Exile and Sanctuary: Humanism, Itinerary, and Religious Solidarity in Renaissance Alba Amicorum

• In Event: Amicitia et Memoria: Alba Amicorum and the Itinerary of Renaissance Humanism

Abstract

This paper will explore the linked phenomena of religious exile, scholarly itinerary, confessional solidarity, and scholarly amicitia in the Low Countries, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Italy through the lens of several different alba amicorum (autograph books inscribed and kept by itinerant scholars). The allied tradition of interleaving blanks between the pages of printed emblem books for the purpose of selection and inscription—in particular the commonplace of interleaved printed editions of Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata–will be considered in these same contexts as a hybrid, “virtual” scribal format for the permanent expression and memorial preservation of intellectual and spiritual friendship between co-religionists during the latter stages of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. The role of courtly women in the inscription of some of the exemplars in question will also be addressed.

Author

• Earle A. Havens, Johns Hopkins University