In the context of the centenary anniversaries of the deaths of Boiardo (d. 1494) and Tasso (d. 1595), this conference considered the evolution of Ferrarese culture in the dramatic period between the late fifteenth and the end of the sixteenth centuries. During this period of extraordinary ferment in Italy and in Europe generally, Ferrara represents one of the most interesting cases of cultural accomplishment. Literature, both romance epic and lyric poetry; musical composition; court society; military technology; religious dissent; gender identity; and artistic patronage are among the domains in which significant cultural transformation was taking place.

Sponsored by the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, the University of Pittsburgh, Purdue University, and Washington University in Saint Louis; and organized by Albert Russell Ascoli, Northwestern University (now at University of California, Berkeley), and Elissa B. Weaver, University of Chicago.

Thursday, April 27

Welcome

Session 1: Keynote Address

Introduction
Elissa Weaver, University of Chicago

Gerrara: Images of a Renaissance State
Riccardo Bruscagli, Universitá di Firenze

Reading

The Orlando Innamorato
Charles Ross, Purdue University

Friday, April 28

Session 2: The Arts

Chair: Michael Sherberg, Washington University in Saint Louis

The Legacy of Josquin Desprez in Ferrarese Musical Culture of the Sixteenth Century
Lewis Lockwood, Harvard University

What’s in a Name? Patters of Este Art Patronage in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Charles Rosenberg, University of Notre Dame

Staging Ferrara: State Theater from Borso to Alfonso III
Louise George Clubb, University of California, Berkeley

Session 3: History and Society

Chair: Michael Murrin, University of Chicago

Civic Values in Renaissance Ferrara
Werner Gundersheimer, Folger Shakespeare Library

Judeo-Christian Cultural Relations in Conquecento Ferrara
Robert Bonfil, Hebrew University

Heresy and Reform at Ferrara in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century
Adriano Prosperi, Università di Pisa

Saturday, April 29

Session 4: Literature

Chair: Dennis Looney, University of Pittsburgh

First Lady/Second Sovereign: Isabella d’Este and the Power of Feminine Personae
Deanna Shemek, University of California, Santa Cruz

Olympia Morata, from Classicist to Reformer
Janet Levarie Smarr, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Quarrel between Arms and Letters in the Gerusalemme Liberata
David Quint, Yale University

Torquato Tasso in the Age of Dissimulation
Sergio Zatti, Università di Genova

Session 5: Roundtable

Chairs: Albert Russell Ascoli and Elissa Weaver

Learn more about Center for Renaissance Studies programs.