Ambrogio Leone's "De Nola", Venice 1514: Humanism and Antiquarian Culture in Renaissance Southern Italy

Description

This volume offers the first comprehensive study of the 'De Nola' (Venice 1514), a hitherto underappreciated Latin text written by the Nolan humanist and physician Ambrogio Leone. Furnished with four pioneering engravings made with the help of the Venetian artist Girolamo Mocetto, the 'De Nola' is an impressively rich and multifaceted text, which contains an antiquarian (and celebratory) study of the city of Nola in the Kingdom of Naples. By describing antiquities, inscriptions, and buildings, as well as social and religious phenomena, the 'De Nola' offers a precious window into a southern Italian Renaissance city, and constitutes a refined example of sixteenth-century antiquarianism. The work is analysed in a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing art and architectural history, antiquarianism, literature, social history, and anthropology. Acknowledgements ix List of Illustrations x Introduction / Bianca de Divitiis, Fulvio Lenzo, Lorenzo Miletti 1 1. The Author: Ambrogio Leone 1 2. The Book: 'De Nola' 3 3. 'De Nola' in the European Humanistic Debate 5 1. Ambrogio Leone’s 'De Nola' as a Renaissance Work: Purposes, Structure, Genre, and Sources / Lorenzo Miletti 11 1. The Title and the 'Praefatio': History and Rhetoric 11 2. An Outline of Structure and Content 18 3. The Genre of the 'De Nola': Between Antiquarianism, Chorography, and Encomium 29 4. The 'De Nola' as a Humanistic Work: Leone’s Use of Greek and Latin Sources 34 5. Conclusions 40 2. Leone’s Antiquarian Method and the Reconstruction of Ancient Nola / Bianca de Divitiis, Fulvio Lenzo 45 3. The Four Engravings. Between Word and Image / Fulvio Lenzo 59 1. The Territory: The 'Ager Nolanus' 63 2. The Ancient City: The 'Nola Vetus' 66 3. Comparing the Ancient City and the Modern One: The 'Figura Praesentis Urbis Nolae' 71 4. The Glory of the Modern City: The 'Nola Praesens' 73 5. Leone and Mocetto: Problems of Method and Authorship 76 4. Architecture and Nobility: The Descriptions of Buildings in the De Nola / Bianca de Divitiis 81 1. Leone and Architecture 81 2. The 'Arx', the 'Regia' and the Seggio 84 3. The Cathedral 86 4. The Nolan 'domus' 92 5. Architecture and Nobility 100 5. Ambrogio Leone and the Visual Arts / Fernando Loffredo 103 1. Sculpture Appealing to Poetry: 'Beatricium' 103 2. Caradosso’s Inkwell 111 3. Tracing Interconnections: 'De Nola', Girolamo Mocetto, Niccolò Orsini, and the League of Cambrai 115 6. A Civic Duty: The Construction of the Nolan Memory / Giuliana Vitale 122 1. Book III of the 'De Nola' as a Source for Socio-political and Economic History 124 2. Social Topography and Types of Residential Dwelling 127 3. A Society Open to Social Mobility 130 4. Leone’s Cultural Model of Nobility 132 7. The Elegance of the Past: Descriptions of Rituals, Ceremonies and Festivals in Nola / Eugenio Imbriani 138 1. Disparities 138 2. 'Servant Nolani mores antiquos' 141 3. Games 145 4. The Feast of St. Paulinus 150 5. In Conclusion: Extreme Recycling 153 8. A Bibliographical Note on Ambrogio Leone’s 'De Nola' (1514) / Stephen Parkin 156 Appendix of Texts / ed. by Lorenzo Miletti 163 1. 'De Nola’s' Table of Contents 163 2. 'De Nola', 'Praefatio' (f. ii recto – iii recto) 164 3. 'De Nola', bk. II, ch. 15 (xxxviii recto – xxxix verso) 166 4. 'De Nola', bk. III, ch. 3 (f. xxxxix recto) 169 5. 'De nobilitate rerum', ch. 41, (f. g viii verso – h i recto) 170 Illustration Section 171 Bibliography 218 A. Editions of Works by Ambrogio Leone 218 B. General Bibliography 219 Index of Names 247