This study is an art history of Santa Maria dei Carmini, Venice, from its foundation in c. 1286 to the present day, with a special focus on the late Renaissance period (c. 1500-1560). It explores a relatively overlooked corner of Renaissance Venice and provides an opportunity to study the Carmelite Order's relationship to art. It seeks to answer outstanding questions of attribution, dating, patronage, architectural arrangements and locations of works of art in the church. Additionally it has attempted to have a diverse approach to problems of interpretation and has examined the visual imagery's relationship to the Carmelite liturgy, religious function and later interpretations of art works. Santa Maria dei Carmini was amongst the largest basilicas in Venice when it was completed and the Carmelites were a major international order with a strong literary tradition. Their church in Venice contained a wealth of art works produced by one of the most restlessly inventive generations in the Western European tradition. Chapter 1 outlines a history of the Carmelites, their hagiography and devotions, which inform much of the discussion in later chapters. The second Chapter discusses the early history of the Carmelite church in Venice, establishing when it was founded, and examining the decorative aspects before 1500. It demonstrates how the tramezzo and choir-stalls compartmentalised the nave and how these different spaces within the church were used. Chapter 3 studies two commissions for the decoration of the tramezzo, that span the central period of this thesis, c. 1500-1560. There it is shown that subjects relevant to the Carmelite Order, and the expected public on different sides of the tramezzo were chosen and reinterpreted over time as devotions changed. Cima da Conegliano's Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1511) is discussed in Chapter 4, where the dedication of the altar is definitively proven and the respective liturgy is expanded upon. The tradition of votive images is shown to have influenced Cima's representation of the donor. In Chapter 5 Cima's altarpiece for the Scuola di Sant'Alberto's altar is shown to have been replaced because of the increasing ambiguity over the identification of the titulus after the introduction of new Carmelite saints at the beginning of the century. Its compositional relationship to the vesperbild tradition is also examined and shown to assist the faithful in important aspects of religious faith. The sixth chapter examines the composition of Lorenzo Lotto's St Nicholas in Glory (1527-29) and how it dramatises the relationship between the devoted, the interceding saints and heaven. It further hypothesises that the inclusion of St Lucy is a corroboration of the roles performed by St Nicholas and related to the confraternity's annual celebrations in December. The authorship, date and iconography of Tintoretto's Presentation of Christ (c. 1545) is analysed in Chapter 7, which also demonstrates how the altarpiece responds to the particular liturgical circumstances on the feast of Candlemas. The final chapter discusses the church as a whole, providing the first narrative of the movement of altars and development of the decorative schemes. The Conclusion highlights the important themes that have developed from this study and provides a verdict on the role of ‘Carmelite art' in the Venice Carmini.

Jusqu’en 1481, Marseille fait partie d’un Etat indépendant, le comté de Provence et en est la plus grande ville sans en être toutefois la capitale. Or, en 1481, le dernier comte de Provence meurt sans héritier et il lègue l’ensemble de ses territoires au roi de France, Louis XI. Cependant, en Provence, les structures et pratiques politiques sont différentes du royaume de France, et Marseille appartient à un espace politico-culturel méditerranéen où la vie politique des villes est marquée par le modèle de la commune, également présent en Italie du nord et du centre. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’observer le passage d’un espace politico-culturel marqué par l’héritage des comtes de Provence et des cadres politiques de la commune à un espace politico-culturel dominé par le roi de France, où la relation entre le souverain et les villes s’inscrit dans le cadre de la « bonne ville ». Pour mener à bien ce travail, nous avons choisi de nous intéresser au conseil de ville, qui est la pièce maîtresse du pouvoir municipal, et à ses membres, afin d’observer les mutations introduites par ce transfert de souveraineté. Nous avons décidé de voir ces mutations en ce qui concerne la culture et l’identité du groupe dirigeant de la ville afin de s'inscrire dans une histoire culturelle du pouvoir municipal. Toute ville peut se définir comme un système politique où différents pouvoirs coexistent et se réajustent en permanence les uns par rapport aux autres au gré des événements et des changements qui peuvent surgir. La première partie examine les réajustements aux XIVe et XVe siècles à Marseille, qui permettent au pouvoir municipal de devenir dominant à Marseille face aux autres pouvoirs sous le règne de René Ier d’Anjou (1434-1480). La deuxième partie étudie les hommes à le tête du conseil de ville, les fondements de leur pouvoir et leurs modifications autour du rattachement de 1481. Enfin, la dernière partie examine les changements de culture et d’identité du groupe introduits par le transfert de souveraineté et les nouvelles ambitions en Méditerranée du groupe dirigeant, qui jettent les bases d’une véritable thalassocratie qui s’épanouira au XVIIe siècle. / Until 1481, Marseilles is a part of an independant state, the county of Provence and it’s the biggest city, even if it’s not the capital. But, in 1481, the last count of Provence died without a son and he gives in his testament all his goods and territories to the king of France Louis XI. After that, Marseilles, like the rest of the former county is integrated in the French royal domain. But, in Provence the cultural and political structures and practices are different from the kingdom of France, and Marseilles belongs to a politico-cultural space where the political life is influenced by the model of “commune”, we can also see in the north of Italy. My aim in this thesis is to study the mobility between a politico-cultural space influences by the counts of Provence and the political structures and culture of the “commune” to a politico-cultural space dominated by the king of France thanks to a structure called “bonne ville”. I decided to study the council of the city which is the main structure of the municipal power and the leaders who are in this council in order to see the modifications after 1481 about the culture and the identity of this ruling class. I propose with this thesis an essay of cultural history of the municipal power. Each city is a political system, where different powers coexist. Those powers move and fix themselves towards the other ones. In the 1st part, I study how the municipal power becomes the most important one in Marseilles during the reign of René the 1st of Anjou. Then, in the second part, I study the leaders of the council, the foundations of their power and the modifications after 1481. Finally, in the 3rd part, I study the new ambitions of the leaders of Marseilles which lead in the 17th century to build a real thalassocracy in the Mediterranean world. / Fino al 1481, Marsiglia è la città più grande della contea di Provenza, uno stato indipendente, pur senza esserne la capitale. In quell’anno, l'ultimo conte di Provenza muore senza eredi e dona la sua contea al re di Francia, Luigi XI. Le strutture e le pratiche politiche della Provenza sono però molto diverse rispetto a quelle del regno di Francia: Marsiglia fa parte di uno spazio politico-culturale del Mediterraneo, dove la vita politica urbana è segnata da un modello comunale del tutto simile a quello che si riscontra nelle città dell'Italia centro-settentrionale. L’obiettivo di questa tesi è di studiare il passaggio di questo spazio politico-culturale, segnato dall’eredità angioina e da un governo di tipo comunale, a quello dominato dal re di Francia, nel quale la relazione tra il sovrano e le città è costruita attorno al modello della "bonne ville". Per studiare questo tema, si è scelto di concentrarsi sul consiglio della città di Marsiglia, l'istituzione simbolo del potere municipale, e sugli uomini che lo componevano, al fine di apprezzare le mutazioni dovute al cambiamento di sovranità avvenute al suo interno. L’intento è di analizzare i cambiamenti legati alla cultura e all’identità della classe dirigente, nell’ottica di una storia culturale del potere municipale. Tutte le città possono definirsi come un sistema politico all’interno del quale si trovano a coesistere diversi poteri, che si relazionano fra loro in base agli avvenimenti e ai cambiamenti interni ed esterni alla città stessa. La prima parte della tesi si concentra sul processo mediante il quale il potere municipale ha preso il sopravvento a Marsiglia sotto il regno di Renato I (1434-1480). Nella seconda, invece, si analizzano gli uomini che formano il consiglio della città, l’origine del loro potere e le mutazioni che avvengono dopo il 1481. Infine, l’ultima parte ha per oggetto le trasformazioni nell’identità e nella cultura del gruppo dirigente cittadino in seguito al cambiamento di sovranità, evento che getterà le basi della talassocrazia marsigliese del XVII secolo.

La SLUB di Dresda riflette nella sua collezione italiana di manoscritti e antiche stampe non solo l’eclettismo dei gusti dei bibliofili sassoni o le diverse fortune dei loro agenti in Italia, ma la varietà dell’offerta culturale italiana, riflessa in modelli linguistici diversi per ragioni geografiche, sociali o anche solo diafasiche. Il giovane Cristiano I fu educato all’italiano probabilmente su due grammatiche in contrasto fra loro per motivi ideologici, una italianista, l’altra toscanista, come mostra il confronto delle loro marche d’uso. Allo straniero italofilo era richiesta una paziente tolleranza della variabilità, alimentata da accese questioni della lingua e da un polimorfismo ineliminabile in un paese da sempre poli-centrico e conflittuale.