Reviving the Eternal City: Rome and the Papal Court, 1420-1447
by Elizabeth McCahill
Harvard University Press, 2013 Cloth: 978-0-674-72453-2 | eISBN: 978-0-674-72615-4 Library of Congress Classification BX1270.M33 2013 Dewey Decimal Classification 262.1309024
ABOUT THIS BOOK | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In 1420, after more than one hundred years of the Avignon Exile and the Western Schism, the papal court returned to Rome, which had become depopulated, dangerous, and impoverished in the papacy's absence. Reviving the Eternal City examines the culture of Rome and the papal court during the first half of the fifteenth century, a crucial transitional period before the city's rebirth. As Elizabeth McCahill explains, during these decades Rome and the Curia were caught between conflicting realities--between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, between conciliarism and papalism, between an image of Rome as a restored republic and a dream of the city as a papal capital.
Through the testimony of humanists' rhetorical texts and surviving archival materials, McCahill reconstructs the niche that scholars carved for themselves as they penned vivid descriptions of Rome and offered remedies for contemporary social, economic, religious, and political problems. In addition to analyzing the humanists' intellectual and professional program, McCahill investigates the different agendas that popes Martin V (1417-1431) and Eugenius IV (1431-1447) and their cardinals had for the post-Schism pontificate. Reviving the Eternal City illuminates an urban environment in transition and explores the ways in which curialists collaborated and competed to develop Rome's ancient legacy into a potent cultural myth.
REVIEWS
In this masterful, original, and fluidly-written study of the intellectual and cultural milieu of the early Roman Renaissance, Elizabeth McCahill provides a rich and nuanced context for some of the most important humanist and artistic projects of the age. Readers of this book cannot help but come away with a richer and deeper appreciation of this foundational but surprisingly neglected era in early modern history.
-- Brian Curran, Pennsylvania State University
Meticulous and riveting, Reviving the Eternal City offers a multifaceted history of the Roman Curia under Martin V and Eugenius IV. Through incisive readings of sources as diverse as a vintner's diary, the letters of established (and struggling) humanists, papal bulls and Filarete's bronze doors, McCahill proves that Rome's renewal began long before the first 'Renaissance' pope donned the tiara.
-- Sarah Ross, Boston College
Using unknown and little-studied sources, Elizabeth McCahill argues that Rome in the first half of the fifteenth century represented a site of intense study, contemporary cultural fascination, and, above all, interpretation. She offers readers access to worlds often hidden, from backstairs intrigue at the papal court to the desks of solitary scholars. This book is a fine example of socially-informed intellectual history, written with exemplary clarity and incisive intelligence.
-- Christopher Celenza, Johns Hopkins University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Rome ca. 1420
1. Rome’s Third Founder? Martin V, Niccolò Signorili, and Roman Revival, 1420–1431
2. In the Theater of Lies: Curial Humanists on the Benefits and Evils of Courtly Life
3. A Reign Subject to Fortune: Guides to Survival at the Court of Eugenius IV
4. Curial Plans for the Reform of the Church
5. Acting as the One True Pope: Eugenius IV and Papal Ceremonial
6. Eugenius IV, Biondo Flavio, Filarete, and the Rebuilding of Rome
Reviving the Eternal City: Rome and the Papal Court, 1420-1447
by Elizabeth McCahill
Harvard University Press, 2013 Cloth: 978-0-674-72453-2 eISBN: 978-0-674-72615-4
In 1420, after more than one hundred years of the Avignon Exile and the Western Schism, the papal court returned to Rome, which had become depopulated, dangerous, and impoverished in the papacy's absence. Reviving the Eternal City examines the culture of Rome and the papal court during the first half of the fifteenth century, a crucial transitional period before the city's rebirth. As Elizabeth McCahill explains, during these decades Rome and the Curia were caught between conflicting realities--between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, between conciliarism and papalism, between an image of Rome as a restored republic and a dream of the city as a papal capital.
Through the testimony of humanists' rhetorical texts and surviving archival materials, McCahill reconstructs the niche that scholars carved for themselves as they penned vivid descriptions of Rome and offered remedies for contemporary social, economic, religious, and political problems. In addition to analyzing the humanists' intellectual and professional program, McCahill investigates the different agendas that popes Martin V (1417-1431) and Eugenius IV (1431-1447) and their cardinals had for the post-Schism pontificate. Reviving the Eternal City illuminates an urban environment in transition and explores the ways in which curialists collaborated and competed to develop Rome's ancient legacy into a potent cultural myth.
REVIEWS
In this masterful, original, and fluidly-written study of the intellectual and cultural milieu of the early Roman Renaissance, Elizabeth McCahill provides a rich and nuanced context for some of the most important humanist and artistic projects of the age. Readers of this book cannot help but come away with a richer and deeper appreciation of this foundational but surprisingly neglected era in early modern history.
-- Brian Curran, Pennsylvania State University
Meticulous and riveting, Reviving the Eternal City offers a multifaceted history of the Roman Curia under Martin V and Eugenius IV. Through incisive readings of sources as diverse as a vintner's diary, the letters of established (and struggling) humanists, papal bulls and Filarete's bronze doors, McCahill proves that Rome's renewal began long before the first 'Renaissance' pope donned the tiara.
-- Sarah Ross, Boston College
Using unknown and little-studied sources, Elizabeth McCahill argues that Rome in the first half of the fifteenth century represented a site of intense study, contemporary cultural fascination, and, above all, interpretation. She offers readers access to worlds often hidden, from backstairs intrigue at the papal court to the desks of solitary scholars. This book is a fine example of socially-informed intellectual history, written with exemplary clarity and incisive intelligence.
-- Christopher Celenza, Johns Hopkins University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Rome ca. 1420
1. Rome’s Third Founder? Martin V, Niccolò Signorili, and Roman Revival, 1420–1431
2. In the Theater of Lies: Curial Humanists on the Benefits and Evils of Courtly Life
3. A Reign Subject to Fortune: Guides to Survival at the Court of Eugenius IV
4. Curial Plans for the Reform of the Church
5. Acting as the One True Pope: Eugenius IV and Papal Ceremonial
6. Eugenius IV, Biondo Flavio, Filarete, and the Rebuilding of Rome