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Ambiguity and the Fixing of Identity in Early Renaissance Florence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Luca Gatti
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A citizen of Early Renaissance Florence that stepped out into the streets and entered the spaces of his civic world joined a concert of creative formal behaviors in which he was at once an actor and a spectator. His problem here was to interpret the complex web of overlapping, conflicting and simultaneous meanings he would have read in the actions and images by which the community directed him and represented itself, and find his own place and set his standing. On most occasions he would probably have elected for a state of suspension, a floating of multiple possibilities he was loath to precipitate in too stable a form: in ambiguity the citizen of Florence developed a richness of signification, and found a refuge.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 45 , Issue 177 , March 1997 , pp. 17 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. On the related issues of identity and ambiguity in Florence, see M. Becker, "An essay on the quest for identity in the early Italian Renaissance," in J. S. Rowe and W. H. Stockdale (eds.), Florilegium Historiale: Essays in honour of Wallace K. Ferguson, Toronto, 1971, pp. 294-312; and R.F.E. Weissman, "The Importance of Being Ambiguous: Social Relations, Individualism, and Iden tity in Renaissance Florence," in S. Zimmerman and R.F.E. Weissman (eds.), Urban Life in the Renaissance, London, 1989, pp. 269-280. On ambiguity in gen eral see W. Empson, Seven Types of ambiguity, London, 1984 [1930].

2. Paolo da Certaldo advised that, because of the lack of command on the mean ing of words, one should reflect on the consequences of what is said: "The word once spoken is like a thrown pebble: so before uttering it always think, and think again on what you are about to say and what might follow from it," in S. Morpurgo (ed.), Il Libro di buoni costumi di Paolo di Messer Pace da Certaldo, Florence, 1921, p. 66.

3. On these preoccupations in early sixteenth century Florence, see L. Gatti, "Displacing Images and Devotion in Renaissance Florence: the Return of the Medici and an Order of 1513 for the Davit and the Iudit," Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 1994, 2, pp. 3-35.

4. Statuta Populi et Communis Florentiae, 3 vols., Fribourg, 1783, vol. II, p. 271.

5. Ibid., p. 420.

6. For Alberti's quote, Della Famiglia, see Weissman, (note 1 above), p. 272.

7. Diario Fiorentino di Bartolomeo di Michele del Corazza, anni 1405-1438, G. Corazz ini (ed.), [Archivio Storico Italiano], s. 5, t. XIV, 1894, pp. 233-298, here p. 246.

8. G. Dati, L'Istoria di Firenze dal 1380 al 1405, L. Pratesi (ed.), Norcia, 1904, p. 134. The earliest reference to the Lion known to me is in a song of 1243, see A. D'Ancona, "La politica nella poesia del secolo XIII e XIV," Nuova Antologia, IV, 1867, pp. 10-52, here p. 13.

9. I have studied the memory and the mythological function of this image in " Il ‘fiero Marte' a Firenze e il mito della ‘pietra scema': riti, memorie e ascen denze," Rinascimento, 1995, pp. 154-185.

10. Among the Florentine segni the Lion remains unstudied in modem historiog raphy I propose to return to it in greater depth elsewhere; in the meantime, see F.L. Del Migliore, Firenze città nobilissima illustrata, Florence, 1684, pp. 242- 248. On the other Florentine segni see Dati, (note 8 above), pp. 133-135; L.D. Ettlinger, "Hercules Florentinus," Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XVI, 1972, pp 119-42; and for the Lily, M. Bergstein, "Marian Poli tics in Quattrocento Florence: the Renewed Dedication of Santa Maria del Fiore in 1412," Renaissance Quarterly, XLIV, 4,1991, pp. 673-719.

11. Miscellanea di Cose Inedite o Rare, F. Corazzini (ed.), Florence, 1835, p. 233.

12. Dati, (note 8 above), p. 133.

13. On the power of images to establish identity and affect perception, see R. Trexler, "Follow the Flag. The Ciompi Revolt Seen from the Streets," Biblio thèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, XLVI, 1984, pp. 357-392; and S.Y. Edgerton, Pictures and Punishment: Art and Criminal Prosecution During the Florentine Renaissance, New York, 1958.

14. Luca Landucci, Diario Fiorentino, Florence, 1985, p. 78.

15. M. Rastrelli, Illustrazione istorica del Palazzo della Signoria detto inoggi il Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1792, p. 43.

16. L. Passerini, "Del Pretorio di Firenze," in Curiosità di Storia e Arte Fiorentina, Florence, 1866, pp. 3-40, especially pp. 25-26.

17. Regarding the location and the management of the lion cage see Del Migliore, (note 10 above), pp. 242-248 and R. Davidsohn, Firenze ai tempi di Dante, Flo rence, 1929, pp. 476-477.

18. The 1325 Statutes stipulated that the food for the lions should be paid by the Camera del Comune and that the officials responsible for the lions should be elected by the Priori: Statuti della Repubblica Fiorentina. Statuto del Podestà del l'anno 1325, R. Caggese (ed.), Florence, 1921, p. 336.

19. Dati, (note 8 above), p. 116.

20. L. Zdekawer, "Appunti e Notizie," Miscellanea Fiorentina di Erudizione e Storia, I, 1886, pp. 157-159. The lion cage was evidently one of the main attractions in Florence for Charles VIII asked to visit it in 1494: Landucci, (note 14 above), p. 81.

21. G. Villani, Cronica, F. Gherardi Dragomanni (ed.), Florence, 1845, X, 183 and XI, 67.

22. Ibid., X, 199.

23. On Donatello's Marzocco see H.W. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, Prince ton, 1963, pp. 41-43.

24. Franco Sacchetti, Il Libro delle rime, A. Chiari (ed.), Bari, 1936, p. 190. Evidence that the Lion was the center of celebrations signifying political change or suc cess comes also from a song written on the eve of Cosimo de Medici's return from exile, see F.R. Flamini, La lirica Toscana del Rinascimento anteriore ai tempi del Magnifico, Pisa, 1891, p. 97.

25. See L. Gatti, "The ‘comune studio libertatis' of Florence and Venice, and the Political Implications of the Pre-Medicean Restoration of the Convent of San Marco," QUASAR, 13-14,1995, pp. 37-48.

26. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Consulte e Pratiche, 48, f. 51r.

27. G. Richa, Notizie Istoriche delle Chiese Fiorentine, divise ne' suoi Quartieri, 10 vols., Florence, 1754-1762, vol. 2, p. 213.

28. This part of the Statutes is quoted in U. Dorini, "Il culto delle memorie Patrie nella Repubblica di Firenze," Rassegna Nazionale, CLXXIX, 1911, pp. 3-25, p. 51.

29. M. Becker, "Church and State in Florence at the Eve of the Renaissance. 1343- 1382," Speculum, XXXVIII, 1962, pp. 509-27.

30. G. Tognetti, "Amare la patria più che l'anima. Contributo circa la genesi di un atteggiamento religioso," in Studi sul medioevo cristiano offerti a Raffaello Morghen, II, Rome, 1974, pp. 1011-26, p. 1011.

31. G. Cavalcanti, Istorie Fiorentine, G. di Pino (ed.), Milan, 1944, p. 301.

32. For Porcari's speeches see Prose del Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno inedite alcune, Giuliari (ed.), in Scelta di Curiosità Letterarie, 141, Bologna, 1874, where they are erroneusly attributed to Buonaccorso da Montemagno.

33. Porcari, Ibid., p. 14.

34. Ibid., pp. 14-15.

35. Ibid., pp. 15-16.

36. Ibid., p. 17.

37. Ibid., p. 18.

38. Ibid., pp. 18-19.

39. Ibid., p. 23.

40. Ibid., p. 26.

41. Ibid.

42. On the development of a male-heroic ideology see R. Starn, "Reinvent ing heroes in Renaissance Italy," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XVII, 1986, pp. 67-84.