Overview

Making use of new and original material based on firsthand sources, this book interrogates the vogue for collecting, discussing, depicting, and putting to political and cultural use Roman antiquities in the French Renaissance. It surveys a range of activity from the labours of collectors and patrons to royal entries, considers attacks on the craze for the antique, and sets literary instances among a much wider spectrum of artistic endeavour. While Renaissance collecting and antiquarianism have certainly been the object of critical scrutiny, this study brings disparate fields into a single focus; and it examines not only areas of antiquarian expertise and interest (such as statues, coins, and books), but also important individual historical figures. The opening chapters deal with the role played in Rome by French ambassadors, who sent back antiques to collectors at court, who in the person of Jean Du Bellay, undertook excavations, and assembled a major personal collection, which was housed in a new villa in the ruined Baths of Diocletian. The volume includes a valuable appendix, which presents in transcription catalogues of the collections of Cardinal Jean du Bellay.

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9781409452652

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Reviews

'Au terme de ce parcours erudit et solidement argumente, le lecteur ne peut que rendre grace a l'auteur d'avoir reussi le pari non seulement d'etudier la naissance et le developpement de ce gout antiquaire dans la France du XVi siecle, mais aussi d'ouvrir la voie a d'autres recherches que son livre ne manquera pas de susciter. Redige avec soin et d'une lecture agreable, Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France est, en outre, d'une pedagogie exemplaire.' Acta Fabula '... there is a wealth of information regarding the growing collections that will serve as the foundation for the antiquarian fever characterizing the century. Even more valuable is the wide range of perspectives the volume offers on French reaction to the ruins and relics of ancient Rome.' French Studies 'Cooper's volume provides many new findings and hypotheses in regard to the vogue for antiquities in the post-Italian Wars period. His study will be helpful to specialists and students in early modern antiquarian explorations, as well as in the diplomacy of the period. The book provides a lively and focused description of interactions of certain royal, aristocratic, and ecclesiastical figures with French and Italian humanist scholars that will add richly to our discussion of the early part of the century.' 16th Century Journal

'Au terme de ce parcours erudit et solidement argumente, le lecteur ne peut que rendre grAcce A l'auteur d'avoir reussi le pari non seulement d'etudier la naissance et le developpement de ce A goA t antiquaire A dans la France du XVi siecle, mais aussi d'ouvrir la voie A d'autres recherches que son livre ne manquera pas de susciter. Redige avec soin et d'une lecture agreable, Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France est, en outre, d'une pedagogie exemplaire.' Acta Fabula '... there is a wealth of information regarding the growing collections that will serve as the foundation for the antiquarian fever characterizing the century. Even more valuable is the wide range of perspectives the volume offers on French reaction to the ruins and relics of ancient Rome.' French Studies 'Cooper's volume provides many new findings and hypotheses in regard to the vogue for antiquities in the post-Italian Wars period. His study will be helpful to specialists and students in early modern antiquarian explorations, as well as in the diplomacy of the period. The book provides a lively and focused description of interactions of certain royal, aristocratic, and ecclesiastical figures with French and Italian humanist scholars that will add richly to our discussion of the early part of the century.' 16th Century Journal 'Cet ouvrage clair et bien structure puise sa force dans les differents champs de recherche mis en presence par Richard Cooper, romaniste de formation qui confronte toute une serie de sources - litterature, poesie, histoire, histoire de l'art, reception de l'antiquite classique... - en transcendant les barrieres parfois rigides etablies entre les disciplines. La variete des approches permet d'offrir au lecteur un panorama somme toute assez complet sur le phenomene antiquisant en France durant une courte periode du debut de la Renaissance. ... devrait interesser non seulement les specialistes de la culture de la Renaissance m

Author Information

Richard Cooper is Professor of French at Oxford University, where he is Chair of the Modern Languages Faculty Board, and a Fellow of Brasenose College.

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