Italian Renaissance festivals and their European influence (review)

278 Reviews Mulryne, J. R. and Margaret Shewring, eds, Italian Renaissance festivals and their European influence, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, Edwin Mellen Press, 1992; cloth; pp. xv, 346; 80 plates; R.R.P. US$89.95. Although not part of Mellen's excellent series, edited by Christopher Cairns, on the Italian origins of European theatre, this volume of fifteen essays maintains the standards of scholarly excellence and freshness that characterizes the best research in thefieldand that series in particular. Most of the papers published here were originally given at a specialist seminar in the graduate school of Renaissance studies, held at die University of Warwick in 1990. They discussfeste and treatises and descriptions that deal with them from 1560 to 1660. In thefirstsection, on the theory and practice of festivals, Giinter Berghaus in 'Theatre performances at Italian Renaissance festivals: muldmedia spectacles or GesamtkunstwerkeV examines late-sixteenth-century Florentine experiments of music theatre as examples avant la lettre of the romantic notion of Gesamtkunstwerk and finds in Bardi's Camerata Fiorentina the fulfilment of the Neoplatonic concept of harmony and unity. Roger Savage in 'Staging an intermedio: practical advice from Florence circa 1630' examines // Corago, an anonymous Florentine treatise, and discusses the practical advice it gives in die context of what is actually known from official descriptions as well as from gossip and anecdote about spectacle production in Florence and odier centres in the period. These flourish, it would seem, in the theatrical milieu. The focus of the second section is on festivals in Italy: Alessandro Marcigliano on 'Cavallerie a Ferrara 1561-1570', Lina Urban on 'Feste veneziane cinquecentesche', Christopher Cairns on 'Theatre as festival: the staging of Aretino's Talanta (1542) and the influence of Vasari', and Jessica Gordon on 'Entertainments for the marriages of the princesses of Savoy in 1608'. Caims's article, based on extensive work towards staging a modem version of Talanta, puts drawings, text, and description together to show how Vasari, under the influence of Serlio and Peruzzi, constructed the famous perspective scene of R o m e in an uncompromisingly Venetian space. The remaining sections deal with Italian influence in other parts of Europe. M . A. Katritzky in 'The diaries of prince Ferdinand of Bavaria: commedia dell'arte at the wedding festivals of Florence (1565) and Munich (1568)' finds evidence that the establishment of the convnedia dell'arte as part of Bavarian court entertainment relates directly to experience of the Reviews 279 commedia in Florence and Ferrara in 1565 and 1566. Helen WatanabeO 'Kelly in 'From Italy to Versailles via Bavaria: the Munich Applausi of 1662 and Les plaisirs de I'isle enchantie' describes a process of transmission, as the daughter of a French princess in Turin takes Italian practices with her to Munich in 1564, which in their turn influence spectacles back at the court of Versailles. J. R. Mulryne in 'Marriage entertainments in the Palatinate for princess Elizabeth Stuart and the Elector Palatine' examines the political significance of the entertainments of 161213 . H. Gaston Hall in 'Italian participation in French court ballet, come"dieballet and opera 1581-1674', Marie-Claude Canova-Green in 'Les "feste teatrali" de Mantoue et de Florence en 1608 et leurs metamorphoses sur la schne francaise'', and Josephe Jacquiot in 'De Ventree de Cesar a Rome a I'entrie des rois de France dans leurs bonne villes' constitute the Frenc section. John Peacock in 'Ben Jonson and the Italian festival books', Olav Lausund in 'Splendour at the Danish court the coronation of Christian IV, and H. Neville Davies in 'The limitations of festival: Christian IV's state visittoEngland in 1606', make up the Anglo-Danish section. Only the most dedicated student of European festivals and their Italian origins will read this volume from cover to cover. The key conclusions can be drawn at any stage. Pageantry that represents the majesty of its sponsor is enormously expensive and has to be done properly. The elements proper to the Renaissance theatrical festivals include Italian-ness, though with Jonson this becomes an insult, and extravagant invention, grounded nevertheless in antiquity, that will inspire wonder and amazement. Nerida Newbigin Department of Italian University of Sydney Murdoch, Brian, Cornish literature, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1993...