French Leave

Europe’s return to peace after 1604 re-established European travel as a rite of passage for the sons of the nobility and gentry. Encouraged by Henry, prince of Wales, Herbert joined other noblemen in leaving England to travel the continent; gain experience of other European courts and governments; improve their social, weapons handling, and equestrian skills; and acquire expertise in foreign languages. Chapter 3 explores Herbert’s visit to France and the educational and social activities he pursued while resident in Paris and the Île de France. It focuses on his experience of the French court, his introduction to the influential Montmorency family, his growing enthusiasm for duelling and riding the great horse, his attempts at writing satirical verse, his introduction to Isaac Casaubon and his scholarly circle, and the development of his views on monarchical rule and religious toleration. It counterpoises the courtly civility, honour, and confidence he gained in Paris to augment his performance and reputation as a courtier with the impact of his failure to persuade his wife to settle her estates on his heir or to avoid the socially and financially embarrassing remarriage of his mother to a well-connected but impecunious younger man.

influence of the culture of France and Italy on the genre of masque in England

The article discusses the ways of interaction of the French court ballet, the Italian carnival, Italian dance and the English court Masque. The features of royal entertainment in France, known since the reign of Henry II, are revealed. The origin of the French court ballet was determined, its socio-political functions aimed at the hierarchical structuring of the royal court, strengthening the authority of the monarch, the unification of the aristocratic nobility and the removal of hotbeds of tension in society were revealed, which were characteristic features for the functional features of the English court Masque. The stages of the origin, formation, heyday, and decline of the French court ballet are described. A parallel is drawn between the burlesque roles of the king in the court ballet and the birth of an antimasque, the founder of which was was B. Johnson, a poet and playwright. It was established that the Italian style coexisted in England with other European styles during the period of the Stuart reign, and Italian dances, costumes, librettos and stage designs were used in the performances of English Masques.

Text operators as dialogical mechanisms in judgments of the French Court of Cassation

The aim of this article is to present text markers as a dialogical mechanism in the French language used in a legal setting. The dialogue between the court and the public administration takes place primarily through a judgment’s justification. On the other hand, the dialogue between the authorities and the court takes place in two possible variants: as a response to the parties allegations raised in the complaint or cassation complaint or as arguments formulated in the cassation complaint. Analyzing the decisions issued by the French Cour de cassation, one may notice that this material is characterized by three aspects: intentional, conventional and institutional, as it refers to a set of established beliefs about the nature of the world of a given community.

Square pianos and piano-organs

Today the word ‘piano’ connotes a large instrument with a powerful sonority, capable of doing battle with an entire orchestra in a romantic concerto. There are various features of the modern piano responsible for this image, including a case with a long wing shape reinforced by a cast iron frame, and the high degree of string tension that this frame makes possible. None of these features were present on pianos in eighteenth-century France, where the most common model was the rectangular-shaped piano carré (square piano), whose sound was scarcely more powerful than that of a harp. Before the French Revolution, the Erard firm produced square pianos and hybrid piano-organs. During this period, the Erards strengthened their ties with the French court, which resulted in several exceptional instruments made for Marie-Antoinette.

“Tutti gli occhi del mondo”: Court Networks between Turin and Madrid, 1640–1700

Although the court of Turin’s role in the new balance of power in Europe during the War of the Spanish Succession is well known, far less is known about the strategic function of its collateral courts, such as the court of the princes of Savoy-Carignano. Based on the correspondence of the Savoy ambassador to Madrid, Costanzo Operti (1690–95), this article focuses on these courts to demonstrate the formal and informal diplomatic interplay among male and female aristocrats from 1640 to the end of the seventeenth century. One such noblewoman, Olimpia Mancini of Carignano-Soissons, was an Italian who grew up in the French court and maintained a close relationship with Louis XIV. As the wife of a prince of the Savoy-Carignano branch, she held important positions in Turin, Paris, and Madrid. Mother to the famous prince and military warrior Eugene of Savoy, after she lost her powerful status in France, she sought to find a place in the Madrid court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Louise de Orléans. Her mother-in-law, Marie de Bourbon-Soissons, played an outstanding role in maintaining the honour and prestige of the court of Carignano.

Wars and Peace

Girolamo faces a revolt by the citizens of Ceneda while serving as procurator for his brother, and Venice is forced to intervene. But the decades-long blood feud in the Friuli finally comes to an end. After a pamphlet war and a duel, a Venetian procurator negotiates the Peace of 1568 between the heads of the warring families. Bishop Michele serves as papal nuncio to the French court. Gian Matteo is honoured with portraits in the Palazzo Ducale and several book dedications, but he reluctantly declines two prestigious posts because of ill health and dies in June 1570 at the age of seventy-nine. His will, omitting one son, leads to prolonged litigation. The Turks take Cyprus in 1571 and Michele fortifies the castle in Ceneda. As the threat recedes, he enjoys country life. Venice stages the triumphal entry of the new French king Henri III, but suffers two devastating fires in the Palazzo Ducale, and the worst plague in Venetian history.

Leonardo’s Skull and the Complex Symbolism of Holbein’s “Ambassadors”

The depiction of memento mori such as skulls was a niche artistic trend symbolizing the contemplation of mortality that can be traced back to the privations of the Black Death in the 1340s, but became popular in the mid-16th century. Nevertheless, the anamorphism of the floating skull in Hans Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’ of 1533, though much discussed as a clandestine wedding commemoration, has never been satisfactorily explained in its historical context as a diplomatic gift to the French ambassadors to the court of Henry VIII who were in the process of negotiations with the Pope for his divorce. Consideration of Holbein’s youthful trips to Italy and France suggest that he may have been substantially influenced by exposure to Leonardo da Vinci’s works, and that the skull may have been an explicit reference to Leonardo’s anamorphic demonstrations for the French court at Amboise, and hence a homage to the cultural interests of the French ambassadors of the notable Dinteville family for whom the painting was a destined. This hypothesis is supported by iconographic analysis of works by Holbein and Leonardo’s followers in the School of Fontainebleau in combination with literary references to its implicit symbolism.