In 1390 Genoa initiated a crusade against the Barbary pirates with help from the French, though it has not been well-studied, the fifteenth century seems to have been a tumultuous time for Genoa. After a period of French domination from 1394–1409, Genoa came under rule by the Visconti of Milan, Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt and its Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Asia Minor colonies to the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Under the ensuing economic recovery, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini, according to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and others, the practices Genoa developed in the Mediterranean were crucial in the exploration and exploitation of the New World. At the time of Genoa’s peak in the 16th century, the city attracted many artists, including Rubens, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. The architect Galeazzo Alessi designed many of the city’s splendid palazzi, as did in the decades that followed by fifty years Bartolomeo Bianco, a number of Genoese Baroque and Rococo artists settled elsewhere and a number of local artists became prominent. At the time of its founding in the early 11th century the Republic of Genoa consisted of the city of Genoa, as the commerce of the city increased, so did the territory of the Republic. By 1015 all of Liguria fell under the Republic of Genoa, after the First Crusade in 1098 Genoa gained settlements in Syria. In 1261 the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor became Genoese territory, in 1255 Genoa established the colony of Caffa in Crimea
10.
Liguria
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Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, its capital is Genoa. The region is popular with tourists for its beaches, towns, Liguria is bordered by France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It lies on the Ligurian Sea, the narrow strip of land is bordered by the sea, the Alps and the Apennines mountains. Some mountains rise above 2,000 m, the line runs at an average altitude of about 1,000 m. The highest point of the region is the summit of Monte Saccarello, the winding arched extension goes from Ventimiglia to La Spezia. Of this,3,524.08 km2 are mountainous and 891.95 km2 are hills, Ligurias natural reserves cover 12% of the entire region, or 600 km2 of land. They are made up of one national reserve, six large parks, the continental shelf is very narrow, and so steep it descends almost immediately to considerable marine depths along its 350-kilometre coastline. Except for the Portovenere and Portofino promontories, it is not very jagged. At the mouths of the biggest watercourses there are small beaches, the ring of hills lying immediately beyond the coast together with the sea account for a mild climate year-round. Average winter temperatures are 7 to 10 °C and summer temperatures are 23 to 24 °C, rainfall can be abundant at times, as mountains very close to the coast create an orographic effect. Genoa and La Spezia can see up to 2,000 mm of rain in a year, evidence of Neanderthals living in the area was discovered in the region of Loano, whereas in Ventimiglia, in the grotto of Balzi Rossi, numerous remains were found of Cro-Magnon. According to Classical sources, the Ligurians, once lived in a far broader territory than present-day Liguria, for example, the Greek colony of Massalia, modern Marseille was recorded to lie in Ligurian territory. During the first Punic War, the ancient Ligurians were divided, some of them siding with Carthage, under Augustus, Liguria was designated a region of Italy stretching from the coast to the banks of the Po River. The great Roman roads helped strengthen territorial unity and increase communication, important towns developed on the coast, of which evidence is left in the ruins of Albenga, Ventimiglia and Luni. Between the 4th and the 10th centuries Liguria was dominated by the Byzantines, the Lombards of King Rothari and it was also invaded by Saracen and Norman raiders. In the 10th century, once the danger of pirates decreased, in the 11th and 12th centuries the marches were split into fees, and then with the strengthening of the bishops’ power, the feudal structure began to partially weaken. The main Ligurian towns, especially on the coast, became city-states, inland, however, fiefs belonging to noble families survived for a very long time. Between the 11th century and the 15th century, the Republic of Genoa experienced a political and commercial success
11.
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
12.
Doge of Genoa
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The Doge of Genoa was the ruler of the Republic of Genoa, a communal republic and a state of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1339 until the states extinction in 1797. Originally elected for life, after 1528 the Doges were elected for terms of two years, in actuality, the Republic was an oligarchy ruled by a small group of merchant families, from whom the doges were selected. According to Christine Shaw, Genoese Doges were essentially faction leaders, in charge of the defence of Genoa, some of them liked to see themselves as effectively lords of the city, but they were not. The first doge of Genoa, Simone Boccanegra, whose name is kept alive by Verdis opera, was appointed by public acclaim in 1339. The Palazzo Pubblico, where the Doges had formerly presided, was expanded in 1388 to accommodate the new ruler and style of government and it was renamed Palazzo Ducale and magnificently rebuilt in the 16th century. Until recently the palazzo housed courts, but it now functions as Genoas cultural centre, of all the perpetual doges of Genoa who ruled for their lifetime, only one ruled for more than eight years. Many resigned or were out before taking office. Some failed to complete a day in power. Between 1339 and 1528, only four Doges were legally elected, not surprisingly, the Doges of Genoa have been less renowned than the doges of Venice. Still, the position of Doge stood at the head of state patronage, rival elections were known to take place within the building. For generations two powerful families in Genoa all but monopolized the dogate, the Adorno, supporters of imperial power in the Middle Ages, Tomaso di Campofregoso became Doge three times, in 1415,1421 and 1437. In 1461, Paolo Fregoso, archbishop of Genoa, enticed the current doge to his own palace, held him hostage and offered him the choice of retiring from the post or being hanged. When Fregoso was in due course himself toppled, he fled to the harbour, commandeered four galleys, Genoas power peaked early, and it was eclipsed by Venice. It was through the Spanish empire in the New World that Genoa became rich again, doria served the Spanish Habsburgs as admiral-in-chief, and the bankers of Genoa handled Spains financial business, which vastly enriched Genoas banking oligarchy. The Napoleonic Wars put an end to the office of doge at Genoa, in 1797, when Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Genoa into the newly organized Ligurian Republic, French soldiers and the citys mob ransacked the doges palace. Simone Boccanegra, 1339–1344 Giovanni I di Murta, 1344–1350 Giovanni II Valente, giorgio Adorno, 1413–1415 Barnaba Guarco,29 March 1415 –3 July 1415 Tomaso di Campofregoso, 1415–1421 1421-1436 - Dogeship vacant. Paolo da Novi,10 April 1507-late 1507 1507–1511 - Dogeship vacant, giano II di Campofregoso, 1512–1513 Ottaviano Fregoso, 1513–1515 1515–1522 - Dogeship vacant. Antoniotto II Adorno, 1522–1527 1527-1528 - Dogeship vacant, a complete list is at Italian Wikipedia, Elenco dei Dogi della Repubblica di Genova
13.
San Torpete
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San Torpete is a church in central Genoa, northern Italy, dedicated to Saint Torpes. It was founded in the 11th century by local merchants and it was rebuilt in 1730 under designs conceived by Giovanni Antonio Ricca. The interior ceiling is decorated with paintings and stucco by Giovanni Bernardo Carlone depicting scenes of the Life of San Torpete, an altarpiece of Madonna with St Thomas Becket of Canterbury, St Lucia and John the Baptist is attributed to the studio of Luca Cambiaso or Andrea Semini. The small statue of the Virgin of Providence at the altar was completed by Giovanni Battista Drago. The altar of San Filippo Neri has a painting depicting The Saint in ecstasy attributed to the studio of Giovanni Battista Paggi
14.
House of Medici
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The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, the Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X, Pope Clement VII, and Pope Leo XI, two regent queens of France—Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici. In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence, in 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, the grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt. Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. They, along with families of Italy—such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara. The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe, there are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy, a notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system, the Medici family came from the agricultural Mugello region, north of Florence, being mentioned for the first time in a document of 1230. The origin of the name is uncertain, Medici is the plural of medico, also written del medico or delmedigo, meaning, medical doctor. It has been suggested that the derived from one Medico di Potrone, a castellan of Potrone in the late 11th century. The dynasty began with the founding of the Medici Bank, until the late 14th century, prior to the Medici, the leading family of Florence was the House of Albizzi. In 1293 the Ordinances of Justice were enacted, which became the constitution of the republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance. The citys numerous luxurious palazzi were becoming surrounded by townhouses, built by the ever prospering merchant class. In 1298, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de Medici, later under his son Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici and great-grandson, Lorenzo de Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici bank—then Europes largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence, in 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, a pro-Medici Signoria was elected, the Medici became the citys leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders, some examples of these families include the Bardi, Salviati, Cavalcanti, and the Tornabuoni
15.
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
16.
Giuliano de' Medici
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Giuliano de Medici was the second son of Piero de Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brothers image as the patron of the arts with his own image as the handsome, sporting, golden boy. As the opening stroke of the Pazzi Conspiracy, he was assassinated on Sunday,26 April 1478 in the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, by Francesco de Pazzi and he was killed by a sword wound to the head and was stabbed 19 times. Giulio di Giuliano de Medici, Giulianos illegitimate son by his mistress Fioretta Gorini and he had been promised in marriage to Semiramade Appiani Aragona, daughter of Iacopo IV Appiani, the Lord of Piombino but died before their wedding. Guiliano de Medici is portrayed by Tom Bateman in Starzs original series Da Vincis Demons and he has an affair with Vanessa, who becomes pregnant with his child. He is murdered in the season 1 finale, angelo Poliziano wrote two works which include Giuliano de Medici as a major character. Stanze per la giostra di Giuliano was written to commemorate a joust that Giuliano won in 1475 and it is mostly fictionalized and involves Giulianos love for Simonetta Vespucci. It was left unfinished, for both of his protagonists died, the other work is Coniurationis Commentarium, which was written in 1478 to commemorate Giulianos murder. It explains the people involved in the plot and the events of the day of his assassination, house of Medici Medici Chapel Media related to Giuliano de Medici at Wikimedia Commons
17.
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
18.
Villa di Careggi
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The Villa Medici at Careggi is a patrician villa in the hills near Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. The villa was among the first of a number of Medici villas, notable as the site of the Platonic academy founded by Cosimo de Medici, like most villas of Florentine families, the villa remained a working farm that helped render the family self-sufficient. Cosimos architect there, as elsewhere, was Michelozzo, who remodelled the fortified villa which had something of the character of a castello. Its famous garden is walled about, like a garden, overlooked by the upper-storey loggias. Michelozzos Villa Medici in Fiesole has a more outward-looking, Renaissance character, the property was purchased in 1417. At the death of Giovanni di Bicci, Cosimo il Vecchio set about remodelling the beloved villa around its central courtyard. His grandson Lorenzo extended the gardens and the shaded boschi. Marsilio Ficino, who died at the villa in 1499, was a member of the academy. Today the villa belongs to the Tuscan public administration and it is currently in a process of restoration and is closed to the public until at least 2020
19.
Jousting
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Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two horsemen wielding lances with blunted tips, often as part of a tournament. The joust became a characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism. The participants experience close to three and a quarter times their weight in G-forces when the lances collide with their armor. The term is derived from Old French joster, ultimately from Latin iuxtare to approach, the word was loaned into Middle English around 1300, when jousting was a very popular sport among the Anglo-Norman knighthood. Jousting is based on the use of the lance by heavy cavalry. It transformed into a sport during the Late Middle Ages. In England, jousting was the highlight of the Accession Day tilts of Elizabeth I and James I, Jousting was discontinued in favour of other equestrian sports in the 17th century, although non-contact forms of equestrian skill-at-arms disciplines survived. There has been a revival of theatrical jousting re-enactment since the 1970s. The medieval joust has its origins in the tactics of heavy cavalry during the High Middle Ages. From the 11th to 14th centuries when medieval jousting was still practised in connection to the use of the lance in warfare, by 1400, knights wore full suits of plate armour, called a harness. Combatants would begin riding on one another with the lance, Tournaments in the High Medieval period were much rougher and less gentlemanly affairs than in the late medieval era of chivalry. The rival parties would fight in groups, with the aim of incapacitating their adversaries for the sake of gaining their horses, with the development of the courtly ideals of chivalry in the late medieval period, the joust became more regulated. This tendency is reflected in the pas darmes in general. This romanticised chivalric revival was based on the romances of the high medieval period. The development of the term dates to this period. Before the 12th century, cniht was a term for a servant, in the 12th century, it became used of a military follower in particular. Also in the 12th century, a class of noblemen serving in cavalry developed. By the end of the 13th century, chivalry was used not just in the sense of cavalry
20.
Piazza Santa Croce
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Piazza Santa Croce is one of the main plazas or squares located in the central neighborhood of Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is located near piazza della Signoria and the National Central Library, the most notable features of the basilica are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its tombs and cenotaphs. On the opposite side to the Basilica of Santa Croce is the Palazzo Cocchi-Serristori, rebuilt in the late 15th century by Giuliano da Sangallo, in the front of the Palazzo, there is a fountain from the 19th century. On the southern side of the square is the Palazzo dellAntella, in front of the Basilica is a marble statue depicting Dante sculpted by Enrico Pazzi, named Monument to Dante. Every year in June, a field of sand is prepared for the annual Calcio Fiorentino games, the game is fairly violent, boxing and wrestling is allowed and minor injuries are frequent. In 2006 Roberto Benigni recited Dantes Divine Comedy beside the statue of Dante
21.
Athena
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Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is the goddess of wisdom, craft, and war in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Minerva is the Roman goddess identified with Athena, Athena is known for her calm temperament, as she moves slowly to anger. She is noted to have fought for just reasons. Athena is portrayed as a companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the patroness of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her city, Athens. Veneration of Athena was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes, in her role as a protector of the city, many people throughout the Greek world worshipped Athena as Athena Polias. While the city of Athens and the goddess Athena essentially bear the same name, Athena is associated with Athens, a plural name, because it was the place where she presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai, in earliest times. Mycenae was the city where the Goddess was called Mykene, at Thebes she was called Thebe, and the city again a plural, Thebae. Similarly, at Athens she was called Athena, and the city Athenae, Athena had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city. According to mythical lore, she competed with Poseidon and she won by creating the olive tree, the Athenians would accept her gift and name the city after her. In history, the citizens of Athens built a statue of Athena as a temple to the goddess, which had piercing eyes, a helmet on her head, attired with an aegis or cuirass, and an extremely long spear. It also had a shield with the head of the Gorgon on it. A large snake accompanied her and she held Nike, the goddess of victory, therefore, Mylonas believes that Athena was a Mycenaean creation. On the other hand, Nilsson claims that she was the goddess of the palace who protected the king, a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja is also found in Linear A Minoan, the final part being regarded as the Linear A Minoan equivalent of the Linear B Mycenaean di-u-ja or di-wi-ja. Divine Athena also was a weaver and the deity of crafts, whether her name is attested in Eteocretan or not will have to wait for decipherment of Linear A. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean she who knows divine things better than others. Thus for Plato her name was to be derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Plato also noted that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess whose Egyptian name was Neith, and which was identified with Athena. Neith was the war goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient Pre-Dynastic period, in addition, ancient Greek myths reported that Athena had visited many mythological places such as Libyas Triton River in North Africa and the Phlegraean plain
22.
Courtly love
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Courtly love was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and this kind of love is originally a literary fiction created for the entertainment of the nobility, but as time passed, these ideas about love changed and attracted a larger audience. In the high Middle Ages, a game of love developed around these ideas as a set of social practices, loving nobly was considered to be an enriching and improving practice. Courtly love began in the ducal and princely courts of Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne, ducal Burgundy, the term courtly love was first popularized by Gaston Paris and has since come under a wide variety of definitions and uses. Its interpretation, origins and influences continue to be a matter of critical debate, Paris said amour courtois was an idolization and ennobling discipline. Sexual satisfaction, Paris said, may not have been a goal or even end result, the term and Pariss definition were soon widely accepted and adopted. In addition, other terms and phrases associated with courtliness and love are common throughout the Middle Ages and this presents a clear problem in the understanding of courtliness. The practice of love was developed in the castle life of four regions, Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy. Eleanor of Aquitaine brought ideals of love from Aquitaine first to the court of France, then to England. Her daughter Marie, Countess of Champagne brought courtly behavior to the Count of Champagnes court, Courtly love found its expression in the lyric poems written by troubadours, such as William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, one of the first troubadour poets. The troubadours model of the lady was the wife of his employer or lord. When her husband was away on Crusade or other business she dominated the household and cultural affairs, the lady was rich and powerful and the poet gave voice to the aspirations of the courtier class, for only those who were noble could engage in courtly love. This new kind of love saw nobility not based on wealth and family history, lovers in the context of courtly love need not refer to sex, but rather the act of emotional loving. These lovers had short trysts in secret, which escalated mentally, the rules of courtly love were codified by the late 12th century in Andreas Capellanus highly influential work De Amore. De amore lists such rules as Marriage is no excuse for not loving, He who is not jealous cannot love, No one can be bound by a double love. Much of its structure and its sentiments were derived from Ovids Ars amatoria, given that practices similar to courtly love were already prevalent in Al-Andalus and elsewhere in the Islamic world, it is very likely that Islamic practices influenced the Christian Europeans. William of Aquitane, for example, was involved in the First Crusade, the notions of love for loves sake and exaltation of the beloved lady have been traced back to Arabic literature of the 9th and 10th centuries. The notion of the power of love was developed in the early 11th century by the Persian psychologist and philosopher, Ibn Sina
23.
Pazzi conspiracy
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The Pazzi conspiracy was a plot by members of the Pazzi family and others to displace the de Medici family as rulers of Renaissance Florence. On 26 April 1478 there was an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo de Medici, Lorenzo was wounded but survived, Giuliano was killed. The failure of the served to strengthen the position of the Medici. The Pazzi were banished from Florence, Francesco della Rovere, who came from a poor family in Liguria, was elected pope in 1471. As Sixtus IV he was wealthy and powerful, and at once set about giving power and wealth to his nephews of the della Rovere. The Salviati, Papal bankers in Florence, were at the centre of the conspiracy, Pope Sixtus IV was an enemy of the Medici. He had purchased from Milan the lordship of Imola, a stronghold on the border between Papal and Tuscan territory that Lorenzo de Medici wanted for Florence, the purchase was financed by the Pazzi bank, even though Francesco de Pazzi had promised Lorenzo they would not aid the Pope. As a reward, Sixtus IV assigned to the Pazzi bank lucrative rights to manage Papal revenues. Sixtus IV appointed his nephew, Girolamo Riario, as the new governor of Imola, and Francesco Salviati as archbishop of Pisa, Lorenzo had refused to permit Salviati to enter Pisa because of the challenge such an ecclesiastical position offered to his own government in Florence. Girolamo Riario, Francesco Salviati and Francesco de Pazzi put together a plan to assassinate Lorenzo, Pope Sixtus was approached for his support. He made a very carefully worded statement in which he said that in the terms of his office he was unable to sanction killing. He made it clear that it would be of benefit to the papacy to have the Medici removed from their position of power in Florence. He instructed the men to do what they deemed necessary to achieve this aim, on Sunday,26 April 1478, during High Mass at the Duomo before a crowd of 10,000, the Medici brothers were assaulted. Giuliano de Medici was stabbed 19 times by Bernardo Bandi and Francesco de Pazzi, as he bled to death on the cathedral floor, his brother Lorenzo escaped with serious, but non life-threatening wounds. Lorenzo was locked safely in the sacristy by Angelo Poliziano, a coordinated attempt to capture the Gonfaloniere and Signoria was thwarted when the archbishop and head of the Salviati clan were trapped in a room where the doors were held by a hidden latch. He was tortured, then hanged from the Palazzo della Signoria next to the corpse of Salviati. He was buried at Santa Croce, but the body was dug up and it was then dragged through the streets and propped up at the door of Palazzo Pazzi, where the rotting head was mockingly used as a door-knocker. Lorenzo did manage to save the nephew of Sixtus IV, Cardinal Raffaele Riario, the main conspirators were hunted down throughout Italy
24.
The Birth of Venus
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The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli generally thought to have been made in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as an adult woman, the painting is in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The iconography of The Birth of Venus is similar to a description of the event in a poem by Angelo Poliziano, no single text provides the precise imagery of the painting, however, which has led scholars to propose many sources and interpretations. Botticelli represented the Neoplatonic idea of love in the form of a nude Venus. Plato further argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty, so, looking at Venus, the most beautiful of goddesses, might at first raise a physical response in viewers which then lifted their minds towards the godly. A Neoplatonic reading of Botticellis Birth of Venus suggests that 15th-century viewers would have looked at the painting, in particular, both Primavera and Birth of Venus have been seen as wedding paintings that suggest appropriate behaviors for brides and grooms. Yet another interpretation of the Birth of Venus is provided here by its author, Mack sees the painting as an allegory extolling the virtues of Lorenzo de Medici. The gold-filleted Horae happily welcomed her and clothed her with heavenly raiment, but something more than a rediscovered Homeric hymn was likely in the mind of the Medici family member who commissioned this painting from Botticelli. Pliny went on to note that Apelles painting of Pankaspe as Venus was later dedicated by Augustus in the shrine of his father Caesar, pliny also stated that the lower part of the painting was damaged, and it was impossible to find anyone who could restore it. This picture decayed from age and rottenness, and Nero, substituted for it another painting by the hand of Dorotheus. Thus, in a sense, what the mighty Romans could not restore, their worthy successors, pliny also noted a second painting by Apelles of Venus superior even to his earlier one, that had been begun by artist but left unfinished. Once again, Botticelli, in his version of the Birth of Venus, might be seen as completing the task begun by his ancient predecessor, even surpassing him. Was the two-dimensionality of this painting a deliberate attempt to replicate the style of ancient painting as found on Greek vases or on the walls of Etruscan tombs. While Botticelli might well have been celebrated as a revivified Apelles, his Birth of Venus also testified to the nature of Florences chief citizen. Although it now seems that the painting was executed for another member of the Medici family, it likely was intended to celebrate and flatter its head, simonetta was, not coincidentally, born in the Ligurian seaside town of Portovenere. Accordingly, by implication, Lorenzo becomes the new Alexander the Great with an implied link to both Augustus, the first Roman emperor, and even to Florences legendary founder, Caesar himself. Lorenzo, furthermore, is not only magnificent but, as was Alexander in Plinys story, also magnanimous and these essentially pagan readings of Botticellis Birth of Venus should not exclude a more purely Christian one, which may be derived from the Neoplatonic reading of the painting indicated above. Viewed from a standpoint, the nudity of Venus suggests that of Eve before the Fall as well as the pure love of Paradise
25.
Ernst Gombrich
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Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich OM CBE FBA was an Austrian-born art historian who became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom. His father was a lawyer and former classmate of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, at the Conservatoire she was a pupil of, amongst others, Anton Bruckner. However, rather than follow a career as a concert pianist she became an assistant of Theodor Leschetizky and she also knew Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf and Johannes Brahms. Rudolf Serkin was a family friend. Adolf Busch and members of the Busch Quartet regularly met and played in the family home, throughout his life Gombrich maintained a deep love and knowledge of classical music. In 1936 he married Ilse Heller, a pupil of his mother and their only child, Richard Gombrich, went on to become a noted Indologist and scholar of Buddhism, acting as the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University in 1976–2004. During World War II, Gombrich worked for the BBC World Service, when in 1945 an upcoming announcement was prefaced by a Bruckner symphony written for Wagners death, Gombrich guessed correctly that Hitler was dead and promptly broke the news to Churchill. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1960, made CBE in 1966, knighted in 1972 and he was the recipient of numerous additional honours, including Goethe Prize 1994 and Balzan Prize in 1985 for History of Western Art. Gombrich was close to a number of Austrian émigrés who fled to the West prior to the Anschluss, among them Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and he was instrumental in bringing to publication Poppers magnum opus The Open Society and Its Enemies. Each had known the other only fleetingly in Vienna, as Gombrichs father served his law apprenticeship with Poppers father and they became lifelong friends in exile. Gombrichs first book, and the one he did not write in English, was Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser. It was very popular and translated into several languages, but was not available in English until 2005 and he did most of this translation and revision himself, and it was completed by his long-time assistant and secretary Caroline Mustill and his granddaughter Leonie Gombrich after his death. The Story of Art, first published in 1950 and currently in its 16th edition, is regarded as one of the most accessible introductions to the history of visual arts. Originally intended for adolescent readers, it has millions of copies. Other important books are Aby Warburg, An Intellectual Biography, The Sense of Order, the complete list of his publications, E. H. Gombrich, A Bibliography, was published by Joseph Burney Trapp in 2000, when Gombrich arrived in England in 1936, Art History was largely concerned with connoisseurship. Gombrich, however, had brought up in the Viennese culture of Bildung and was concerned with wider issues of cultural tradition. It was in Art and Illusion that he introduced the ideas of schemata, making and matching, correction and trial and error influenced by conjecture and refutation, the process does not start from scratch, however
26.
Ognissanti, Florence
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The chiesa di San Salvatore di Ognissanti or more simply chiesa di Ognissanti, is a Franciscan church located on the piazza of the same name in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. Founded by the lay order of the Umiliati, the church was dedicated to all the saints and martyrs and it was completed originally during the 1250s, but almost completely rebuilt around 1627 in Baroque-style by the architect Bartolomeo Pettirossi. Ognissanti was among the first examples of Baroque architecture to penetrate this Renaissance city and its two orders of pilasters enclose niches and windows with elaborate cornices. To the left of the façade is a campanile of 13th and 14th century construction, the Umiliati, by the dedication and probity of the lay brothers and sisters, gained a reputation in Florence, and dedicated works of art began to accumulate in their severely simple church. For example, Giottos celebrated Madonna and Child with angels was painted for the high altar, recent cleaning of the Crucifix in the left transept has led this work to be attributed also to Giotto. In the early 17th-century, the interior was remodeled in Baroque style, with the apse rebuilt with a pietre dure high altar, fifteenth-century frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli were preserved in the nave, Botticelli is buried in the church near his beloved Simonetta Vespucci. Botticellis fresco of St Augustine in His Study faces across the nave the chapel with Ghirlandaios St Jerome in His Study, both were executed contemporaneously in 1480. Ghirlandaio also frescoed a version of the Last Supper in the refectory, now a museum, over the door to the sacristy is a crucifix in wood by Veit Stoss. Le Strade di Firenze, Vol. II, Florence, Bonechi, Firenze e Dintorni, Touring Club of Italy,1922, republished 1964. Photos of Ognissanti Church and Last Supper Fresco The Museums of Florence - Ognissanti - Church and Last Supper of Ghirlandaio
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Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici
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Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, nicknamed the Popolano, was an Italian banker and politician, and the brother of Giovanni il Popolano. He belonged to the branch of the House of Medici of Florence. Lorenzo was born in Florence, the son of Pierfrancesco de Medici, relations between the senior Medici branch and the younger Popolani branch had been tense since the 1440s, and Pierfrancesco had tried to shield his sons from the influence of the senior branch. But Lorenzo and Giovanni were still boys when their father Pierfrancesco died in 1476, and they came under the tutelage of their older cousin, Lorenzo. Facing financial difficulties after 1478, Lorenzo il Magnifico plundered the Popolani boys inheritance with forced loans, by the time they came of age, they claimed Lorenzo il Magnifico owed them over 100,000 ducats. Nonetheless, Lorenzo il Magnifico ensured his ward obtained the best education that could be bought at the time, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco studied under notable Florentine Renaissance humanists Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano and Giorgio Antonio Vespucci. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco emerged with the reputation as a man of liberal views,1485, he commissioned an illuminated manuscript of Dantes Divine Comedy featuring artwork by Botticelli. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco is believed to have later commissioned Botticellis The Birth of Venus, in 1483, he was dispatched as the Florentine ambassador to Paris, to witness the coronation of Charles VII of France. Nonetheless, it was clear that Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco would have to any public office or political ambitions during il Magnificos rule. When Lorenzo il Magnifico died, Lorenzo and Giovanni sided against the latters son, two years later they were exiled, but returned when King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and Piero was ousted from Florence by a Republican government. The two brothers sided with the Republican party, and received the nickname Popolano, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco became one of the most outstanding figures of the new administration, and was regarded by many as the cultural heir of il Magnifico. He protected Botticelli, Michelangelo, Filippino Lippi, Bartolomeo Scala and he was overshadowed by Savonarola, but after the latters death it was rumoured he would receive the effective personal rule of the Republic, however, he refused. In 1501, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco was suspected of a plot with Cesare Borgia to favour the latter in the conquest of the city and he died in Florence in 1503
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Primavera (painting)
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Primavera, also known as Allegory of Spring, is a tempera panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli painted about 1482. It has been described as one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world, most critics agree that the painting, depicting a group of mythological figures in a garden, is allegorical for the lush growth of Spring. Other meanings have also been explored, among them, the work is sometimes cited as illustrating the ideal of Neoplatonic love. The title of La Primavera was first recorded by the art historian Giorgio Vasari who saw it at Villa Castello, just outside Florence, the history of the painting is not certainly known, though it seems to have been commissioned by one of the Medici family. It contains references to the Roman poets Ovid and Lucretius, since 1919 the painting has been part of the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The painting features six female figures and two male, along with a cupid, in an orange grove, to the right of the painting, a flower-crowned female figure stands in a floral-patterned dress scattering flowers, collected in the folds of her gown. Her nearest companion, a woman in white, is being seized by a winged male from above. His cheeks are puffed, his intent, and his unnatural complexion separates him from the rest of the figures. The trees around him blow in the direction of his entry, the drapery of her companion blows in the other direction. Next to this woman is another woman wearing a flowery designed dress that drapes over her body and she has a slight smile on her face while stepping towards the viewer and holding a grouping of flowers in her dress. The flowers on her dress and in her hand consist of pinks, reds, Two of the women wear prominent necklaces. The flying cherub has an arrow nocked to loose, directed towards the dancing girls, Central and somewhat isolated from the other figures stands a red-draped woman in blue. Like the flower-gatherer, she returns the viewers gaze, the trees behind her form a broken arch to draw the eye. Botticelli indicates there are 500 identified plant species depicted in the painting, Primavera says that of the 190 different species of flowers depicted, at least 130 have been specifically named. The overall appearance of the painting is similar to Flemish tapestries that were popular at the time and this is a tale from the fifth book of Ovids Fasti in which the wood nymph Chloriss naked charms attracted the first wind of Spring, Zephyr. Zephyr pursued her and as she was ravished, flowers sprang from her mouth and she transformed into Flora. In Ovids work the reader is told till then the earth had been, Venus presides over the garden - an orange grove. She stands in front of the leaves of a myrtle bush
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Charites
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In Greek mythology, a Charis or Grace is one of three or more minor goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility, together known as the Charites /ˈkærᵻtiːz/ or Graces. The usual list, from youngest to oldest is Aglaea, Euphrosyne, in Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the Graces. In some variants, Charis was one of the Graces and was not the form of their name. The Charites were usually considered the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, though they were said to be daughters of Dionysus and Aphrodite or of Helios. Other possible names of their mother by Zeus are Eurydome, Eurymedousa, Homer wrote that they were part of the retinue of Aphrodite. The Charites were also associated with the Greek underworld and the Eleusinian Mysteries, the river Cephissus near Delphi was sacred to them. An ancient vase painting attests the following names as five, Antheia, Eudaimonia, Paidia, Pandaisia, Pannychis - all referring to the Charites as patronesses of amusement and festivities. Moreover, they are aware that he established three as the number of the Graces, but they have no tradition of the names he gave them. The Lacedaemonians, however, say that the Graces are two, and that they were instituted by Lacedaemon, son of Taygete, who gave them the names of Cleta and Phaenna. These are appropriate names for Graces, as are given by the Athenians. It was from Eteocles of Orchomenus that we learned the custom of praying to three Graces, and Angelion and Tectaus, sons of Dionysus, who made the image of Apollo for the Delians, set three Graces in his hand. Again, at Athens, before the entrance to the Acropolis, pamphos was the first we know of to sing about the Graces, but his poetry contains no information either as to their number or about their names. Homer makes one the wife of Hephaestus, giving her the name of Charis and he also says that Sleep was a lover of Pasithea, and in the speech of Sleep there is this verse, Verily that he would give me one of the younger Graces. Hence some have suspected that Homer knew of older Graces as well, hesiod in the Theogony says that the three Graces are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, giving them the names of Aglaia, Euphrosyne and lovely Thalia. The poem of Onomacritus agrees with this account, antimachus, while giving neither the number of the Graces nor their names, says that they are daughters of Aegle and the Sun. The elegiac poet Hermesianax disagrees with his predecessors in that he makes Persuasion also one of the Graces, nonnus gives their three names as Pasithea, Peitho and Aglaia. Sostratus gives the names as Pasithea, Cale and Euphrosyne, Pasithea for Aglaia and Cale for Thalia, on the representation of the Graces, Pausanias wrote, Who it was who first represented the Graces naked, whether in sculpture or in painting, I could not discover. During the earlier period, certainly, sculptors and painters alike represented them draped
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The Death of Procris
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Its date is uncertain, and its subject has been a matter of dispute. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the matter, the painting, which shows a satyr mourning over the body of a young woman, has been one of the most popular works by Piero di Cosimo. Erwin Panofsky was mesmerized by the strange lure emanating from the picture, the story is supposed to have been adapted from Plautus rather than Ovids Metamorphoses and, in contrast to earlier treatments of the story, it ends happily. If so, the painting should be read as a warning to the newlyweds against the dangers of jealousy which brought about the death of Procris. The association with the theme of marriage is reinforced by the unusual dimensions which suggest it was intended for the front of a cassone. Fermor also finds it plausible that the painting hung in the marital chamber, the upper part of the painting bears the artists fingerprints. On the back of the panel are a card and a seal with the stemma of the Guicciardini, there is also a drawing interpreted as the frame of a pilaster. Most conspicuously, the woman is mourned by a rather than her husband. The creature is absent from Ovids story but is featured in Correggios play where it acts as the fatal meddler, another controversial figure is the dog looking at the scene. It is tempting to interpret it as Laelaps, the transparent symbol of Procriss fidelity to her jealous husband, by Ovids account, Laelaps and the Teumessian fox had been turned into stone earlier in the story, so the identity of the dog remains problematic. The river in the distance may be one of the three rivers of the Underworld, considering the alchemist background of Cosimo Rosselli, it has been suggested that the painting can be explained in terms of the pictorial language of alchemy. According to this conceit, the dog represents none other than Hermes Trismegistos, the red-and-gold veil of the victim is seen as symbolic of the red-hot philosophers stone, and the entire composition allegedly represents the alchemists longed-for victory over death
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Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
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Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Cleopatra is a tempera painting on canvas by the Italian Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo, dating from about 1480 or 1490. It is in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France and she was admired by all of Florence for her beauty, which later became a legend after her premature death in 1476 at the age of 23. Sandro Botticelli was inspired by her features in The Birth of Venus, the subject is a young girl portrayed at half length in profile, facing left. Her breasts are bared and a small snake twines around the necklace she is wearing, in the background is an open landscape, arid on the left and lush on the right. The dark clouds are a symbol of her death, as is the dead tree in the background. The dark clouds contrast with the profile of the face. It is traditionally identified as a portrait of Simonetta, giorgio Vasari regarded her as portraying Cleopatra, because of the toplessness and the snake, which he identified with the asp with which, according to Plutarch, Cleopatra committed suicide. The inscription refers to Simonetta as Januensis, the snake was also the symbol of Prudentia, in that interpretation, it would be praise for Simonettas wisdom. An alternative suggestion is that she is presented as Proserpina, with the snake symbolizing the hope of resurrection. The bust, in 15th-century style, is turned towards the spectator, so as to favour the view. According to Schneider, her breasts would not have caused any offense to contemporary viewers. They were rather an allusion to Venus pudica, or the chaste Venus and her features have a surprising purity. The forehead is high, according to the fashion of the time included a shaved hairline. The hairstyle is that of a woman, gathered up in braids and richly decorated with ribbons, beads. It is uncertain how closely the painting resembles Simonetta Vespucci, particularly if it is a portrait of her, it is posthumous. When she died, Piero di Cosimo was only 14 years old, media related to Simonetta Vespucci portrait by Piero di Cosimo at Wikimedia Commons Official website of Musée Condé
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Cleopatra
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Cleopatra VII Philopator, known to history simply as Cleopatra, was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, briefly survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. After her reign, Egypt became a province of the recently established Roman Empire, Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family of Macedonian origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Greats death during the Hellenistic period. By contrast, Cleopatra did learn to speak Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis, as queen, she consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. She later elevated Caesarion, her son with Caesar, to co-ruler in name, after Caesars assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony in opposition to Caesars legal heir Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. With Antony, she bore the twins Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, Antony committed suicide after losing the Battle of Actium to Octavians forces, and Cleopatra followed suit. According to tradition, she killed herself by means of an asp bite on August 12,30 BC and she was outlived by Caesarion, who was declared pharaoh by his supporters, but he was soon killed on Octavians orders. Egypt then became the Roman province of Aegyptus, Cleopatras father Auletes was a direct descendant of Alexander the Greats general Ptolemy I Soter, son of Arsinoe and Lagus, both of Macedon. Centralization of power and corruption led to uprisings in and the losses of Cyprus and Cyrenaica, Ptolemy went to Rome with Cleopatra, Cleopatra VI Tryphaena seized the crown but died shortly afterwards in suspicious circumstances. It is believed that Berenice IV poisoned her so that she could assume sole rulership, regardless of the cause, she ruled until Ptolemy Auletes returned in 55 BC with Roman support, capturing Alexandria aided by Roman general Aulus Gabinius. Berenice was imprisoned and executed afterwards, her head allegedly being sent to the royal court on the decree of her father. Cleopatra now became joint regent and deputy to her father at age 14, Ptolemy XII died in March 51 BC. His will made 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII joint monarchs, the first three years of their reign were difficult due to economic failures, famine, deficient floods of the Nile, and political conflicts. Cleopatra was married to her brother, but she quickly made it clear that she had no intention of sharing power with him. In August 51 BC, relations broke down between Cleopatra and Ptolemy. Cleopatra dropped Ptolemys name from official documents and her face appeared on coins. The Gabiniani killed the sons of the Roman governor of Syria Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus when they came to ask the Gabiniani to assist their father against the Parthians, Cleopatra handed the murderers over to Bibulus in chains, whereupon the Gabiniani became bitter enemies of the queen. This conflict was one of the causes of Cleopatras fall from power shortly afterward. The sole reign of Cleopatra was finally ended by a cabal of courtiers led by the eunuch Pothinus, in connection with half-Greek general Achillas, circa 48 BC, Cleopatras younger brother Ptolemy XIII became sole ruler
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Asp (reptile)
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Asp is the modern Anglicisation of the word aspis, which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region. It is believed that aspis referred in Egyptian mythology to what is now known as the Egyptian cobra, throughout dynastic and Roman Egypt, the asp was a symbol of royalty. Moreover, in both Egypt and Greece, its potent venom made it useful as a means of execution for criminals who were deserving of a more dignified death than that of typical executions. In some stories of Perseus, after killing Medusa, the hero used winged boots to transport her head to Mount Olympus, as he was flying over Egypt some of her blood fell to the ground, which transformed into asps and amphisbaenae. The asp is perhaps most famous for its role in Cleopatras suicide after Mark Antony killed himself by falling on his sword due to a false report of Cleopatra killing herself. —Cleopatra, Act V, scene II Antony and Cleopatra Othello also famously compares his hatred for Desdemona as being full of aspics tongues in Shakespeares play Othello
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
