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• Woman, that you were a Sun among women ": on the youthful poetic attempts by Paolo Paruta (mid 16th century)

  60-73

  Marco Giani

  Views:

  147

  During the mid-1560s, Paolo Paruta (1540-1598), future Ambassador of the Republic of Venice in Rome (1591-1595) and author of the three books of Perfettione della Vita Politica (Venice, 1579) wrote some poems: the canzone Donna, che fosti tra le donne un Sole, and three somnets. The former was then published in Dionigi Atanagi’s Rime di diversi nobilissimi et eccellentissimi autori, in morte della Signora Irene delle Signore di Spilimbergo (Venice, 1561), the latters were insert in Diomede Borghesi’s anthology for Cinzia Braccioduro Garzadori (then published in Padua, 1567, without Paruta’s somnets).

  Writing those juvenile poems and making them circulate among the Venetian literary circles (such as Domenico Venier’s), Paruta was looking not only for artistic approval, but also for social visibility: the canzone and the somnets were part of his wider strategy for social climbing inside Venetian patrician ruling class.

• Marano: a disputed fortress: The crisis of political-diplomatic relations between the main European powers following the coup d'état on Marano in 1542

  46-59

  Elisa Della Mea

  Views:

  173

  Venice’s reconquest of Marano in 1542 was a key moment in the history of the Republic. The fortress of Marano was in fact at the top of its glory between the XV and XVI century, when it was contested between Austria and Venice. When it fell in the hands of Austria in 1513, Venice tried to reconquest it with every possible means. After years of unsuccessful attempts, the feat was carried out by Beltrame Sacchia, an ambitious and adventurous merchant from Udine, who occupied the fortress in 1542 in name of the King of France. This article analyses the repercussions of Marano’s reconquest on European political equilibrium. What happened on the morning of January 2, 1542, as well as making a turning point in the boundary dynamics between Venice and the Austrian, deeply damaged the diplomatic relations between the main powers of Europe: the Venetian Republic, France, the Empire and the Ottomans.

• Max Gobbo and the fantasy rewrite of a Renaissance period

  122-130

  Franco Zangrilli

  Views:

  136

  The paper examines thè characteristics of Max Gobbo’s writing in his fantasy novel Alasia - The Iron Maiden. The novel is set in a dystopian XVI century Italy infested by demons, vampires and other strange creatures. The novel unfolds in a clear and flowing prose, supported by a simple and effective writing, expressing thè complexity of a world of darkness, in thè hands of devils. It is full of suspense, of comings and goings, of mythical evocations, as of dramatic moments and a humorous multitone irony.