One of the most influential guidebooks of Renaissance Rome was written by the young Bolognese natural historian Ulisse Aldrovandi. Drafted while he awaited trial for heresy before the Inquisition in 1549–50, his Di tutte le statue antiche describes the private antiquities collections of Rome. It was published in 1556, 1558, and 1562, and was frequently imitated and copied by later authors. ...
Biblical Authority & the Meaning of English in More & Tyndale
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Sixteenth-century biblical translation was a site of extensive and closely reasoned argument about vernacular language and literature. These arguments emerged out of Reformation debates about biblical authority and the canon. Roman Catholics tended to interpret the Bible within a broader canon of received doctrine, while Reformers described scriptural language as intrinsically meaningful. More...
Manuscript, Memoria, & Community in De Dene's "Testament"
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This essay investigates why the Testament Rhetoricael (Bruges, 1562), a large collection of poems and songs by Eduard de Dene, a prominent sixteenth-century rhetorician (rederijker) from the city of Bruges, has been preserved in manuscript instead of print. By discussing the links made by the poet between his text and the biblical image of the Book of Life, it is argued that...
Courthézon's Consistory in the Early Seventeenth Century
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This study focuses on how the consistory in Courthézon steered a course of coexistence as the minority in a biconfessional town while maintaining the church’s confessional integrity. By examining two sets of illuminating cases from 1617 to 1631, the study shows that the consistory embraced the ideal of peaceful coexistence articulated in the edict of 1607. One set of cases dealt with Catholic-...
Pluralism, Liturgy & the Paradoxes of Reform
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Catholic reformers cited pluralism and absenteeism as the chief sins of elite clergy and the cause of the church’s ignorance and poverty. Reformers encouraged bishops to reside in their dioceses, educate their flocks, and investigate both theological and behavioral abuses. This line of argument ignored the practical realities that drove pluralism and absenteeism and those clergy who pursued...
Cosmopolitan Harmonies & Confessional Theology of Georg Rhau
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Between 1538 and 1545, Wittenberg printer-publisher Georg Rhau published fifteen impressive liturgical-musical collections designed for worship needs of Lutheran congregations throughout the year. Friedrich Blume characterized Rhau’s effort as international in musical style and interconfessional in theology, but in fact, Rhau’s collections favored an outmoded, conservative cosmopolitan musical...