What Do Poets Want to Write?

2021 ◽  
pp. 57-95
Author(s):  
Simon Park
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Linear Fashion ◽  
Social Motivations

This chapter explores the careers of sixteenth-century Portuguese poets as articulated by themselves and their contemporaries. It draws on scholarly work in the developing field of career criticism to consider moments when poets discussed what they had written and what they one day hoped to produce. For all that writers wrote a lot about what they had achieved or wanted to achieve, this chapter shows that their careers rarely proceeded in a purely linear fashion as was claimed for some ancient authors, such as Virgil. The chapter suggests that when we refuse the lure of hindsight or look beyond the ways that writers tried to iron out their own careers, we see that lots of anxiety attended moments of career reflexivity, that choices of genre were determined by a mixture of personal, economic, political, and social motivations and, moreover, that writers would foreground different motivations when writing in different contexts or addressing different individuals.

scholarly journals Foreword

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-4
Author(s):  
Axel Michaels
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Current Interest ◽  
Economic Success ◽  
The West ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
Academic Discussion

The Asian perfumery legacy has had appeal in the West for many centuries, as the term ‘perfume’ itself indicates. Based on Latin roots, it means ‘through smoke’, in allusion to incense. This genre of aromatic materials, which are burned for the enjoyment of their olfactory qualities, has been important in Asian cultures for over two millennia or even longer. The term as such however, is modern European in origin and arose only at the beginning of the sixteenth century when Westerners became increasingly involved in Asia. Exotic aromatics were a contributing factor in the further exploration and colonisation of Asia in the following centuries, and make up notable trade goods to supply the globalising perfume industry to this day. Modern business could develop only thanks to the historical impetus and materials supplied from Asia. Its economic success finally led to the current interest in the sense of smell among scientists and their findings suggest the exceptional significance of this sense for the human experience. Thus, we need to assume that an important part of cultural history and understanding has been so far neglected in scholarly work, as fragrant phenomena have widely exited academic discussion. Specifically ritual activities often seem to include the use of aromatic substances.

Gugliemo Gonzaga and the Castrati

1980 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Sherr
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Special Studies

While it is well known that castrati ruled the Italian operatic stage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, very little scholarly work has been done on the first phase of their history. The little that can be gleaned from special studies, from general articles about musical life in the late sixteenth century, from various histories and biographies, and from two articles dealing specifically with the introduction of castrati into the papal chapel suggests that castrati entered Italy in the middle of the sixteenth century, and were needed to support (eventually supplant) boy sopranos and male falsettists employed by chapel and church choirs. The present study takes a further look at the early days of the castrato, concentrating on the court of Guglielmo Gonzaga, third Duke of Mantua (r. 1550—1587), a man who was apparently extremely interested in this type of singer.

Maxims of Foreign Policy

Itinerario ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-79
Author(s):  
W.J. Boot
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
Japanese Identity

In the pre-modern period, Japanese identity was articulated in contrast with China. It was, however, articulated in reference to criteria that were commonly accepted in the whole East-Asian cultural sphere; criteria, therefore, that were Chinese in origin.One of the fields in which Japan's conception of a Japanese identity was enacted was that of foreign relations, i.e. of Japan's relations with China, the various kingdoms in Korea, and from the second half of the sixteenth century onwards, with the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutchmen, and the Kingdom of the Ryūkū.

Leone de' Sommi and Jewish Theatre in Renaissance Mantua

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
Donald Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Social Negotiations ◽  
Renaissance Artist ◽  
The Way

This is a study of a Renaissance artist and his patrons, but with an added complication, insofar as Leone de' Sommi, the gifted academician and playwright in the employ of the dukes of Mantua in the second half of the sixteenth century, was Jewish and a lifelong promoter and protector of his community. The article deals with the complex relationship between the court and the Jewish "università" concerning the drama and the way in which dramatic performances also became part of the political, judicial and social negotiations between the two parties, as well as a study of Leone's role as playwright and negotiator during a period that was arguably one of the best of times for the Jews of Mantua.

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