The Italian Presepe: Cultural Landscapes of the Soul

The Italian Presepe: Cultural Landscape of the Soul is an exploration of an important form of traditional religious Italian dioramic art depicting the Nativity. The Italian presepe is a widely practiced art form, encompassing in three dimensions elements of sculpture, painting and set design.https://crossworks.holycross.edu/art_catalogs/1000/thumbnail.jp

Fight or Flyte: Class Warfare in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

We all know what it is to fight. But to flyte? To flyte, a word from early English, meant to trade insults. A flyting contest was a game of insults. Who can lob the juiciest and the most devastating? In this class, we will read the Knight’s Tale and the Miller’s Tale to watch fighting and flyting at work. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales opens with a long, stately romance, a story of love and chivalric tournaments, told by a knight. The knight’s story is one of decorous fighting, and it resolves with a happy ending. His tale, which is longish, is followed immediately by a brisk, much shorter story told by a miller. The miller’s story is far from decorous. In fact, before launching into his tale, the miller warns the company traveling to Canterbury that he is going to tell something to “quyte” (precursor to our word “requite”) the knight—that is, to pay him back. In this classic case of “flyting,” the Miller’s Tale displays class warfare at its most comic and virtuosic, with storytelling the weapon of choice

Nostalgia and the Repair of Place: A Nativity Scene in St. Peter\u27s Square

This essay explores the presepe, an important form of traditional religious Italian dioramic art depicting the Nativity. In particular, it examines the presepe designed by Francesco Artese as part of a broader reflection on Italian nativity scenes as imagined cultural landscapes and installation art