Research Catalog

Title

Petrarch's war : Florence and the Black Death in context / William Caferro.

Author

Caferro, William

Publication

• Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 228 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• "This revisionist account of the economic, literary and social history of Florence in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death connects warfare with the plague narrative. Organised around Petrarch's 'war' against the Ubaldini clan of 1349-1350, which formed the prelude to his meeting and friendship with Boccaccio, William Caferro's work examines the institutional and economic effects of the war, alongside literary and historical patterns. Caferro pays close attention to the meaning of wages in context, including those of soldiers, thereby revising our understanding of wage data in the distant past and highlighting the consequences of a constricted workforce that resulted in the use of cooks and servants on important embassies. Drawing on rigorous archival research, this book will stimulate discussion among academics and offers a new contribution to our understanding of Renaissance Florence. It stresses the importance of short-termism and contradiction as subjects of historical inquiry"--
• "Contradiction is the subject of this book. It takes as its title, "Petrarch's War," by way of emphasizing the fact. The author of "Italia mia," the famous pacific poem, ending with a threefold call for peace on the peninsula, wrote a letter to Florentine officials in June 1349 demanding that the city wage war while it was still suffering the immediate effects of the devastating plague of the previous year. Petrarch's call to arms appears in the same collection of epistles (Book Eight of Rerum familiarum libri or Familiares) that also contains his famous lament about the pestilence. Petrarch sent his bellicose letter, Familiares VIII 10, to the Florentine priors. It was transcribed by Giovanni Boccaccio, a long-time admirer of Petrarch, who had recently returned to his native city and was then writing the Decameron. Shortly thereafter Florence sent out its army. The target was the Ubaldini clan of the Upper Mugello, who had attacked two of Petrarch's closest friends as they traveled through the mountainous region"--

Subjects

• Renaissance
• Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375
• Civilization
• To 1421
• Military history
• Florence (Italy) > History, Military
• Italy > Florence
• Renaissance > Italy > Florence
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374 > Criticism and interpretation
• Florence (Italy) > Civilization
• Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375 > Criticism and interpretation
• HISTORY / Europe / General
• Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374 > Epistolae familiares VIII, 10
• Epistolae familiares (Petrarca, Francesco)

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• Military history.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 200-219) and index.

Contents

Introduction: the plague in context: Florence 1349-1350 -- 1. Petrarch's war -- 2. The practice of war and the Florentine army -- 3. Economy of war at a time of plague -- 4. Plague, soldiers' wages, and the Florentine public workforce -- 5. The bell ringer travels to Avignon, the cook goes to Hungary: towards an understanding of the Florentine labor force, 1349-1350 -- Epilogue: why two years matter (and the short-term is not inconsistent with the long-term).

Call Number

JFE 18-7152

ISBN

• 9781108424011
• 1108424015

LCCN

2017054570

OCLC

1014459779

Author

Caferro, William, author.

Title

Petrarch's war : Florence and the Black Death in context / William Caferro.

Publisher

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 200-219) and index.

Chronological Term

To 1421

Research Call Number

JFE 18-7152