Bauudoolino Sparknotes

557 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Short note about crusades

In his historical fiction novel “Baudolino”, Umberto Eco provides the reader with a fantastical view of the history of the period between 1150 and 1204, through the eyes of the homonymous protagonist. The focus is on medieval Europe and Eco comically, yet accurately, chronicles the political and religious upheavals of the time of the Crusades with great attention to historical fact.
During the sacking of Constantinople of 1204, Baudolino saves the life of a high-ranking Byzantine historian – Niketas Choniate, an actual historian from the period, and proceeds to tell him the story of his life and how he shaped history, masterfully weaving together fact and fiction. Baudolino is born in a peasant family in Northern Italy. As a boy, he meets …show more content…

In this figure, the rulers of the European Christian civilization hoped for an ally against the Muslims in the battle to redeem the holy city of Jerusalem. A 13th-century chronicler, Alberic de Trois-Fontaines, recorded that in 1165, a letter was sent by this Prester John to Frederick Barbarossa as well as to the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus. The chapter tells the story of the forging of this letter by Baudolino and his friends. It presents us with a funny, yet thought-provoking example of the process of making a realistic falsification. While reading this chapter, I was often reminded of the forgeries in the Scarith of Scornello. Like Curzio Inghirami, Baudolino begins by relating to universal history and the Bible. The story of Prester John and his kingdom closely matches the myths and legends that had circulated in Medieval Europe, in addition to featuring many Biblical allusions. The letter provides its readers with evidence for what they want to believe and with justification for what they want to do. Apart from trying to confirm the legends of Prester John, it also talks about the Holy Grail – another mythical reverie of the Christians of that age. The forgery is so persuasive, that by the time they finish it, even its authors have almost convinced themselves that the parchment had just arrived from the kingdom of Prester

Show More
Related

  • The Story of Bianco Alfani: Reflecting the Nature of 14th Century Florentine Society

    1520 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I’ll be out of here and away from all you knaves for one time anyway, as not a month will pass before you’ll see whether I’m nobody or a somebody.” The story of Bianco Alfani reflected the nature of 14th century Florentine society where, as Alfani remarked, the election to public office could make or destroy a person. In late 14th century and early 15th century Florence, decreased population and expanding commerce provided a favorable environment for ambitious individuals. The real life examples of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati demonstrated the positive role of ambition in Florence. Pitti, a nobleman had an extremely successful career, partaking in military campaigns, holding public office in Florence and being an ambassador to foreign courts. Gregorio Dati, the grandson of purse venders, engaged in commerce, rising in social standing which culminated with his election to public office. Holding office was a definitive sign of success and recognition in Florence. In contrast was the tale Bianco Alfani, a deemed man unworthy of office. As told by Piero Veneziano, Alfani was the chief jailor in Florence who was duped into believing he had been named captain of the town of Norcia. Alfani publicly made a fool of himself, spending all his money and creating a great fanfare over his supposed appointment. Comparing the lives of Pitti and Dati to the story of Bianco Alfani illustrates how economic and social change in 14th century Florence produced a culture centered on reputation and commerce. For men like Pitti and Dati, who flourished within the constraints of Florentine society, their reward was election to office, a public mark of acceptance and social standing. Those who were ambitious but failed to abide by the values o...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Fat Woodworker

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    Antonio Manetti, a Florentine Humanist and holder of several high offices in Florence, was the author of the delightful novella known as the Fat Woodworker. This novella, first published in its final refined form in the 1470’s, tells the story of a rather complex and slightly malicious trick created by a genius architect known as Filippo Brunelleschi. While the trick is mean at times, the reader tends to not notice because of the comedic way that the fat woodworker reacts. The prank that unfolds can in some ways closely parallel the many tricks that occur in Boccaccio’s Decameron, though there are some large differences.

    Read More

  • Essay on Morality in Dante’s Inferno, Hamlet, The Trial, and Joyce’s The Dead

    2804 Words  | 6 Pages

    Ruskin, John. “Grotesque Renaissance.” The Stones of Venice: The Fall. 1853. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. 112-65. Rpt. in Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1989. 21-2.

    Read More

  • Art Of Seduction : A Cautionary Tale

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Byzantine Empire was a primarily Christian empire whose reign started in 330 A.D and ended in 1453 A.D with the capturing of the its capital, Constantinople by the Muslim Sultan Mehmed II. In the years following the fall of the Byzantines, many of the Christian basilicas were transformed into mosques for Islamic worship, inspiring many artists to create works that embodied their religious politics. One of the pieces created following the fall of the Byzantine Empire is the painting of Yusuf Fleeing Zulayhka, created in 1488 by Kamal al-Din Bihzad, a famous Persian painter who worked under the patronage of several Persian sultans. The illustration depicts Yusuf’s struggle to escape his master’s wife Zulaykha as she chases him through her elaborate palace in an attempt to seduce him. The representation was made using paint, ink and gold, and features jewel-like colors in order to portray the extravagancy of the palace Zulayhka has built specifically for the seduction of Yusuf (Stokstad 286). This essay will assess three accounts of the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha and the reasoning behind why the narrative is often labelled as a cautionary tale and of what kind.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli: The Renaissance’s Anti-Humanist

    2445 Words  | 5 Pages

    By the turn of the sixteenth century, the Italian Renaissance had produced writers such as Danté, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Castiglione, each with ideas rooted in the revival of Greek and Roman Classics, localization of the Christian traditions, idealistic opinions of women and individualism. From these authors spread the growth of the humanistic movement which encompassed the entirety of the Italian rebirth of arts and literature. One among many skeptics, including Lorenzo Valla, who had challenged the Catholic Church fifty years earlier in proving the falsity of the Donation of Constantine, Niccolò Machiavelli projected his ideas of fraudulence into sixteenth century Italian society by suggesting that rulers could only maintain power through propaganda, as seen with the success of Ferdinand of Aragon in Spain circa 1490. Today, the coined term Machiavellian refers to duplicity in either politics or self-advancement. Unlike most philosophers of the sixteenth century, Machiavelli wrote from the perspective of an anti-Humanist; he criticized not only the Classics and the Catholic Church, but also encouraged the deceitful use of religion and hated the humanist concepts of liberty, peace and individualism.1

    Read More

  • The Manipulation of Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Othello

    4758 Words  | 10 Pages

    Of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, the story of the rise and fall of the Moor of Venice arguably elicits the most intensely personal and emotional responses from its English-speaking audiences over the centuries. Treating the subject of personal human relationships, the tragedy which should have been a love story speaks to both reading and viewing audiences by exploring the archetypal dramatic values of love and betrayal. The final source of the tragic action in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice has been attributed to various psychological, mythical, racial, social sources: Othello’s status as racial outsider in Venetian society, his pagan roots in Christian society, hubris and/or hamartia in Othello or in Desdemona.

    Read More

  • Ayiti Sparknotes

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ayiti, by Roxane Gay, is a collection of fifteen short narratives about Haiti and its people, which gives the readers insights into the complex Haitian diaspora experience. The novel seeks to offer a deeper view into Haitian society and covers an array of themes such as the politics of survival, resiliency, and feminist culture in Haiti. Throughout the novel, Gay is highly critical of mainstream media because of how they depict and silo Haiti as a poor and helpless country. Haiti’s historical stance on censorship is well documented, and as a Haitian writer living in America, Gay is successful in giving agency to the voiceless by chronicling the stories of the Haitian diaspora. Ayiti explores stories that explain what it is like to be a Haitian

    Read More

  • The Misunderstood Iago of Othello

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Othello Moor of Venice.” The compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 9 ed. Michael Meyer. Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 1187-1267.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Pride in King Lear and The Duchess of Malfi

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this brief monograph, we shall be hunting down and examining various creatures from the bestiary of Medieval/Renaissance thought. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious, egotistical power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of preening social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks are of the species known as pride, while the lamb is of an entirely different, in fact antithetical race, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we shall be exploring include the diverse expanses, from palace to heath, of William Shakespeare, the dark, sinister Italy of John Webster, and the perfumed lady's chambers of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Giovanni Boccaccio´s Decameron

    2081 Words  | 5 Pages

    Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron is a series of tales written during the Late Middle Ages that is meant to entertain the reader. While the entertainment value of Boccaccio’s work in undeniable, the Decameron also provides the reader with information about society at the time, and Boccaccio’s own worldview. One of the most prevalent themes throughout the Decameron is the portrayal of clergymen and members of religious communities as negative influences on those around them, constantly behaving in a manner unfit for those who are supposed to be moral and spiritual exemplars. Throughout the tales told by the lieta brigada, many priests, and friars are portrayed as being extremely lustful and greedy, frequently indulging in sex (often with the wives of other men), and living lives more befitting of a minor lord than a monk. Those clergymen who are not portrayed as out rightly immoral are usually stupid, and are unable to stop others from acting immorally because of their ignorance. Despite this, a few of the clergymen in the story are shown as ultimately having good intentions, or improving in morality through the actions of another. To understand all of these criticisms of the clergy, we must look at them through a historical lens, and observe the behavior of members of the Church in the Late Middle Ages. Finally, these analyses of the Decameron’s portrayal of clergymen may give us insight into Boccaccio’s own faith, and allow us to understand the motives of the author. In this essay, I will analyze the portrayal of clergymen and members of religious communities in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. I will focus on the licentiousness, greed, and stupidity of these members of the Church, while also evaluating the few portrayals of good me...

    Read More

  • Changing Interpretations of The Prince and Niccolo Machiavelli

    2647 Words  | 6 Pages

    After five hundred years, Niccolo Machiavelli the man has ceased to exist. In his place is merely an entity, one that is human, but also something that is far above one. The debate over his political ideologies and theories has elevated him to a mythical status summed up in one word: Machiavelli. His family name has evolved into an adjective in the English language in its various forms. Writers and pundit’s bandy about this new adjective in such ways as, “He is a Machiavelli,” “They are Machiavelli’s,” “This is suitable for a Machiavelli.” These phrases are almost always the words of a person that understands more about Niccolo’s reputation than the man himself. Forgotten is that Machiavelli is not an adequate example of the ruler he is credited with describing; a more accurate statement would be to call someone a “Borgia” or a “Valentino.” Most of the time they are grossly mistaken in their references. All these words accomplish is to add to the legend, and the misinterpretation, of the true nature of Niccolo Machiavelli.

    Read More

  • Irenaeus of Lyons

    1483 Words  | 3 Pages

    I invite you to consider the life of an interesting human being with me in this paper. Let us investigate together the man known as Irenaeus of Lyons. We will endeavor to gain an overall verbal portrait of the man who is considered the most significant ecclesiastical witness before Eusebius and the leading theologian in the second century A. D. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church both consider Irenaeus to be one of their “holy saints“. The name Irenaeus means a “‘man of peace,’ and the early Christian historian Eusebius honored Irenaeus as a peacemaker in keeping with his name.”

    Read More

  • Appeal to Aesthetics in Death in Venice

    2037 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mann, Thomas, and Clayton Koelb. Death in Venice: a new translation, backgrounds and contexts, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print.

    Read More

  • The Search For Self - A Critical Analysis Of The Odyssey

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    “A boy learns who he is and what he’s got from a man, or the company of

    Read More

  • The Battle for Political Power in The Tempest

    3276 Words  | 7 Pages

    Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, so enthralled “In dignity, and for the liberal arts” (1.2 73), twelve years prior lost his dukedom to his brother Antonio. Antonio, in turn, betrayed Prospero’s trust by forming an alliance with the enemy, the King of Naples Alonso. This treaty gave Alonso “annual tribute, [to] do him homage, Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend The dukedom, yet unbowed—alas, poor Milan—To most ignoble stooping” (1.2 113-116). Ultimately, Milan gave up its freedom and became subject to Naples. Prospero, whose “library/ Was dukedom large enough” (1.2 109-110), lost his position as the Duke of Milan and he and his three year old daughter Miranda were sent “abroad a barque bore…to sea” (1.2 144-145). Eventual...

    Read More

More about Bauudoolino Sparknotes

Open Document