Sprezzatura

Table Of Contents

Preface

1 Rome gives the world a calendar—twice
2 The Roman Republic and our own
3 Julius Caesar and the imperial purple
4 Catullus revolutionizes love poetry
5 Master builders of the ancient world
6 “Satire is wholly ours”
7 Ovid’s treasure hoard of myth and fable
8 The Roman legacy of law
9 St. Benedict: Father of Western monasticism, preserver of the Roman heritage
10 Salerno and Bologna: The earliest medical school and university
11 St. Francis of Assisi, “alter Christus”
12 “Stupor mundi”: Emperor Frederick II, King of Sicily and Jerusalem
13 St. Thomas Aquinas: Titan of theology
14 Dante’s incomparable Comedy
15 Banks, bookkeeping, and the rise of commercial capitalism
16 Petrarch: Creator of the modern lyric
17 Boccaccio and the development of Western literary realism
18 The mystic as activist: St. Catherine of Siena
19 Inventors of the visual language of the Renaissance: Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio
20 Lorenzo Ghiberti and the “Gates of Paradise”
21 Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici, grand patrons of art and learning
22 Sigismondo Malatesta: The condottiere with a vision
23 Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance man, eternal enigma
24 A new world beckons: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, Verrazano
25 Machiavelli and the dawn of modern political science
26 Michelangelo: Epitome of human artistry
27 Sprezzatura and Castiglione’s concept of the gentleman
28 Aretino: Self-publicist, pornographer, “secretary of the world”
29 Giovanni Della Casa’s Galateo: Etiquette book par excellence
30 Andrea Palladio and his “bible” of building
31 Catherine de’ Medici: Godmother of French cuisine
32 Peri’s Euridice: The birth of opera from the spirit of tragedy
33 Galileo frames the foundations of modern science
34 Two sonorous gifts: The violin and the piano
35 Claudio Monteverdi, father of modern music
36 The Baroque splendors of Bernini
37 Pioneers of modern anatomy: Eustachio, Fallopio, Malpighi, Morgagni, et al.
38 Founder of modern penology: Cesare Beccaria
39 Trailblazers in electricity: Galvani and Volta
40 Venice: Rhapsody in stone, water, melody, and color
41 Europe’s premier poet of pessimism: Giacomo Leopardi
42 Giuseppe Garibaldi: A united Italy emerges
43 The last “Renaissance” prince—D’Annunzio at Fiume
44 La Dottoressa: Maria Montessori and a new era in early childhood education
45 Marconi invents the radio
46 Enrico Fermi: Father of the atomic age
47 Roberto Rossellini: Neorealist cinema and beyond
48 An unlikely international bestseller: Lampedusa’s The Leopard
49 Ferrari—on the road to perfection
50 La moda italiana: The art of apparel

Suggested Reading
Index
About the Contributors