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This dissertation analyzes the dates and artistic provenance of key architectural and decorative projects commissioned by the Pucci family for their townhomes, villas, and palaces during the Renaissance. It identifies the family’s insistent identification with prestigious Renaissance architects and artisans as a key element in a political and social stratagem that took its cue from the humanist ethos cultivated by their political patrons, the Medici. Temporally, this study is bracketed on both ends of the Renaissance by architectural commissions related to the Pucci’s long-standing patronage of Santissima Annunziata, the most important pilgrimage church in Florence. Methodoligically, it is an archival project that relies principally on previously unknown letters, wills, payment records, inventories, and notarial documents.

Pa., Univ., Diss.--Pittsburgh.

This thesis offers a fresh study of the sources on the history of the city of Jerusalem in the period between the reigns of the Roman emperors Theodosius the Great and Justinian I. In the Holy Land, this period roughly coincides with the arrival of St Jerome in 385 and the completion of Jerusalem's last major church building before the Persian and Muslim conquests, the Nea church, dedicated in 543. One of the main aims of this thesis is to investigate the role of imperial patronage in the city and contrast it with the growing influence of local actors, i.e. bishops, monks, and rich pilgrims who settled there. My reading of the sources makes clear that Jerusalem and the imperial court were more closely connected than previously assumed. This manifested itself not only in imperial building projects, but also in the exchange of theological concepts and ideas. One of my key findings about this traffic is that the cult of saints was introduced to Jerusalem from Constantinople, while, in contrast, the veneration of the Virgin Mary originated in the holy city and reached the capital from there. The thesis offers a new interpretation of patriarchal politics in the times of the Christological controversies following the Council of Chalcedon (451) and of the political self-perception of Jerusalem from the beginning of the sixth century onwards, when the city with its loca sancta entered into a new form of relationship with the emperor Justinian, who bestowed his favour on Jerusalem in the form of imperial donations in return for the support of his ecclesiastical policies by the clergy and monks of Jerusalem.

This thesis details the rise to power of one of the great families of late sixteenth-century France, the Gondi. Antoine de Gondi, the last of fifteen children, left his native Florence to settle permanently in France in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Like many other Italian immigrants of his time, he established himself in Lyon as a merchant and banker. He later bought the Seigneurie du Perron, and married a woman of Piedmontese origin, Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive. Catherine de’ Medici met the couple and soon after invited them to court, giving them positions in the royal households. Antoine’s children, most notably Albert and Pierre, distinguished themselves at court, and not long afterwards were awarded the highest offices of state and church. Albert became Marshal of France in 1573, and Pierre became Bishop of Paris in 1570. At the same time, they proved themselves indispensable servants to the monarchy, and served the crown diplomatically, politically and financially, both in France and on foreign missions. Both brothers had large Parisian real estate holdings, both inside and outside the city centre. The essential role of the Gondi women in family strategy is also analysed. Albert and Pierre’s sister, Jeanne, became Prioress at the royal Priory of Saint-Louis de Poissy. The cousins of Albert and Pierre, Jean-Baptiste and Jérôme Gondi, stayed closely connected to the world of international banking and, together with other bankers, facilitated loans to the increasingly insolvent crown. The Gondi were often targets of anti-Italian hostility from various segments of French society, and contemporary perceptions of the Gondi family are examined. This study shows the family’s deployment of and reliance on close kin to expand their web of influence throughout France and abroad. This dissertation details the many mechanisms employed by the Gondi family to consolidate and expand their influence during the tumultuous French wars of religion.

This thesis consists of four independent chapters each of which addresses the relationship between clientelism and social policy in relation to welfare state development from different perspectives. The overarching research question examines whether the adoption of such policies leads to de-clientelisation, and, if so, to what extent. The research extensively draws upon both cross-national data and that from Thailand between 2000-2012 during which populist welfare policies have gained significant influence on political development. Chapter 1 employs a global dataset of developing countries to offer a comparative perspective on the subject and shows that political parties generally trade-off between social policy and their engagement in clientelism. The latter three chapters take Thailand as a case study empirically investigate clientelist mechanisms at different geographic levels. Focusing on the household level, Chapter 2 evaluates the role of patron-client relations in determining access to the Thailand Village Fund based on the Socio-Economic Household Surveys. The provincial level is examined in Chapter 3 which studies economic and political determinants of two types of provincial-level distributive transfers: social policy spending and discretionary spending. Chapter 4 examines the clientelist mechanism at the national level through an assessment of the electoral linkage dynamics by measuring changes in personal votes. The findings show some degree of resilience of clientelist relations as they intervene with social policy allocation, particularly at local level. The global trend contrasts with the case of Thailand where, as in-depth analyses of the latter three chapters have shown, clientelist relations often persist and convert into a new form, for example the southern model of welfare regimes.