The scholar in his study : ownership and experience in Renaissance Italy.

Thornton, D.

Verlag: Yale University Press, New Haven, first edition, 1998, 1998

Beschreibung

Cloth, 4to, 29 cm, xi, 214 pp, many ills (some colour). From the blurb - "The study in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy was a room designed by an individual for his or her own use, with its own distinct and private character. It could be used as an office, consulting room, library, Family archive or treasury; it could house the nucleus of an art collection or offer a place for contemplation arid for retreat from public affairs. To own such a room was to lay claim to the civility, polite manners and educated tastes that came to define the ruling elite in Renaissance Italy. . In this innovative and stimulating book, Dora Thornton looks at ways in which these intimate and secure rooms were constructed, furnished and used by their owners, and at their significance for those who created them and for those who were invited to visit them. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from inventories, account-books and contemporary literature to visual representations of scholars at work and the evidence of a large range of surviving art objects,Thornton tackles what is virtually an unexplored subject and reveals the study-room as a distinctive feature of Italian Renaissance culture which was to be exported all over Europe. Engagingly written and delightfully illustrated, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the Renaissance and in the material culture of early modern Europe." From a review by Alan Stewart in Renaissance Studies: : "Dora Thornton's particular subject is the physical studio of Renaissance Italy, based on a survey of the existing literature and special attention to 106 inventories and memoranda dating from the inventory of the estate of Ugolino di Nuzio in December 1408 (a medical doctor's library complete with travelling bookchest) to Andrea Mantova Benavides' 1695 list of household antiquities in the Casa Benavides, Padua. At the heart of Thornton's book is a fascinating investigation of the studio's physical properties, its construction and its contents, as one might expect from a professional curator. Thornton guides us easily and authoritatively through the panelling desks, bookchests, bookshelves, and cabinets of the studio. Even better is her account of the pouncepots, penknives, scissors, signets, paperweights, reading cushions, books, lenses, spectacles, and mirrors that were its most important features. . Dora Thornton's The Scholar in his Study remains a valuable, beautifully produced, generously illustrated, and highly knowledgeable survey of the studio of Renaissance Italy. Its generous footnotes provide the reader with a useful entry into related work in other disciplines and in other locations. It should act as a catalyst for scholars to force open yet more long-locked doors." Contents: 1. Sources and Interpretation: The Urban Context; 2. Creating a Study; 3. Constructing the Study: Owners and Craftsmen; 4. Offices and Studies: The Urban Elites; 5. The Collector's Study; 6. Instruments and Ornaments for the Study. Booklabel of the bibliophile A R A Hobson on front pastedown endpaper, Near Fine in Very Good dustwrapper. Hobson reviewed the work for the TLS: laid in are 4 leaves of notes for the review in his hand; a clipping of the review; a manuscript letter from the author thanking him for the review and an earlier card from her mentioning its publication; slips from the Yale UP and the TLS requesting a review.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-52153

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: The scholar in his study : ownership and experience in Renaissance Italy.
• Verlag: Yale University Press, New Haven, first edition, 1998
• Erscheinungsjahr: 1998
• Einband: Hardcover
• Auflage: 1. Auflage
• Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Schutzumschlag
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