Festival, Spectacle and Plays in Renaissance Florence. Wherever public money and community effort are expended on festive display, religious devotion, or promoting national prestige through performance, questions arise about how such expense can be justified, and how the community measures its success. This project examines those questions in relation to Renaissance Florence which provided many of the models for early modern European festivals. It will analyse some of the ways in which the commu ....Festival, Spectacle and Plays in Renaissance Florence. Wherever public money and community effort are expended on festive display, religious devotion, or promoting national prestige through performance, questions arise about how such expense can be justified, and how the community measures its success. This project examines those questions in relation to Renaissance Florence which provided many of the models for early modern European festivals. It will analyse some of the ways in which the community and its individual members contributed to and reaped the benefit of participation in public performance and devotion. It will also provide cautionary examples of the abuse of such modes of performance by corrupt regimes.Read moreRead less
Rome and its histories 1750-2000: an iconic city's past and its importance to the present. This study explores the many ways in which the past in Rome, the 'eternal city', has been debated and portrayed by historians but also by groups as diverse as Catholics, city planners, archaeologists and tourists. The outcome will be a novel account from which we can draw lessons regarding the multiple uses of history to better understand the impact of heritage on contemporary lives.
A new history of Fascist Italy 1915-1945. I shall write a book, commissioned by Penguin in English and Mondadori in Italian, on the social history of the Fascist dictatorship. Utilising accumulated research and new material which shall be worked through from the archives in Rome, I shall show how ordinary Italians lived under a tyranny which purported to be totalitarian. Actually much long-term history survived in Mussolini's regime. The family, patron-client networks, localism, a special sor ....A new history of Fascist Italy 1915-1945. I shall write a book, commissioned by Penguin in English and Mondadori in Italian, on the social history of the Fascist dictatorship. Utilising accumulated research and new material which shall be worked through from the archives in Rome, I shall show how ordinary Italians lived under a tyranny which purported to be totalitarian. Actually much long-term history survived in Mussolini's regime. The family, patron-client networks, localism, a special sort of Catholicism, all conditioned life. Building on the international success of my ARC-funded biography of Mussolini, I shall again display the nuance and ambiguous humanity of Italian history.Read moreRead less
Concord in the Renaissance. This project aims to analyse the diffusion and the political and religious use of the concept of concord among humanists, philosophers, theologians, poets and political writers during the fourteenth and the fifteenth century in the Italian peninsula. Starting with a novel approach to the thought of the humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, this analysis is expected to result in an enriched view of the Italian Renaissance, which will be re-assessed based on its contr ....Concord in the Renaissance. This project aims to analyse the diffusion and the political and religious use of the concept of concord among humanists, philosophers, theologians, poets and political writers during the fourteenth and the fifteenth century in the Italian peninsula. Starting with a novel approach to the thought of the humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, this analysis is expected to result in an enriched view of the Italian Renaissance, which will be re-assessed based on its contribution to the idea of common good. This project also aims to evaluate the uses and meanings of concord in relation to those of tolerance to show how, on the basis of a historically informed and theoretically sound definition, concord can become a new concept for modern political theory.Read moreRead less