The Pathways of Knowledge in Boiardo and Ariosto: The Case of Rodamonte

How do we come to know? What can be known? How can true knowledge be distinguished from belief and opinion? What are the effects of knowledge? How does knowledge shape the course of our actions? These are some of the questions that philosophers were asking in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Italy.The answers would have differed depending on whether one adhered to scholastic Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, "nature philosophies," or Skepticism, but all schools of thought were engaged in discussions about the nature of knowledge. Philosophers, moreover, were not the only ones interested in the process of knowledge acquisition and the relation of knowledge to action. In this essay I focus on how the poets Matteo Maria Boiardo and Lodovico Ariosto develop their thoughts on the subject in their romance epics, Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso. My intention is not to fit them into any particular philosophical movement (although correspondences will be noted when relevant), but rather to show that both poets were deeply aware of the questions surrounding the issue of knowledge and that they provided their own answers through their fiction

Talking Religion: The Conversion of Agricane in Boiardo's Orlando innamorato

Agricane’s final dialogue with Orlando under a starry night sky is one of the few episodes from the Orlando innamorato routinely included in Italian literature anthologies. Despite its status as “l’episodio forse più noto di tutto il poema boiardesco”, however, it has not received much critical attention. By taking account of the scene’s literary precedents and historical allusions, I aim to offer a new reading of Agricane’s eleventh-hour conversion

Boiardo and Ariosto in Contemporary Sicilian Puppet Theater and the Tuscan-Emilian Epic Maggio

Characters from medieval and Renaissance chivalric texts have been given tangible form through the centuries not only in operatic, melo-dramatic, theatrical and, more recently, cinematic adaptations, but also in popular performance traditions such as Sicilian puppet theater (opera dei pupi) and the folk operas (maggi epici) of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. This essay traces the reimagining of a sampling of non-Christian characters and non-European places from Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato and Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso by a number of contemporary puppet theater and maggio companies. My contention is that an examination of select scenes available online, in conjunction with a close reading of the original episodes, may help students think more deeply about perennial issues addressed in the two poems—related to gender roles, the foreign and religious Other, violence, and political power—that continue to be relevant today

Malaguerra: The anti-state super-hero of Sicilian Puppet Theater

Anche se il personaggio è poco conosciuto oggi, Morbello/Malaguerra era famoso in Sicilia e altrove in Italia dalla metà del XIX alla metà del XX secolo. Questo saggio si concentra sulle sue vicissitudini in stampa (Storia dei Paladini di Francia) e nell’opera dei pupi, ma anche sulla diffusione del suo nome e sulle sue avventure fuori Sicilia, sia nel maggio epico del Nord Italia che nei copioni di un puparo catanese attivo a New York City. Poiché Malaguerra contesta ripetutamente le ingiustizie perpetrate dai potenti, la sua storia ci ricorda che l'opera dei pupi non era semplicemente una soap opera cavalleresca per le masse prima della televisione, ma poteva essere un veicolo per esprimere un atteggiamento critico verso lo Stato sotto la copertura di drammatizzazioni epiche medievali e rinascimentali. Può darsi, infatti, che il suo sottofondo politico sia stato un motivo della sua popolarità sia nell'Italia meridionale che tra gli immigrati italiani nei centri urbani del Nuovo Mondo. Più in generale, il saggio intende contribuire alla discussione delle ideologie politiche nel genere epico cavalleresco, soprattutto nel contesto della cultura popolare italiana.Although this literary figure is little known today, Morbello/Malaguerra was famous in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy from the mid-19th to mid-20th century. This essay focuses on his vicissitudes in print (Storia dei paladini di Francia) and on the puppet theater stage, with some attention to the spread of his name and adaptation of his adventures outside Sicily, both in the epic Maggio tradition of northern Italy and in the scripts of a Catanese puppeteer active in New York City. Because Malaguerra repeatedly contests the injustices perpetrated by those in power, his story reminds us that l’opera dei pupi was not simply a chivalric soap opera for the masses before television, but could be a vehicle to express a critical attitude toward the State under the cover of dramatizing medieval and Renaissance epics. Indeed, it may be that puppet theater’s political undercurrent was a factor in its massive popularity both in southern Italy and among Italian immigrants in urban centers of the New World. More generally, the essay aims to contribute to the discussion of political ideologies in the chivalric epic genre, especially in the context of Italian popular culture

Marco Polo on the Mongol State: Taxation, Predation, and Monopolization

In Marco Polo’s Travels, the market is depicted as a voluntary means of production and exchange, leading to the creation of material abundance and wellbeing, whereas the Mongol state, by contrast, is repeatedly engaged in the extraction of wealth at the point of a sword. This paper examines Polo’s descriptions of the economic and political features of the Mongol empire through the lens of Austrian economics, with particular attention to taxes and tariffs, government spending, predation, state monopolies, currency manipulation, prohibitions and regulations, and control and surveillance

On Political Power and Personal Liberty in The Prince and The Discourses

Although liberty is a recurring concern in Machiavelli’s writings, there is no consensus regarding either the definition of the concept or its relevance for his overall political thought. One direction of Machiavellian interpretation that has gained prominence in recent decades has focused on the concept of “libertas” in relation to a republican mode of government, even though Machiavelli’s use of liberty cannot be simply equated with republicanism. In tracing the various occurrences of the term in Machiavelli’s political works, Marcia Colish has pointed out that in the context of internal affairs “Machiavelli often connects libertà with certain personal rights and community benefits that characterize free states regardless of their constitutions.” She specifies, in fact, that “he clearly identifies freedom with the protection of private rights” (1971, 345–6). Following up on Colish’s findings, this essay focuses on liberty in The Prince and The Discourses as it relates to freedom from government infringement on one’s person and rightful property. The theoretical backing for this approach can be found in Murray N. Rothbard’s understanding of freedom as “a condition in which a person’s ownership rights in his own body and his legitimate material property are not invaded, are not aggressed against” (2011, 50; emphasis in the original). In this definition, “the invasion of another’s person or property” occurs through “the use or threat of physical violence” (Rothbard 1982, 223).3 I also suggest that Machiavelli’s considerations of personal liberty in opposition to state power have relevance for our contemporary political milieu

Introduction to Speaking Truth to Power from Medieval to Modern Italy

Introduction to twenty essays on literary and historical texts, from medieval to modern Italy, in which authors or characters challenge the established power of the state at the risk of their livelihood or their very lives

Introduction

The essay introduces the issue dedicated to World Epics and Puppet Theate

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI