Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance

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Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance is a monograph by the historian, security analyst , and writer Hugh Bicheno . It was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in London in 2008 and is assigned to micro-history . Based on a family feud between the Malatesta and the Montefeltro clans, the author describes the story of the "Age of the Condottieri ". The work is dedicated to the end of the Middle Ages in Italy with a focus on the regions Emiglia-Romagna and the Marches from the 13th to the 15th centuries.

content

Bicheno explains at the beginning that he considers it necessary to put aside both the approach of Marxist historiography and that of " political correctness ", which is closely linked to the "American way". He advocates understanding human history as one of contingency. By this he means that historians can, in retrospect, bring historical facts into a coherent narrative; For the people involved at the time, however, it was mostly difficult to understand or even inconceivable what individual events should mean. To support this thesis, the author envisages a micro-historical perspective. By concentrating on individuals in late Middle Ages Italy (especially Federico Montefeltro and Sigismondo Malatesta) and their local and socio-cultural positioning, Bicheno can show that supposedly small or marginal historical events can lead to apparently disproportionate effects.

The hostile relationship between the families of the Montefeltri and the Malatesti, two Italian mercenary dynasties, serves as a central case study . In order to be able to understand the conflict that has been smoldering for centuries with all its implications, it is not enough to record main events on a macro level in serial historiography, but rather individual contextualizations must be made. It turns out that the plot of a single personality was often more decisive for the course of history, and especially for the beginning of the so-called Age of the Renaissance , than the influence of major events. Who married whom, whether (male or female or at all) offspring were conceived and how they then behaved, outweighs the effects of the great battles or changes in power on a national level, according to Bicheno. Bicheno calls these situations "what if" moments in which the story could easily have developed differently.

The author puts forward a large number of other theses that he takes up in the course of the book. One of the most important theses of the work is that Bicheno ascribes a great destructive power to the age of the Condottieri, but also characterizes it as creative and thus describes it as a driver for the preparation of the Renaissance. He exemplifies this using the example of Tempio Malatestiano , to which he dedicates a separate chapter. Sigismondo Malatesta, chosen by most historians as a symbol of the destructive and brutal condottiere, used the wealth that he had gained through the mercenary trade to hire the architect Leon Battista Alberti to build a new Franciscan church. It is telling not only that the necessary financial resources came from warfare, but also that a church building was converted into a temple for an individual in order to retain their fame. The former church was converted into an aesthetic place of worship, which reflects the decreasing influence of religion. Bicheno states that the highly cultivated Malatesta, especially in his view of the non-existence of life after death, represented very modern views and thus promoted the humanistic values ​​of the Renaissance.

Synopsis

Against this meta-background, Bicheno combines in an entertaining way, but also very detailed, the story of the feud between the two family clans with the larger context of the history of Italy from the 13th to the 15th century and the rise of the Renaissance. As the title suggests, the author focuses above all on the slyness of the condottieri and the development of the Renaissance arts, which began at this time.

The opening chapters of the book are primarily devoted to the historical context. After an introduction about the origin of the vendetta, the author describes the structures of the territories of the Marche and Emigila Romagna, the Condottieri and their interlocking with secular and ecclesiastical power, their representation in art and what important role they play in the patronage for various art commissions at the beginning of the 14th century. Finally, on the last pages there is a documentation about various places and buildings mentioned in the book that the author visited for his research.

Only about halfway through the work does Bicheno illuminate the actual protagonists: Sigismondo Malatesta and Federico Montefeltro. In these chapters the author tries, among other things, to fathom and relativize the stereotypes and prejudices against the two characters. For example, he comes to the conclusion that the much-touted Federico Montefeltro, who is often described as an ideal condottiere, lover of the arts and pious Christian, was also guided by profit-oriented thinking. He used the wealth that he had accumulated at the end of his life mainly to reinvest in art, not for the sake of art, but for the sake of money.

During the lifetime of the two condottieri, the 200-year blood feud between their families came to a head and finally came to an end in 1462. For more than a year, the two opponents had competed in many arguments. Ultimately, Montefeltro emerged victorious from the war, Malatesta had to put up with a minimum of land ownership and the loss of his honor.

reception

In her book What is microhistory? the authors István Szijártó and Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon explain three points by which they define microhistory. The first feature is the "intensive historical investigation of a relatively well-defined, small object". The authors see the second in the use of synecdoches and as a third characteristic they name the individual's social ability to act. With his book, Bicheno fulfills all three, paying particular attention to the last aspect by preferring contingency and individual capacity to act over the power of supra-personal structures and thus giving them more importance. Vendetta is classified by the two accordingly as a microhistory work and presented in the chapter The American microhistory of Italy . They attest to Bicheno that, thanks to the detailed explanations of warfare in the Renaissance, his work is the best source of information on this subject.

From a scientific point of view, the author can be criticized for the fact that his source citation is difficult to understand and that it does not comply with current standards. For the most part, the reader has to find out for himself which source Bicheno really relies on for individual statements.

Few reviews of the monograph have appeared in the academic world; Even in popular science, the effect remained modest. In an article in the Telegraph , the journalist and military historian Saul David criticizes the fact that the project promises a lot in its outline, but that the book is nothing more than an unfinished script. As a result, it remains unfocused and cannot captivate the reader for a long time. He also states that the period covered is too broad and the author is therefore forced to describe countless personalities, which in places overwhelms the reader.

output

  • English original edition: Hugh Bicheno: Vendetta: high art and low cunning at the birth of the Renaissance. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-84634-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hugh Bicheno: Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance . Ed .: The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-84634-5 , pp. 4 .
  2. ^ Hugh Bicheno: Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance . Ed .: The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-84634-5 , pp. 4th ff .
  3. ^ Hugh Bicheno: Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance . Ed .: The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-84634-5 , pp. 108, 228 .
  4. ^ Hugh Bicheno: Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance . Ed .: The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-84634-5 , pp. 168-180 .
  5. ^ Hugh Bicheno: Vendetta: High Art and Low Cunning at the Birth of the Renaissance . Ed .: The Orion Publishing Group Ltd. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-84634-5 , pp. 223 ff .
  6. ↑ István Szijártó, Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon: What is micro history? Theory and Practice . Routledge, London / New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-69208-3 , pp. 4th ff .
  7. ↑ István Szijártó, Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon: What is micro history? Theory and Practice. Routledge, London / New York 2013 .: What is microhistory? Theory and Practice . Routledge, London / New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-69208-3 , pp. 39 ff .
  8. ↑ István Szijártó, Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon: What is micro history? Theory and Practice . Routledge, London / New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-69208-3 , pp. 56 ff .
  9. ^ Saul David: Back-stabbing in medieval Italy. In: The Daily Telegraph. April 6, 2008, accessed July 12, 2019 .