Report on Three Italian Elites Symposia
Genoa and Venice: Two Renaissance Maritime Powers (22 Feb 2002)
Courts, Elites, and Technology in Renaissance Italy (10 May 2002)
Wealth and Power in the Renaissance (31 May 2002)
Three one-day symposia symposia organised by the Italian Elites Project,
with the funding of the AHRB and University of Warwick, have been
held at Warwick over the past few months. The first of these was
organised by Dr Christine Shaw. Held on 22 February 2002, it took as its
theme, ‘Genoa and Venice: Two Renaissance Maritime Powers’. In the
morning, Dr Shaw (Warwick) discussed the political situation in
fifteenth-century Genoa, describing the absence of apparent political
conflict in Genoese government, and suggesting that institutional
arrangements guaranteed this stability. In the morning’s second paper, Dr.
Luca Molà (Warwick) made a comparative analysis of Genoese and
Venetian commercial practice, indicating that Venice’s strength as a
centre of production and consumption lay in the strongly centralising
forces of government policies, forces that were largely absent in Genoa.
Discussion over lunch in part considered these diverging positions.
The two afternoon sessions addressed different aspects of church
history. Dr Stella Fletcher discussed the patterns of patronage in
Episcopal elections in Venice and Genoa, revealing how Venetian
patrician families controlled the valuable bishoprics of their dominions,
and showing that no such control was exerted in Genoa, where
dramatically lower incomes were to be had from bishoprics. The final
paper was given by Dr Ingonda Hanneschlaeger (University of
Salzburg/Biblioteca Hertziana) and described the remarkably wellpreserved Dominican Convent of Taggia in Liguria. Dr Hanneschlaeger
showed how Observant rules shaped the architecture of the building and
how continuity in altar-piece production was achieved through the
repeated patronage of the Brea workshop.
The second symposium, organised by Dr. Luca Molà, took place
on 10 May, and was entitled ‘Courts, Elites, and Technology in
Renaissance Italy’. The symposium was jointly organised with the
AHRB Material Renaissance Research Project of the University of
Sussex, of which a short presentation was given at the beginning of the
day by Dr Rupert Shepherd. The first paper, by Dr Evelyn Welch
(University of Sussex) dealt with the interesting figure of the Bolognese
engineer and architect, Aristotile Fioravanti, and the manner in which his
career fortunes were largely fashioned on his occasional pass-time of
tower-shifting. Dr Suzanne Butters (University of Manchester) then
illustrated the musicological themes that inspired the Medicean gardens
of Pratolino, showing also the mechanical underpinnings for a number of
the technological Omeraviglie.
After lunch, Dr Mary Hollingsworth discussed the production and
costing of metal goods listed in the accounts of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este,
drawing a clear distinction between household consumption patterns and
Ippolito’s patronage of Cellini, employed in making a series gifts for
King François I. Professor Guido Guerzoni (Università Bocconi, Milan)
then gave a presentation of the fascinating data he has collected from the
account volumes of the Este court at Ferrara, showing the court’s active
support of manufacturing industries and the incentives that were provided
for technological innovations, and directly assisted through investment
(e.g., wool and silk, mineral extraction, fish farming and preserving etc.).
The stimulating day came to a close with a final paper by Dr Flora Dennis
(Research Fellow, the AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic
Interior).1 Dr Dennis’s paper assessed the role of ducal patronage and
control in the printing industry in Ferrara, with special reference to
printed music as a means of transmitting of Este prestige. Concluding
remarks by Professor Julian Gardner (Director of the Italian Elites
Project) and Dr Luca Molà expressed the hope that further collaboration
will be possible between Warwick and the Material Renaissance
Research Project.
The third symposium was organised by Professor Michael Mallett
(Emeritus Professor of History and founder of the Italian Elites Project).
This took place on 31 May, and was entitled ‘Wealth and Power in the
Renaissance’. Proceedings were opened with a paper by Professor
Robert Knecht (Emeritus, University of Birmingham), in which a
comparison was made between the nature of nobility, and its relationship
to the monarchy, in England and France during the sixteenth-century.
Professor Knecht challenged the idea that the nobility was in decline
during the period. Dr Francesco Guidi Bruscoli (Queen Mary, University
of London) then presented work-in-progress from a research project that
is examining extant banking ledgers of the 1430s from the London and
Bruges branches of the Milanese banker Filippo Borromeo. The morning
ended with a paper given by Dr Tom Scott (University of Liverpool) in
which he outlined the close correlation between political and mercantile
power in the city of Cologne during the fifteenth-century, after which
time the locally-based urban economy gave way to mercantilism.
After lunch, discussion was focused on Italy. Dr Tony Antonovics
(University of Bristol) highlighted the role of Genoese bankers in Rome,
1
The AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior is a collaborative
undertaking by the Royal College of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the
Bedford Centre for the History of Women at Royal Holloway College, University of
London.
and identified the importance of the pontificates of the Ligurian popes
Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII in the fortunes of the Genoese. Professor
Marcello Simonetta (Wesleyan University, USA) traced out the political
intrigues in Milan during the Regency of Bianca of Savoy, revealing
Cicco Simonetta’s astute exploitation of the nobles’ antipathy for the
Sforza, his political theory, and his eventual demise in 1480. Finally, Dr
Jonathan Davies (University of Warwick) analysed the membership of
the Florentine banking guild, showing the role of the Medici family
within the guild, and revealing the importance of considering the guild
élites as a possible locus of power and influence in fifteenth-century
Florence.
Fabrizio Nevola
University of Warwick