This article examines the Family of Love in sixteenth-century England, especially the period of intense hostility it engendered from 1578 to 1581. During these years, foesattacked this minor sect as a significant threat to the English church and state. The decline in the assault upon the Family has been attributed by many historians to a concurrent decline in the sect. However, recent research...
Alchemy in the Manuscript Illustrations of the Splendor Solis
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Through illustrations notoriously difficult to interpret, even when considered in conjunction with the chapters they presumably depict, the sixteenth-century manuscript Splendor Solis exemplifies the highly symbolical approach to representing alchemical processes. The central images of the pictures are typically characterized by the fantastic: mythic animals, beheading, and allusions...
The Piazza degli Uffizi as Theater & Stage
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The Piazza degli Uffizi in Florence is a unique architectural space housing the offices established by the Medici grand duke Cosimo I in the sixteenth century. This article examines the unusual physical and social character of the space, from the perspective of the people—performing as both spectators and actors—who have experienced this environment. Their presence and participation is...
St. Teresa & Olivares
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This article explores the politics of national patron sainthood in early modern Europe. Specifically, it assesses the relationship between patron saints, efforts to consolidate royal authority, and political resistance to royal policies. It examines this relationship through the bitter controversy that unfolded when Teresa of Avila was named patron saint of Spain alongside the traditional...