Plague and Pleasure: Renaissance Escapism in the Life of Pope Pius II

Description

Plague and Pleasure is a lively popular history that introduces a new hypothesis about the impetus behind the cultural change in Renaissance Italy. The Renaissance coincided with a period of chronic, constantly recurring plague, unremitting warfare and pervasive insecurity. Consequently, people felt a need for mental escape to alternative, idealized realities, distant in time or space from the unendurable present but made vivid to the imagination through literature, art, and spectacle. Pope Pius II experienced both plague and war during his reign and he exhibited many escapist behaviors typical of his period: the building of his “Shangri-La” at Pienza, his constant sight-seeing travels, his passion for natural scenery or Roman remains, his public spectacles, andthe humanism that immersed him in an idealized Roman past. This see-saw mentality of the period could plunge into melancholy when facing harsh realities and then propel them into ecstasies of makebelieve to counter their dispair. Plague and Pleasure uses the life and times of Pope Pius II as the framework for presenting a view of the Renaissance that the public can understand and appreciate and which may at least narrow the gap between the past known to scholars and that known to the public they ultimately serve. Title Page Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Foreword Preface Acknowledgments 1. The Myth of the Renaissance 2. The Four Horsemen 3. Corsignano and Siena 4. The Exile 5. The Cleric 6. The Road to Mantua 7. Renaissance Chivalry 8. Mantua and After 9. The Political Pope 10. A Room of One’s Own 11. Plague and Pleasure: 1462 12. The Age of Spectacle 13. Pienza 14. Urban Dreams 15. Visits to Antiquity 16. Villas and Gardens 17. The Crusade 18. The Art of Copiousness 19. Conclusion. Pius and His Period Appendix. Plague in Italy, 1347–1700 Bibliography Index