Myth in the Renaissance
G.S.
Hi,
I'm an English PhD student beginning to prepare for dissertation
work on the topic of myth and its uses in the Renaissance. Anyone
have any good resources to recommend?
Thanks,
G.S.
Kim Burkard
> I'm an English PhD student beginning to prepare for dissertation
>work on the topic of myth and its uses in the Renaissance. Anyone
>have any good resources to recommend?
Although these are not literary sources, per se, they may be useful in
your research:
- Look into Renaissance artists/art. Mythological subject
matter shows up in quite a number of paintings, sculpture,
etc. For ex. think of a picture of Venus and you are probably
thinking of Botticelli's Venus (you know, "Venus on the
half-shell"!). He is a pretty famous Renaissance artist.
Any good art history books will give you an overview of
the Renaissance and you can use that as a starting point.
I assume your university has some art history classes so
you may be able to start in your own school's bookstore or
library.
Art has so much history, anthropology, myth, and legend
imbued in it that I couldn't resist minoring in art history
when I was in college. ;) I'd suggest art history classes
for those myth addicts out there.
- I don't know how much you may find here, but you could
also try looking for songs and music of the Renaissance.
In particular, ballads or folk songs. They're just poems
set to music. There are some web sites around with trad-
itional song databases. Hang out for a short while on
rec.music.celtic and you'll see their addresses posted.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
-kim
---
Kimberly Burkard | _ Everything I needed to know in life, I
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Nolo
On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, G.S. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm an English PhD student beginning to prepare for dissertation
> work on the topic of myth and its uses in the Renaissance. Anyone
> have any good resources to recommend?
>
Yes: *Touches of Sweet Harmony*, on the influence of
Pythagoreanism in the Renaissance. While not myth per se, it discusses
extensively the influence of such doctrines as 'correspondences', which
riddled intellectual life at that time. From the Huntington Library, in
California.
*The Good Walkers* (in It. *Benandante*), by (? Aaaah!),
published in translation in the early/mid 80's. The Church discovers to
its amazement a 'sect' of 'good witches' among the Friuli, not many miles
from Rome itself. They all are born with a 'caul' (amniotic sac) around
them, and battle the evil witches on the two Ember-days for the crops.
Another book by the same author is *The Cheese and the Worms*.
Again, the puzzled Inquisition encounters a freethinking Friuli miller
who spouts 'Lutheran' nonsense, mixes the Land of Cockaigne in, and
believes, it seems along with others, that the world did not begin ex
nihilo but was an undifferentiated mass, 'like a cheese', and that the
angels were born from it like worms in rotting cheese. The author
discusses the survival of pagan forms among such villagers (mythographers
may recognise the World from Previous Chaos in the miller's idea above),
and the 'modern' Church's head-scratching attempts to understand it.
Dover publishes (while we're on the subject of witches) a
translation of the Hammer of Evildoers (Malleus Maleficarum), *the*
Reanissance book on witches and their ways, used by the Inquisition.
It is interesting that the Middle Ages didn't much go for
witchery; the high noon of magic was the Renaissance.
Good luck!
` Nolo
Jumgolaya
Nolo <spe...@river.it.gvsu.edu> writes:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm an English PhD student beginning to prepare for dissertation
>> work on the topic of myth and its uses in the Renaissance. Anyone
>> have any good resources to recommend?
>>
you know shakespeare got a lot of his material from myths. i don't know
if that ties in with what you're doing but there it is.
agntshawn
PACO 5
'Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the 16th & 17th Centuries') is Carlo
Ginzburg.
"Night Battles" is the title of the translated "I Benandanti." Both are
available through Penguin Books.
From Nolo:
<<It is interesting that the Middle Ages didn't much go for
witchery; the high noon of magic was the Renaissance.>>
Actually, considering Qabalism, Humanism, clerical corruption (combined
with rising national power), and the backlash of the black plague, the
Renaissance was a much more ripe time than the Middle Ages for magic and
divergent mythology to gain a foothold. It was in the Renaissance that we
saw the Black Sabbats, a terrible fascination with death, and, if I
remember correctly, the King of France accusing the Templars of being
devil-worshippers. The Middle Ages were pretty solidly Christian,
especially considering that the Church was _the_ primary political force
in that era.
A question re: Malleus Malificarum. Could I get some publishing data
perhaps, so I can get myself a copy of that ole' Behemoth? Thanks.
William
William