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Reviewed by:
  • Princes and Princely Culture 1450-1650
  • Nicole Hochner
Martin Gosman, Alasdair Macdonald, and Arjo J. Vanderjagt, eds. Princes and Princely Culture 1450–1650. Vol. 1. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History 118. Leiden and Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003. xii + 376 pp. + 9 b/w pls. index. illus. bibl. $105. ISBN: 90–04–13572–3.

This volume, the first of two devoted to princes and princely culture in Europe between 1450–1650, contains essays on selected European courts north of [End Page 311] the Alps and the Pyrenees. The second volume will discuss the courts of England and of southern Europe. The two stated goals are to give a fresh reading of the relationship between princes and artists and patronage on the one hand, and to examine the ideology and symbolism of rulership and statehood on the other.

In the present study there are two introductory articles and eleven case studies organized chronologically per country. While an impressive range of geographical areas is taken into account (such as Scandinavia, Flanders, France, Burgundy, and Scotland), one can only regret the absence of a comparative study. On the other hand, issues such as gender are addressed in a number of contributions: in the court of archduchess Margaret of Austria in Mechenlen (by Dagmar Eichberger), during the reign of Catherine de Médicis (Margriet Hoogvliet), and during Mary Stewart Queen of Scots' personal reign (Michael Lynch). From one article to another it is also possible to follow the way the Reformation influenced and shaped alternative Protestant courtly culture and performance. Alan Swanson, for example, believes that the Reformation and the establishment of a strong royal center brought about a renewal of courtly and civil life in Scandinavia, a culture that allowed a national modern identity to arise, by for instance, encouraging the development of national languages. One of the questions Martin Gosman raises is to what extent individual artistic creations respond to the demands of existing "ideological" programs (15). The problems of interpretation and reception immediately arise. Since images from "Christian, pagan, legendary, mythological and even pseudo-Egyptian sources" (17) are so intricately woven together, one wonders whether their semantic charges are comprehensible to anyone other than the privileged elite. Michael Lynch discusses the question of popular (or non-elite) culture and that of the relation between noble culture and that of the urban-based intelligentsia. Alasdair A. MacDonald agrees that princes did not possess a monopoly on culture (one thinks, for instance, of the patronage of ecclesiastical authorities, not considered in this volume) and shows that it is not always feasible to delimit what belongs to courtly culture and when literature simply criticizes (or adorns) princes. Rita Schlusemann maintains that it is not decoding that is at stake but display; she gives the example of a literary patronage at the court of Heidelberg in the late fifteenth century where political interests reinvented a literary canon but avoided putting authors under propagandist dicta or a well-defined program. Gosman estimates that "as soon as the illiterate or the uneducated accept the basic principle that their country is superior to others . . . propaganda has achieved its aim" (19). Many contributors put forward the idea that princely patronage is not only a means to "fabricate" an imaginary myth of the ruler as a king but also, for instance, a way of presenting an image of the true literary patron (for James V of Scotland in an article by Janet Hadley Williams), the philosopher and erudite (for James VI discussed in Michael Lynch's article), the great healer (for Henry IV in an original contribution by Annette Finley-Croswhite), or the cosmopolitan leader (for Francis I in a fascinating article on cartography by Gayle K. Brunelle). But do [End Page 312] these myths put the artists in a dilemma between the "defence of the political ordo" and "the conservation of the truth of the prince" (25)? According to Gosman propaganda plays "a conservative as well as confirmative role," thus it cannot be said to be "vertical as in dictatorial states but mostly horizontal, as in modern states." This is especially significant when rituals, in a dramatic visualization of established hierarchies and values, create an appearance...

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