Laura Battiferra – a Poetess for the Great Siege

Giovanni Bonello wrote a series of three articles for the Times of Malta (2012) on the poetess Laura Battiferra in relation to the Great Siege of Malta (1565).

Laura Battiferra by Agnolo Bronzino c.1560

"Laura Battiferra – Laura who? She had sunk into almost total oblivion, even though she was the wife of one of the most distinguished artists of the High Renaissance: Bartolomeo Ammannati. If one wanted to be generous, she had become an inconspicuous footnote in the history of Italian literature. The cultural explosion of feminism in more recent years has reversed the trend of gender neglect and again pushed Battiferra to the forefront."

Bonnello notes that: " Women do not generally celebrate war in poetry – only silly men do that – but then they do sometimes sing the praises and the virtues of male warriors and champions, the handsome supermen of their unacknowledged dreams, objects of unabashed hero worship or more."

Of her final days, Bonnello writes: "Battiferra spent most of the last stretch of her life in a chapel specially built for her by her husband in a rented villa in Camerata, close to the gates of Florence. Ammannati could afford that and much else besides, after a long and highly successful career as a sculptor and an architect. She passed away in November (probably the 1st), 1589, and was buried in the Ammannati chapel in the Florentine church of San Giovannino whose façade had been designed by her gifted husband."

Times of Malta: 
Laura Battiferra – a poetess for the Great Siege (July 29, 2012)
Laura Battiferra’s four poems on the Great Siege of Malta (August 5, 2012)
Poetess sings praises of Great Siege heroes August 12, 2012

About Laura Battiferra:

• Wikipedia - Laura Battiferra
• Italian Women Writers - Laura Battiferra Ammannati
• Creative Partners: the Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo Ammannati 
• eScholaship: Laura Battiferra - An Open Book
• Project Continua - Laura Battiferra Ammannati

Books on / featuring Laura Battiferra:

• Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook edited by Rinaldina Russell
• Laura Battiferra and Her Literary Circle: An Anthology: A Bilingual Edition By Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati
• Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England edited by Diana Maury Robin, Anne R. Larsen, Carole Levin
• Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans by Laura Anna Stortoni, Mary Prentice Lillie

Mysterious Mona Lisa - Part 2

Following on from my post "Mysterious Mona Lisa" in August 2013, please find some more news updates on this enigmatic Renaissance woman:

From: Haaretz: The man who saved Mona Lisa from the Nazis -

On the eve of World War II, 4,000 works of art were secretly taken from walls of The Louvre and hidden away in various locales around France. A new documentary tells the story of an extraordinary rescue mission.

Link: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/.premium-1.645657

From Live Science: Did da Vinci create a 3D Mona Lisa - 

Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" painting may be part of the oldest 3D artwork, say two visual scientists. In 2012, scientists discovered that beneath layers of black paint, a seemingly insignificant "knock-off" of the "Mona Lisa" in the Museo del Prado in Madrid was in actuality very close to the original hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris, revealing the same subject with the same mountain landscape background. That painting may have been painted by Da Vinci or possibly one of his students.

Link: http://www.livescience.com/45309-mona-lisa-3d-created.html

From The Independent: The dig that may have unearthed Leonardo's muse -

There's no trace of that celebrated, knowing expression, but archaeologists hope that one of two skeletons unearthed in a Tuscan convent will be shown to be that of the model who became Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. In their hunt for the remains of the most famous portrait-sitter in history, experts have been digging in the former convent of St Ursula in Florence since April. They have previously found and disregarded the bones of five other people.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/the-dig-that-may-have-unearthed-leonardos-muse-8196544.html

From The Telegraph: Who was Mona Lisa? -

Italian researchers edged closer to solving one of the greatest mysteries in art history on Thursday – the identity of the Renaissance woman who posed for Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre’s greatest treasure and one of the world’s most famous paintings.

After spending four years excavating human remains from beneath a centuries-old convent in Florence, researchers have zeroed in on a small collection of bones that they believe may have belonged to Lisa Gherardini, the Florentine silk merchant’s wife whom many scholars believe was the model for Leonardo’s masterpiece.

The research team revealed on Thursday that carbon-14 dating showed that the bones, which included a femur, dated from around the time that Gherardini died, in July 1542, at the age of 63.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11888685/Who-was-Mona-Lisa-Burial-breakthrough-may-solve-the-identity-mystery-behind-Da-Vinci-masterpiece.html

From Live Science: Why does Mona Lisa's smile change -

Strolling through the Louvre, you stop at Leonard da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Initially, she appears to be smiling; but as you move your gaze, the expression changes — not so happy anymore. Among the top questions baffling art enthusiasts is the elusive grin. Did da Vinci intentionally create the ambiguous appearance?

Link: http://www.livescience.com/32483-why-does-mona-lisas-smile-change.html

From Ancient Origins: Unmasking Mona Lisa - 

Experts believe the woman depicted in the famous painting is Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo, and that several remains found in a convent in Florence in 2011 could be her. They exhumed Del Giocondo family members who were buried in a separate family tomb that was opened in 2013 for the first time in centuries in an attempt to determine if it is really her through DNA matching. However, DNA tests on Gherardini’s sons reportedly failed.

The chair of Italy's National Committee for the valorization of historic, cultural and environmental heritage, Silvano Vinceti says that comparison of DNA from the remains found in the convent to that of Gherardini's children, who are buried in the family tomb, will not be possible, as previously thought, reports Arts Culture & Style (ANSA). Vincenti tells ANSA that “extracting DNA from Gherardini's family was impossible.”

Link: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/unmasking-mona-lisa-will-scientists-discover-her-true-identity-020253

From Archaeology News Network: C-14 results to shed light on Mona Lisa's identity -

Carbon-14 results on the remains of three people exhumed from Florence's Sant'Orsola convent will soon reveal whether they include those of a woman thought to have sat for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting, researcher Silvano Vinceti said Thursday.

If the carbon-14 test results will confirm "that the three human remains date back to the 16th century" and that one of three is likely to have died during a period coinciding with Gherardini's demise, "then it will be possible to confirm, with a very high probability, that we have found the Gioconda".

Link: https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/c-14-results-to-shed-light-on-mona.html#.VP2DswWp-Up.facebook#CXMTDbZgf651yYj1.97

Luca Pacioli - Renaissance Magician

Have you ever wanted to wash your hands in melted lead? Or maybe, you have always wanted to make an egg walk. Meet Luca Pacioli ~~ the Renaissance's own David Copperfield!

Luca Pacioli, a native of Tuscany, was a good friend and sometime artistic collaborator of Leonardo da Vinci.

He is also the author of one of the oldest magic books - De viribus quantitatis (On The Powers Of Numbers). And for the past 500 years, this unpublished book has been hidden away in the archives of the University of Bologna.

"It was written in Italian by Pacioli [a Franciscan monk] between 1496 and 1508 and contains the first ever reference to card tricks as well as guidance on how to juggle, eat fire and make coins dance. It is also the first work to note that Da Vinci was left-handed."

Reporter Lucy McDonald of the Guardian has the full details of this magical story from her 2007 article.

The Princess of Montpensier

From Film Journal:

It’s not easy to make a 140-minute Medieval-set film, even one about sexual desire and rivalry, pulse with passion. That is the challenge veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier grapples with in The Princess of Montpensier, his middling adaptation of Madame de La Fayette’s short story about various men vying for the affections of an unhappy princess in 16th-century France.

Tavernier has assembled a cast of rising young stars to inject some heat into the handsomely mounted proceedings, but what their photogenic presence and the director’s own agility behind the camera can’t give the film is a sense of urgency. Despite the intelligence and savoir-faire that clearly went into making The Princess of Montpensier, the movie gives the impression of going through the motions rather than engaging the viewer with its ideas and images, which mostly feel familiar.

Set against the backdrop of the war between Catholics and Protestants, The Princess of Montpensier centers on a young heiress, Marie de Mezieres (Melanie Thierry), and the different men who, to varying degrees, love her, want her, revere her, and resent her: the insecure prince whom she is forced to marry (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet); the prince’s cousin, a studly knight with questionable intentions (Gaspard Ulliel); a quick-witted duke with a devilish gleam in his eye (Raphael Personnaz); and the count of Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), a retired warrior who becomes Marie’s tutor and pines for her from the sidelines in what is by far the film’s most persuasive and palpable emotion.

New Mona Lisa Theory

From the Archaeological News Network:

An Italian researcher has sparked new controversy over the world's most famous painting by claiming Leonardo da Vinci painted tiny letters into the eyes of the Mona Lisa which may finally reveal the disputed identity of his model.

To arrive at a theory worthy of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's 2003 bestseller, researcher Silvano Vinceti avoided the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile and instead gazed deep into her eyes with the help of high-resolution images.

"Invisible to the naked eye and painted in black on green-brown are the letters LV in her right pupil, obviously Leonardo's initials, but it is what is in her left pupil that is far more interesting," said Vinceti, the chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage.

Vinceti said that the letters B or S, or possibly the initials CE, were discernible, a vital clue to identifying the model who sat for the Renaissance artist. She has often been named as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, but Vinceti disagreed, claiming Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa in Milan. He said he would announce his conclusions next month.

Mona Lisa's Childhood Home Found

The woman behind one of the world's most famous paintings was born in a humble house in Florence, according to new documents. Rossella Lorenzi gets the story and you can view the video here at Discovery News.

Fake: Shroud of Turin

From Yahoo News:

Scientists have reproduced the Shroud of Turin - revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb - and say the experiment proves the relic was man-made, a group of Italian debunkers claimed Monday.

The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen fibres at the time of his resurrection.

Scientists have reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century, the Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said.

The group said in a statement this is further evidence the shroud is a medieval forgery. In 1988, scientists used radiocarbon dating to determine it was made in the 13th or 14th century.

Medieval Items of Interest

Hope you enjoy these little items of medieval interest:

Lost Renaissance Man @ BBC News:

A celebration is taking place to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of a Welshman who helped develop the idea of a British empire.

John Dee, a scholar who excelled in science and maths, delved into early Welsh history to identify a common identity for the Welsh and the English.

But, despite being dubbed the "Renaissance Man" of the Tudor era, his achievements have gone unremembered.

John Dee and his contemporary and fellow-magi, John Kelly (Kelley), spent some time under the patronage of the Habsburg Emperors at Prague.

Fr. Serra by Dan Krieger @ the Tribune

St. Francis of Assisi is probably the best known and most beloved of the medieval saints. Francis was born in 1181 during the age of the troubadours. His life quickly became the stuff that poets sang about. These stories about Francis and his band of “little brothers” was eventually written down. In medieval Italian, the most popular account is known as the “Fioretti” or “The Little Flowers of St. Francis.”

Medieval Travel Book @ BBC News

A 13th Century copy of a medieval travel writer's book has returned to Wales for the first time in 20 years to form part of an exhibition. Gerald of Wales trekked more than 500 miles (804.5km) in 1188, primarily to recruit soldiers for the third crusade in the Middle East. A copy of his "Journey through Wales" has been lent to The National Museum in Cardiff by The British Library.

Nuremburg Mahzor by Jen Thomas @ Associated Press

A rare Hebrew manuscript written in 14th century Germany is going on display for the first time, just before the Jewish New Year, Israel Museum officials said Wednesday. The text, called the Nuremberg Mahzor, is one of the largest surviving medieval texts in the world. Written in 1331 in Germany, the prayer book remains mostly intact — only seven of its original 528 leaves are missing. Officials said the 1,042-page manuscript will be on display at the Israel Museum starting next Tuesday, days before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year holiday, which begins Sept. 18.

Review: The Foodtaster

Set in Renaissance Italy, "The Foodtaster" by Peter Elbling takes you on a journey with humble Ugo DiFonte, who becomes the foodtaster to a highly despicable duke.

It is a rather vivid insight into what 16th Century Italy was actually like - a hotbed of political intrigue; of papal dissembling; of life and death; of love and hate.

All over Italy, self-governing duchies were ruled by men considered as mere tyrants. The ruled with a violence that was "natural" for their time. People survived by their wits - advancement came through the downfall of others - and ultimately so did one's own.

Into this den of vice came the plague, sweeping all before it - no-one was spared - rich and poor alike suffered the same fate. And with the plague came paranoia and conspiracy.

Elbling presents the novel as a long-lost manuscript left as a bequest to the author - or in this case - the "translator", Elbling.