1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789855703321

Autore

Bowd Stephen D

Titolo

Venice's most loyal city [[electronic resource] ] : civic identity in Renaissance Brescia / / Stephen D. Bowd

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Harvard University Press, 2010

ISBN

0-674-06056-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (374 p.)

Collana

I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history

Disciplina

945/.26105

Soggetti

Renaissance - Italy - Brescia

City and town life - Italy - Brescia - History

Group identity - Italy - Brescia - History

Political culture - Italy - Brescia - History

Brescia (Italy) Relations Italy Venice

Venice (Italy) Relations Italy Brescia

Brescia (Italy) Social life and customs

Brescia (Italy) Politics and government

Venice (Italy) History 697-1508

Venice (Italy) History 1508-1797

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Pt. 1. Myth and history.  Regional states and civic identity ; The myths of Brescia -- Pt. 2. Politics.  Privilege, power, and politics ; Forming an urban oligarchy -- Pt. 3. Religion, ritual, and civic identity.  Space, ritual, and identity ; Civic religion and reform ; Puritanism and the social order -- Pt. 4. Cooperation and conflict.  A funerary fracas ; Jewish life ; Witches -- Pt. 5. Crisis and recovery.  Disloyal Brescia ; Venice and the recovery of power.

Sommario/riassunto

For the past generation, most historical work on the Italian Renaissance has been devoted to the ways in which city states such as Venice transformed their captured territories into a regional state during the fifteenth century. The territorial state approach de-emphasizes the persistence of communal politics and the communal identities of the subject cities of the new territorial states. Bowd’s study is an important



corrective to this argument. Based on extensive archival research in Brescia and Venice, Venice’s Most Loyal City explores the creation of a civic identity based on local politics, religion, and ritual. Communal identity flourished in Brescia in ways that reveal the strength of local autonomy and the limits of state building in the triumphal age for Venice. It is especially sophisticated in the analysis of the treatment of Brescia’s Jews and alleged witches. By employing the most recent methods of historical analysis derived from ritual and religious studies, Bowd manages to return to an older conception of Renaissance Italy that has been eclipsed in recent years.