1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811308503321

Autore

Dooley Brendan Maurice <1953->

Titolo

A mattress maker's daughter : the Renaissance romance of Don Giovanni de' Medici and Livia Vernazza / / Brendan Dooley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; ; London, England : , : Harvard University Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-674-36910-6

0-674-36909-2

Edizione

[19 halftones]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (480 p.)

Collana

I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History ; ; 12

Disciplina

945/.07092

Soggetti

Princes - Italy

Soldiers - Italy

Italy Social life and customs 16th century

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

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- PREFACE -- PROLOGUE -- 1. THE FAMILY BUSINESS -- 2. THE MATTRESS MAKER'S DAUGHTER -- 3. THE HEART OF COMBAT -- 4. WRITING THE PASSIONS -- 5. A PLACE FOR THINGS -- 6. MIND OVER MATTER -- 7. DURABLE GOODS -- 8. TIME AND MEMORY -- POSTSCRIPT -- NOTES -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

A Mattress Maker's Daughter richly illuminates the narrative of two people whose mutual affection shaped their own lives and in some ways their times. According to the Renaissance legend told and retold across the centuries, a woman of questionable reputation bamboozles a middle-aged warrior-prince into marrying her, and the family takes revenge. He is Don Giovanni de' Medici, son of the Florentine grand duke; she is Livia Vernazza, daughter of a Genoese artisan. They live in luxury for a while, far from Florence, and have a child. Then, Giovanni dies, the family pounces upon the inheritance, and Livia is forced to return from riches to rags. Documents, including long-lost love letters, reveal another story behind the legend, suppressed by the family and forgotten. Brendan Dooley investigates this largely untold story among



the various settings where episodes occurred, including Florence, Genoa, and Venice. In the course of explaining their improbable liaison and its consequences, A Mattress Maker's Daughter explores early modern emotions, material culture, heredity, absolutism, and religious tensions at the crux of one of the great transformations in European culture, society, and statecraft. Giovanni and Livia exemplify changing concepts of love and romance, new standards of public and private conduct, and emerging attitudes toward property and legitimacy just as the age of Renaissance humanism gave way to the culture of Counter-Reformation and early modern Europe.