A Distant City by Chiara Frugoni
In a remarkable synthesis of iconography and social history, Chiara Frugoni addresses the changing concept of the city as revealed in visual and literary images throughout medieval Europe. By exploring the sentiments expressed through the image of the city, she traces how notions of civic identity became fused in the consciousness of the people and in the daily flow of their lives. An examination of cities depicted in early medieval illustrations suggests a widespread feeling of insecurity, often conveyed through networks of bare walls marking the boundary between order and chaos. Analyzing chronicles and other historical texts, Frugoni shows that the strong relationship between cities and their bishops led to a consciousness of the city as a meeting place rather than simply a place to live under protection. As the religious and protective roles of the city diminished during the high Middle Ages and early Italian Renaissance, a secular ideology emerged, finding its expression, for example, in the Lorenzetti fresco in Siena, a political manifesto offering a reassuring view of Good Government in the city.
"Chiara Frugoni's fine book is.. about ... the city of the mind, the landscape of the medieval imagination.... A Distant Cityprovides a detailed and beautifully crafted map of this landscape, a map constructed from the careful interweaving of 'text and image.' ... [But] to describe this study as one of the interweaving of text and image is overmodest: what Frugoni provides is rather a fully articulated cultural history." * Manuscripta *
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780691040837 |
| ISBN 10 | 0691040834 |
| Title | A Distant City |
| Author | Chiara Frugoni |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
| Year published | 1991-02-21 |
| Number of pages | 312 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |