This paper studies the group of men on the lower right side of Raphael's School of Athens. While the portrayal of Euclid is undisputed, the figures who are attached to him have not yet been firmly identified. In studying these figures as part of the intellectual fabric of the painting as a whole, it becomes clear that each of these figures has a meaningful role that cannot be deduced by mere guessing. The figure with his back to us is quite clearly the great mathematician-cosmographer Ptolemy of Alexandria. Not only because he wears a particular crown, but more importantly because the globe he holds is terrestrial - a symbol of his scientific contribution to the humanist curriculum - can we be certain of his presence. The man who faces him is most likely Strabo, the most famous geographer known throughout medieval times and one who was also appreciated by humanists, especially for his consideration of the sphere and the celestial aspects of the universe in his Geography. Both Ptolemy and Strabo are well placed next to Euclid, for both are concerned with geometry. The two men to the far right are, it is suggested here, two famous painters of Greek antiquity, Apelles (in the guise of Raphael) and Protogenes (in the guise of Timoteo Viti?), whose presence reflects the interests of artists in the early Cinquecento. All these heroes are appropriately placed on Aristotle's side of the painting.

The Vatican Map Gallery (1579-81) contains fifty-one historical paintings in its vault and twenty-three historical vignettes on its monumental maps of Italy. Inspired by an early-Christian conception of the past, the vault paintings illustrate a "perfect" history, typified by saints' miracles. The contrasting vignettes demand more painstaking interpretation. Embedded in geography, they appear to exemplify a terrestrial history (reminiscent of Orosius) that, when not bathed in blood, teaches the vanity of earthbound strivings. Maps for history did not again take this form.

Titian's drawing called Pastoral Scene or Landscape with a Sleeping Nude and Animals is no ordinary landscape, its unordinariness underscored by an unusual combination of elements, which I maintain reveals a new and unique version of Lot and His Daughters. I contend that the large, naked woman in the right foreground is one of Lot's daughters; the two small figures resting or sleeping beneath the trees are Lot and his other daughter; the thatched houses in the middle left represent the little town of Segor where Lot first fled; the sheep represent livestock that Lot brought out of Sodom, as do the boar and goat; the boar and goat, however, also serve as symbols of lust and lechery; and the distant city with burning buildings in the city's right quarter is Sodom. Titian's inventiveness created an iconographic variation of an ancient theme.

A growing appreciation for the physiological dimensions of human behavorial problems is evident in Renaissance therapeutics. Both physicians and moral philosophers came to admit that passionate impulses like blasphemy and fist-fighting frequently erupted prior to conscious thought. Instead of relying exclusively on ascetic discipline and rational reflection as means to subdue undesirable emotions, post-medieval therapeutics added a number of mood-altering techniques such as music, dance, conversation, baths, and meditation on graphic images. The psychological premise of the new morality of the Renaissance was not flight from the body but respectful acceptance of its passionate interests.

Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, a wealthy Spanish noblewoman, lived as a missionary in London preaching, teaching, and doing charitable work on behalf of the Catholic underground from 1605 to 1614. Although the early loss of her parents and other close family members in rapid succession and the abuses she suffered at the hands of her guardian uncle might appear to have disadvantaged her, Carvajal transformed her misfortunes into advantages by using them to intensify her embrace of penitential piety and traditional Catholic virtues as exemplified by saints' lives. Her manifestation of those virtues inspired religious authorities to accept her as a missionary, against substantial odds. She thus provides evidence of how Counter-Reformation practices and beliefs facilitated some exceptional women's achievements.

In the years 1599-1604, Grand Duke Ferdinando I de'Medici ordered state gifts of contemporary Florentine paintings for three influential Spanish noblewomen (Catalina de la Cerda, Marquesa de Denia; Magdalena de Guzmán, Marquesa del Valle; and María de Toledo y Colonna, Duquesa de Alba). The problem of producing images suitable for Spanish usage is discussed in explicit detail, in a series of documents recently discovered in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze.