Author: BRUCKER, GENE
Title: GIOVANNI AND LUSANNA - Love and marriage in Renaissance Florence.
Description: London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986. 1st edition. Red cloth with dustjacket, 21,5cmx13cm, As new. Designer: Wolfgang Lederer. Text: Bembo. Jacket illustration: Fra Filippo Lippi: 'Portrait of a man and woman at a casement'. Covertext: 'In 1455 Lusanna, a beautiful Florentine woman from an artisanal home, brought suit in Archbishop Antoninus's court against her wealthy, high-born lover Giovanni. Giovanni had contracted to marry a young, aristocratic woman, and Lusanna, claiming that she had Giovanni had been secretly married during their clandestine twelve-year affair, fiercely opposed the match. What makes this bitter dispute of special interest to readers today is the rich texture of the material that the case accumulated. Since the lovers inhabited vastly different social milieux, their witnesses came from every stratum of Florentine society. The testimonies provide intriguing glimpses of the attitudes on love and the marriage market, as well as the broader social structures and values of Renaissance Florence. Bruckner's analysis also illuminates some of the elaborate mechanisms of the Florentine political order, particularly the delicate balance of power between ecclesiastic and secular authorities. Blending scholarship with vivid narrative, the book portrays an extraordinary woman who challenged the unwritten codes and barriers of the social hierarchy and who dared to seek a measure of personal independence in a male-dominated world. Contents: I). The context. II). The history of a relationship. III). The quest for justice. IV). Love, marriage, and the social order. V). Epilogue. With references. 14 illustrations. X + 138 + (1) pag.

Keywords: italia di benedetto di ludovico della casa


See more books from our catalog: Florence - Firenze