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NECROMANCY IN RENAISSANCE ROME
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2024
Abstract
Florence, Bibliotheca Riccardiana MS 996 is an interesting miscellany of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century texts. Among the manuscript's curious content is Dominici Cerbonii Tifernatis TERtheus Magus (‘The Triple God Magus of Domenico Cerbonio from Città di Castello’, fols 7r–10v). Evenly written in a neat humanistic cursive, with rubrication for the titles and a single marginal note (interpreted here as a stage direction), these folios form an account, in Latin prose and verse, of a necromantic ritual performed by members of the Roman Academy in which the shades of Cicero and Virgil are conjured from the pagan underworld to admire the Renaissance city. It is tempting to take this pagan rite as proof of the charges of heresy levelled at members of the Academy for which they were arrested and imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo on the orders of Pope Paul II Barbo (r. 1464–71) during Lent, 1468. However, this paper argues that the texts are evidence of a dramatic performance with scenery (or at least a theatrical backdrop) staged by the members of the reformed Academy as part of their annual celebrations of the Palilia (or Parilia) on Rome's birthday 21 April c. 1501.
Il manoscritto Firenze, Bibliotheca Riccardiana MS 996 è un'interessante miscellanea di testi di fine Quattrocento e inizio Cinquecento. Tra i contenuti curiosi del manoscritto si deve annoverare il Dominici Cerbonii Tifernatis TERtheus Magus (‘Il triplice Dio Mago di Domenico Cerbonio da Città di Castello’, ff. 7r–10v). Scritti uniformemente in corsivo umanistico, con rubricature per i titoli e un'unica nota marginale (qui interpretata come una regia teatrale), questi fogli costituiscono il resoconto, in prosa e versi latini, di un rituale negromantico eseguito dai membri dell'Accademia romana, in cui le ombre di Cicerone e Virgilio vengono evocate dagli inferi pagani per ammirare la città rinascimentale. Si è tentati di considerare questo rito pagano come una prova delle accuse di eresia rivolte ai membri dell'Accademia, per le quali furono arrestati e imprigionati a Castel Sant'Angelo per ordine di Papa Paolo II Barbo (1464–1471) durante la Quaresima del 1468. Tuttavia, il presente lavoro sostiene come i testi siano la prova di una rappresentazione drammatica con scenografie (o almeno un fondale teatrale) messa in scena dai membri dell'Accademia riformata come parte delle loro celebrazioni annuali dei Palilia (o Parilia) nel giorno del compleanno di Roma, il 21 aprile del 1501 circa.
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