ON THE IMPORTANCE
OF BEING AN INDIVIDUAL
IN RENAISSANCE
ITALY
HANEY FOUNDATION SERIES
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series, established in 1961
with the generous support of Dr. John Louis Haney
ON THE
IMPORTANCE
OF BEING AN INDIVIDUAL
IN RENAISSANCE
ITALY
Men, Their Professions, and Their Beards
DOUGLAS BIOW
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 2015 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
A Cataloging-in-Publication record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-8122-4671-1
ToSimone, Erica, and Giulia,because I promised them I’d dedicatemy next book to them,
ToAnnabelle and Annamaria,because they came into my lifewhile I completed this book,
ToDavid,because he would probablybe somewhat miffedif he weren’t in the dedication
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me. You would seem to know my stops. You would pluck out the heart of my mystery. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak? ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.
—William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Reflection shows us that our image of happiness is thoroughly colored by the time to which the course of our existence has assigned us.
—Walter Benjamin, Thesis on the Philosophy of History
Brian (shouting to his followers): Look, you’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anyone. You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals.
Followers (shouting back in unison): Yes. We’re all individuals.
Brian: You’re all different.
Followers: Yes. We are all different.
A male follower: I’m not.
Another follower (hushing him): Shh, shh, shh.
—Monty Python, Life of Brian
CONTENTS
Chapter 2. Reflections on Professions and Humanism in Renaissance Italy and the Humanities Today
Chapter 5. Facing the Day: Reflections on a Sudden Change in Fashion and the Magisterial Beard
PREFACE
THIS BOOK REFLECTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NOTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL in the Italian Renaissance, with an “individual” understood as someone with a mysterious, inimitable quality, a signature style, and/or a particular, identifying mode of addressing the world. More specifically, it examines how the notion of the individual was important for a variety of men in the Italian Renaissance, both men who belonged to the elite and those who aspired to be part of it, as a way of understanding, characterizing, and representing themselves and others, both “real” and “fictional” others. At the same time, this book explores the individual in light of the new patronage systems, educational programs, and work opportunities that had come into place and in the context of an increased investment in professionalization, the changing status of artisans and artists, shifting attitudes about the ideology of work, technological advances, the collecting habits of people with significant disposable incomes, new dominant fashions among men, an increased concern for etiquette, and the eventual rise of court culture in the sixteenth century. Moreover, scholars, beginning with the cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt in his foundational essay The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, have not—this book shows—always adequately