Sibyl cycles in Northern and Central Italy, in the Early Renaissance. Previous published scholarship listed twenty-two sites. I now know of forty. Twenty-three of these may be considered Early Renaissance works of art and are the subject of this study. This study is not primarily engaged with history of Art but with the history of Ideas. That is, it is not a study of the painters. their methods and status but rather with the study of the development of the genre. its textual sources, the content of the inscribed oracles. the development of the pictorial conventions and symbolism. the transmission of these and the cultural significance of the genre. The dissertation is concerned with artistic styles and techniques only in so far as they illuminate the pictorial origin of the works and their iconographic significance in terms of the ideas conveyed. It describes and defines regional sub-genres. each with clear rules and conventions. These have not previously been identified and no comprehensive national conspectus exists. Structure of the Dissertation The dissertation is in three parts. The first part addresses the nature and origin of Sibyls (who and what they were) and their significance in cultural history until the Renaissance. Part Two is concerned with the origins and transmission of text and iconographic conventions in the Renaissance Sibyl cyeles. Pari three is a catalogue and survey of each Sibyl cycle site in Central and Northern Italy, along with a comprehensive photographic record. Great destruction of some cycles has taken place since the 1960s and the compilation of a complete photographic record is urgent and a significant aim of the present work. There are few published coloured photographs of the full cycles. none complete except for Siena. This dissertation is wide in scope and is in large part a catalogue and survey of all known Italian Sibyl cycles. Because of the limitations of a Doctoral dissertation. at times the transition from one site to another may appear abrupt and disjunct. Nonetheless, the structure is logical and careful. Sites are arranged chronologically, according to genre. The reader is directed to the detailed table of contents, if a review of structure and order be required. Research Method The method of research was to form a comprehensive list of Sibyl sites in Italy by consulting published English and Continental books. journals and locally produced historical papers as well as word of mouth advice in Italy. I visited all the sites and made a photographic record. Origin and transmission of text was established by consulting contemporary manuscripts that either specify the oracle text or describe the original Orsini. and other, frescos. These manuscripts are widely scattered in Europe and difficult of access so, where possible, a significant example of each kind of manuscript is reproduced in photographs or photocopy, transcribed and translated in the Appendices to the dissertation.

Venice has dominated the study of Ottoman-Italian cultural exchange in the Renaissance period, both in publications and, more recently, exhibitions. However, Venice did not have the monopoly in terms of relations with the Ottomans. This thesis looks further afield than Venice and beyond Gentile Bellini’s 1479-81 sojourn in Istanbul, arguably the best-known instance of such intercultural exchange, to reveal the complexity and diversity of Ottoman-Italian contacts and its varied cultural repercussions. This thesis considers the period 1453-1512 covering the reigns of Mehmed II and Bayezid II. It is not a study of cultural exchange through the trade of luxury goods, but instead focuses on the consequences of specific encounters that are mostly diplomatic. These encounters are explored in four case studies: Rimini, Venice, the Papal States and Mantua. Preferring microhistory to large historical generalisations, the scale of investigation in each section is limited to a particular moment of interaction between that region and the Ottoman Empire, and focuses on the individuals involved. Events are considered from both the Italian and Ottoman perspectives in order to reach a more rounded understanding of this complex meeting of cultures. It looks beyond painted and medallic portraits and demonstrates that Ottoman-Italian interaction can be perceived across a range of media. The marks left on Italian visual culture by relations with the Ottomans are revealed to have been as varied as each individual state’s experience. Comparison of each state’s connections with the Ottomans reveals significant differences in their dealings but also highlights certain common aspects such as the role of individuals as channels of exchange, the categories of objects which travelled across Europe and the manner in which cultural and technological exchange were often entwined. By bringing together three other city-states apart from Venice in a single narrative, this thesis provides a more nuanced account of the rich and varied forms of cultural exchange that have long been overshadowed by Bellini’s portrait.

This thesis explores a number of interdisciplinary writings on the Italian past by later nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artistically minded critics and cultural commentators, with a view to recovering their historiographical importance. Beginning with an exploration of the parameters and scope of a genre defined as 'aesthetic history', along with some theoretical work grounded in current debates about the nature of historical representation, this thesis goes on to offer in-depth discussion of texts on the Italian past by John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Vernon Lee, Henry James, D. H. Lawrence and Adrian Stokes. By offering a critical reconstruction of each author's thinking about the past, along with the cogent and ill-explored engagements they make with historiographical study, this thesis affords the reader a better understanding of some of the tensions present in historical writing - tensions surrounding issues of epistemology, visuality, psychology and materiality - during what were decades of great change in historical thinking. Moreover, this thesis offers a detailed investigation into the important role played by the Italian past in the aesthetic-historical canon, which in turn produces a more complicated picture of the connections between literature, aesthetics and historiography during this period.

This dissertation investigates the effects of Revolutionary (1797) and Napoleonic (1806-14) rule on the artistic patrimony of the city of Venice. Its aim is to explore just how far-reaching the spoliation of Venetian buildings was during the short lived Provisional Municipality, as well as in the wake of the suppressions and closures of parish churches, convents, monasteries, and confraternities during the eight years that Venice was part of the Italian Kingdom. Dealing with a vast amount of hitherto unpublished evidence, the dissertation sheds light on the motivations for, and the logistics of, the appropriation, transfer, and disposal of artworks and liturgical furnishings. It investigates the various government bodies involved, and their hierarchies and responsibilities, while a number of case studies detail how the suppressions themselves were carried out, and how the buildings and their contents were treated and affected in their aftermath. The two distinct periods in the history of Venice saw great differences in approaches to artistic patrimony: in 1797, a limited number of artworks had been allocated to France in a peace treaty, while, later on, the sheer quantities of objects made it close to impossible to achieve a systematic method. Using archival materials such as official correspondence, and inventories and valuations drawn up by government delegates, alongside published eighteenth- and nineteenth-century guidebooks of Venice, the thesis provides a detailed account of the effects of Revolutionary and Napoleonic rule on the city’s artistic heritage. In order to do so, it is divided into four chapters. The first two are more general in scope, the first tracing the events of 1797, and the activity of the Committee of Public Instruction and Commission Temporaire des Arts during this time, the second exploring the Demanio administration of state property, and the roles of delegates Pietro Edwards and Giuseppe Baldassini, as well as private sales and auctions, and the removal and transportation of objects from suppressed institutions. Case studies of two diocesan churches, Santa Marina and San Nicolò di Castello, and two monastic foundations, Santa Maria dei Frari and Santa Maria dei Servi, as well as eight scuole grandi follow. Venetian buildings and their patrimony have not yet been studied as much in detail for the period in question as this dissertation endeavours to do. These microcosmic studies will contribute greatly to the understanding of the effects of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France on the artistic patrimony of Europe.