“nEU-Med-Origins of a new Economic Union (7th to 12th centuries): resources, landscapes and political strategies in a Mediterranean region”
nEU-Med is the brainchild of the Department of History and Cultural Heritage of the University of Siena (UNISI). The project takes place in the Maremma located in the of south western portion of Tuscany (Italy), between the Colline Metallifere and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The investigations carried out by Riccardo Francovich in the early 80’s, allowed to collect a wealth of data in this territory, making a this district one of the most known in Europe.
The project, starting from October 2015, will analyze in depth some historical contents that have already been discussed in previous study and will start new lines of research through an interdisciplinary team that will work in this sample area to understand the processes of economic growth between the 7th and 12th centuries.
Patronage of Arts and Letters 1590-1620: Rome, Siena, Milan, Turin
This project considers the patronage of arts and letters in the late Italian Renaissance as a characteristically integrated phenomenon. Its objective is a study of literary celebrations of the visual arts and of the ways in which princes, churchmen, the nobility, academies and private citizens operated in conjunction with literati and artists (and their public) producing new and influential forms of patronage and self-promotion.
The project will be primarily concerned with the study of documentary evidence. It will concentrate on four centres – Rome, Siena, Milan and Turin – over a period comprised between the beginning of the pontificate of Clement VIII (1592) and the publication of G.B. Marino’s Galeria (1619-20), the most famous book of poems celebrating the visual arts in European literature. Marino’s work constitutes the ideal meeting point of the project’s main lines of enquiry. The results will include a database registering the extraordinary coeval success of ekphrastic poetry; a monograph on Rome under Clement VIII; the edition of the two main sections of Marino’s Galeria (“Favole” and “Historie”); several articles (2 in top-range journals); an edited volume; and preparatory work for an exhibition – currently planned for 2021-22 – on G.B. Marino and the visual arts.