Hybrid Renaissance

Culture, Language, Architecture
Author: 
ISBN: 
978- 963-386-087-8
paperback
$27.95 / €23.95 / £19.95
Kindle edition is available through Amazon
Publication date: 
2016
284 pages with black-and-white illustrations, 130 x 200mm (5.1”x7.9”)

Hybrid Renaissance introduces the idea that the Renaissance in Italy, elsewhere in Europe, and in the world beyond Europe is an example of cultural hybridization.

The two key concepts used in this book are “hybridization” and “Renaissance”. Roughly speaking, hybridity refers to something new that emerges from the combination of diverse older elements. (The term “hybridization” is preferable to “hybridity” because it refers to a process rather than to a state, and also because it encourages the writer and the readers alike to think in terms of degree: where there is more or less, rather than presence versus absence.)

The book begins with a discussion of the concept of cultural hybridization and a cluster of other concepts related to it. Then comes a geography of cultural hybridization focusing on three locales: courts, major cities (whether ports or capitals) and frontiers. The following seven chapters describe the hybridity of the Renaissance in different fields: architecture, painting and sculpture, languages, literature, music, philosophy and law and finally religion. The essay concludes with a brief account of attempts to resist hybridization or to purify cultures or domains from what was already hybridized.

List of Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: An Expanding Renaissance

Chapter 1. The Idea of Hybridity

Chapter 2. The Geography of Hybridity

Chapter 3. Translating Architecture

Chapter 4. Hybrid Arts

Chapter 5. Hybrid Languages

Chapter 6. Hybrid Literatures

Chapter 7. Music, Law and humanism

Chapter 8. Hybrid Philosophies

Chapter 9. Translating Gods

Coda. Counter-Hybridization

Bibliography

Index

"Amelang covers an impressive amount of urban territory in this short and chatty book, raising more fascinating questions than the constraints of the text allow him to answer. It is recommended reading for any scholar of early modern European cities, and would be particularly stimulating for a graduate student in search of a topic. Less of a polished argument than a wide-ranging conversation with a generous and erudite elder historian, it is sure to leave its readers anxious to explore early modern Europe’s winding streets and changing vistas on their own."
"Burke untersucht die Renaissance in Italien, Europa und weltweit (hier mit speziellem Blick auf der islamischen und der Neuen Welt) als Beispiel für 'kulturelle Hybridität'. In einer nützlichen Einleitung werden neben Definition des Gegenstandes und historiographischem Abriss verschiedene Spielarten kultureller Hybridisierung unterschieden, die bis zu vollständiger Aneignung, Wiederverwertung oder Bricolage führen kann. Schließlich spricht Burke an, dass es auch Gegenbewegungen gegen Prozesse von Hybridisierungen gab, die in puristischer Absicht auf eine Rückkehr zu den Ursprüngen bedacht waren. Nach Dafürhalten des Rezensenten liegt der Wert der Studie einerseits in der Zusammenschau, andererseits vor allem in der kurzen konzeptionellen Eingangsbetrachtung, die Theoriebildungen nützlich sein kann, nicht zuletzt auch daher, weil das Konzept der Hybridisierung kein alleiniges proprium der Renaissance ist."