Although the city of Florence lacked a cardinal for most of the fifteenth century, the city was not lacking in cardinal portraits during the same period. This paper examines two different portraits by Florentines of cardinals in the Quattrocento. In a visual portrait from the first half of the century, the painter Bicci di Lorenzo depicted the consecration of the Florentine church Sant'Egidio by pope Martin V. Within the fresco Bicci surrounded the pope with cardinals, whom Vasari claimed were painted from life. Several decades later, the Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci wrote over a dozen short biographies of cardinals, many of whom he had known personally through his bookshop. This paper will compare these visual and literary portraits of cardinals across these two works. It will also examine the social and political contexts into which both the visual and literary depictions fit. Author

The Canterbury Roll is a fifteenth-century genealogical chronicle roll that traces the succession of English kings from Noah until the Wars of the Roses. Created in a period when genealogy and ancestry had practical and ideological meaning in society, the Canterbury Roll is symbolic of the ideas of dynasty, myth and heritage that its original creators and readers valued. This thesis departs from previous historiographical approaches to genealogical rolls by treating the Canterbury Roll as a document that reflects the political culture in which it was produced. By examining the image, text and materiality of the manuscript, the thesis develops on existing scholarship and offers insights into the depiction of political prophecies, political theories of effective kingship, the justification of royal deposition and English perceptions towards foreign kingdoms and dominions. Political prophecies on the roll reveal how genealogy and prophecy contribute to a broader sense of history and prestige that the Lancastrian kings claimed to inherit. By using mythical royal depositions, the roll justifies the removal of Richard II and the Lancastrian dynasty’s legitimacy through not only hereditary right, but also contemporary political theory that validated the ousting of ineffective kings. The thesis also establishes that the roll reveals contemporary English attitudes towards other territories such as Scotland, Wales and France, which reflect the political and diplomatic context of the period. These themes demonstrate the capacity of genealogical manuscripts to present a nuanced view of contemporary political concepts. In doing so, this thesis both provides an in-depth textual analysis of the Canterbury Roll, and contributes to the historiography of medieval genealogical literature and political thought by approaching the manuscript as a source for the political culture of early fifteenth-century England.

This thesis examines four European portrait prints of Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, dated 1470 to 1493. At the center of this study is a formal and iconographical analysis that indicated all are rooted in traditional artistic conventions of both Western princely portraiture and stereotypical imagery of evil doers. Part of a feverish textual and visual discourse that was the result of great fear for the Ottoman aggression, they all adhere to a conventionalized type for the Eastern despot. The portraits employ to varying degrees a general pictorial language of evil, based on medieval folk imagery, that employed sartorial and physical signifiers used for a wide range of social groups that were not accepted by Christian society. The result is four images that share certain characteristics, most notably an iconic hat, but differ considerably in others to bring across diverging messages about the sultan's ambiguous public identity.

Florence in the Early Modern World offers new perspectives on this important city by exploring the broader global context of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, within which the experience of Florence remains unique. By exploring the city’s relationship to its close and distant neighbours, this collection of interdisciplinary essays reveals the transnational history of Florence. The chapters orient the lenses of the most recent historiographical turns perfected in studies on Venice, Rome, Bologna, Naples, and elsewhere towards Florence. New techniques, such as digital mapping, alongside new comparisons of architectural theory and merchants in Eurasia, provide the latest perspectives about Florence’s cultural and political importance before, during, and after the Renaissance. From Florentine merchants in Egypt and India, through actual and idealized military ambitions in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, to Tuscan humanists in late medieval England, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume reveal the connections Florence held to early modern cities across the globe. This book steers away from the historical narrative of an insular Renaissance Europe and instead identifies the significance of other global influences. By using Florence as a case study to trace these connections, this volume of essays provides essential reading for students and scholars of early modern cities and the Renaissance. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1212/thumbnail.jpg

The “Commentaries” of Pope Pius II (1458–1464) and the Crisis of the Fifteenth-Century Papacy. Emily O’Brien. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. xiv + 336 pp. $65.

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Neste trabalho nos propomos analisar a concessão de perdão para os crimes contra a pessoa e sua honra durante o reinado de D. João II [1481-1495]. Para tanto inferimos que, muito embora fosse uma prerrogativa do rei, uma atribuição que evidenciava a pretensão do poder régio em tutelar outros poderes que exerciam competência judicial, este ato gracioso implicava, fundamentalmente, numa negociação entre o monarca e seus súditos. Essa negociação envolvia obrigações e reciprocidades, que encerravam o rei e os três estamentos da sociedade numa complexa relação de subordinação e dependência. Desta forma, procuraremos evidenciar que o exercício da justiça e da misericórdia contribuiu para reforçar a imagem de D. João II como promotor da justiça e do bem-comum e mantenedor da ordem no corpo social. Assim, punição e perdão, justiça e misericórdia, serão trabalhados como aspectos complementares no processo de legitimação e fortalecimento do poder real, expresso de maneira muito peculiar na divisa adotada pelo Príncipe Perfeito: polla ley polla grey. / In this work we propose the analysis on the concession of pardon for the crimes against the person and his honor throughout the reign of John II [1481 1495]. We consider that though this concession was a kings attribute, an attempt of the royal power to regulate the other powers that had judicial competence, this gracious act implied, fundamentally, in a negotiation between the monarch and his subjects. Such negotiation involved obligation and reciprocity that placed the king and the three states of this society in a complex relation of subordination and dependence. Therefore we will attempt to show that the exercise of justice and mercy contributed to strengthen the image of John II as a supporter of justice and the common good as well as the maintainer of order in the social body. Hence punishment and forgiveness, justice and mercy will be worked as complementary aspects in the process of legitimacy and fortification of the royal power, expressed in a very peculiar way in the motto adopted by the Perfect Prince: polla ley polla grey.

Excerpt: In late October 1465 the Florentine patricin Giannozzo Pandolfini died, leaving behind a wife and five learned sons

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