Ancient, Medieval, Modern: Studying Cultural Practices and Objects in Florence

• In Event: Antiquarianism and Ethnography in the Early Modern World II

Abstract

Vincenzio Borghini and his sixteenth-century Florentine colleagues took a strong interest in the survivals from antiquity in their region. They also took great pride in the achievements of their city in the age of Dante and Boccaccio. The customs and material culture of both eras differed significantly from their own, and both came increasingly under study. That raised questions in turn about how to explain and examine not just cultural difference but also change over time. Borghini’s scholarship remained anchored in humanistic studies of language and letters but turned regularly to investigations of custom, social organization, and artifacts. His writings and his interactions with colleagues reveal a productive and sophisticated case of extending humanistic methods into the study of culture.

Author

• Ann E. Moyer, University of Pennsylvania