Table Of ContentA SUDDEN FRENZY
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A Sudden Frenzy
Improvisation, Orality, and Power
in Renaissance Italy
JAMES K. COLEMAN
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 The Uses of Oral Poetry in Quattrocento Florence 19
2 “Inspired and Possessed”: Marsilio Ficino and Oral Poetry 42
3 “Secret Frenzies”: Angelo Poliziano and Invention 71
4 “The Power to Stir Up Others”: Lorenzo de’ Medici and
Improvisation 98
5 The Improvisor and the World of the Courts 121
Conclusion 145
Notes 159
Bibliography 209
Index 225
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Illustrations
1 Jacopo del Sellaio, Orpheus Charming Animals with His Music
(c. 1480–90) 12
2 Angelo Poliziano, Stanze, Orfeo (Florence, 1500), woodcut 13
3 La historia de Orpheo (Rome, c. 1500), frontispiece 14
4 La historia et favola d’Orpheo (Florence, 1567), frontispiece 15
5 Andrea Ferrucci, Bust of Marsilio Ficino (1521) 43
6 Kairos (first century CE), marble relief 94
7 Lorenzo de’ Medici, Selve d’amore (Florence, c. 1516),
frontispiece 110
8 Raffaello Sanzio, Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga (c. 1504–5) 142
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Acknowledgments
It gives me great pleasure to reflect, at the conclusion of this project, on
the many people who have helped to make it possible.
I begin by thanking Giuseppe Mazzotta, who was my PhD advisor at
Yale, and whose brilliant scholarship, teaching, and mentorship have
been invaluable to me. I am also very grateful to Millicent Marcus, David
Quint, Kristen Phillips-Court, Olivia Holmes, Angela Capodivacca, David
Lummus, and Risa Sodi, all of whom enriched my time at Yale. I also
wish to thank Michael Allen and Arielle Saiber for the generous men-
torship they provided while I was completing my graduate studies, and
subsequently.
I warmly thank my colleagues in the Department of French and
Italian at the University of Pittsburgh: Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski,
Lorraine Denman, Chloé Hogg, Lina Insana, Giuseppina Mecchia,
David Pettersen, Todd Reeser, Francesca Savoia, John Walsh, and Brett
Wells. I count myself truly fortunate to work in such a collegial depart-
ment. I owe a special thanks to our departmental administrator, Monika
Losagio. Other Pitt colleagues whose perspectives I have particularly
benefited from include Drew Armstrong, Jacques Bromberg, Shirin
Fozi, Ryan McDermott, Christopher Nygren, Pernille Røge, Adam Shear,
Jennifer Waldron, and Molly Warsh.
My interest in Florence’s canterini was first sparked by Alessandro Duranti
and Marco Villoresi of the University of Florence, and I remain very grate-
ful to both. Numerous subsequent research trips to Florence have made
this book possible, and I am grateful to the colleagues and friends who have
provided guidance, support, and camaraderie during my time in F lorence,
including Maria Checchi, Gian Paolo Pazzi, Mary Doyno, Michael Hower-
ton, Stefano Baldassarri, Jason Houston, and Stefano Zamponi.
My work has benefited greatly from conversations with many other
colleagues, among whom I wish to thank in particular Albert Ascoli,
x Acknowledgments
Laura Benedetti, Paul Richard Blum, Stephen Campbell, Jo Ann C avallo,
Christopher Celenza, James Hankins, Earle Havens, Timothy Kircher,
Victoria Kirkham, Arthur Lesley, John McLucas, Leslie Morgan, A ndrea
Moudarres, April Oettinger, Alessandro Polcri, Valery Rees, Hollis R obbins,
Marcello Simonetta, Walter Stephens, Jane Tylus, and Susan Weiss.
My work has been supported by a number of institutions. The University
of Pittsburgh’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences provided essential
support in the form of a junior research leave semester in the spring
of 2019, which gave me the precious time to finish writing the manu-
script. I gratefully acknowledge the University of Pittsburgh European
Study Center’s financial support in the form of a faculty research grant.
A recent fellowship at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for
Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, allowed me to embark on a new
project in the 2019–20 academic year after finishing this book’s man-
uscript; access to the I Tatti library then proved extremely helpful for
me while completing revisions to this text in 2021. I especially thank
I Tatti’s director, Alina Payne, as well as Giovanni Pagliarulo, Michael
Rocke, and all of the I Tatti librarians. I also thank the librarians of
the Biblioteca R iccardiana, the Biblioteca Medicea L aurenziana, the
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, the Vatican Library, the Bib-
lioteca Casanatense, and the libraries of Yale University (especially the
Beinecke), Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
My editor, Suzanne Rancourt, has been extraordinarily helpful and a
pleasure to work with; I thank her and everyone at University of Toronto
Press who has contributed to this book’s publication. I thank the two
anonymous readers who reviewed the manuscript for their thoughtful
feedback, from which the book has certainly benefited. I am grateful
to Lisa Regan and TextFormations for their careful work on the book’s
index.
I thank my parents, siblings, and all my family for their love and sup-
port. It is poignant to write these words at a time when the COVID-19
pandemic has kept us apart for so long; may they emerge from the press
in a time of renewed togetherness.
This book would not have been possible without the support of my
wife, Elizabeth Archibald, who has patiently read and discussed my work
in progress and, with her love and humour, has brought me more joy
than I can say. My children, Eleanor and Samuel, have brightened every
one of my days since their arrivals. I dedicate this book to you three, with
my love.
