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Baldassar Castiglione described the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino, as 'the fayrest that was to be founde in all Italy' 'to the opinion of many men. For Castiglione, such a Palace was the setting of his book The Courtier, published in 1528 but written from 1513-1514 onwards. The book became a kind of manifesto of the refined life of the courts of the Italian Renaissance, was translated into several languages and had numerous editions. While the Palace was associated (and in part still remains associated) with such an ideal and idealised world, this essay tries to find clues of the courtly life that actually took place in the Palace, of the reception of the behavioural model of the good courtier as well as of the attitudes towards it and the city of Urbino as expressed on the surfaces of the Palace itself by analysing writings and drawings engraved on its walls, door jambs, lintels, columns, etc. The article thus studies graffiti not exclusively, nor mainly, in a history of writing perspective but also, and mainly, as a source of social and cultural history. Within this perspective, the circulation of contents among different supports deserves particular attention. By showing the wealth of information that historians can find by analysing the walls, the essay argues that historical graffiti, still today often removed as human damage during refurbishments, should on the contrary be considered an important component of the cultural heritage, and--as such--preserved, studied and displayed to visitors. Keywords: Courtiers, Courtly Life, Graffiti, Palazzo Ducale of Urbino, Servants
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Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Firenze University Press
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A622150655
journal article
The Witches and the Witch: Verdi's MacbethCambridge Opera Journal
Vol. 17, No. 3 (Nov., 2005)
, pp. 225-252 (28 pages)
Published By: Cambridge University Press
//www.jstor.org/stable/3878296
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Abstract
The witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth equivocate between the demons of random malevolence and ordinary (if exceptionally nasty) old women; and both King James I, whose book on witchcraft may have influenced Shakespeare, and A. W. Schlegel, whose essay on Macbeth certainly influenced Verdi, also stress this ambiguity. In his treatment of Lady Macbeth, Verdi uses certain musical patterns associated with the witches; and like the witches, who sound sometimes tame and frivolous, sometimes like incarnations of supernatural evil. Lady Macbeth hovers insecurely between roles: she is a hybrid of ambitious wife and agent of hell.
Journal Information
For nearly twenty years the Cambridge Opera Journal has been the preeminent forum for scholarship on opera in all its manifestations. The Journal publishes essays not only on all aspects of the European operatic tradition, but also on American opera and musical theatre, on non-Western music theatres, on contemporary opera production, and on the theory and historiography of opera. Carefully researched and often illustrated with music examples and pictures, articles adopt a wide spectrum of critical approaches. As well as major articles, each issue includes reviews of recent important publications in the field. Instructions for Contributors at Cambridge Journals Online
Publisher Information
Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org) is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Cambridge University Press is committed by its charter to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible across the globe. It publishes over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries. Cambridge Journals publishes over 250 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide range of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today. For more information, visit //journals.cambridge.org.
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