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September 28, 2007|Volume 36, Number 4


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This illustration documents an 1838 festival of Corpus Christi. Pope Gregory XVI arranged a procession for the event; he is featured here surrounded by cardinals as the procession winds around Saint Peter's Square.



Beinecke show examines the
Italian festival book tradition

Seventeenth-century Venice was, during the Baroque era, no stranger to lavish celebrations; yet in 1686, the visiting Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg arranged a musical performance that astounded even the Venetians.

The musicians performed on the water, atop a 40-foot glass boat in the figure of the Greek god Proteus, which was illuminated with torches placed in its hull. Not content simply to impress his audience, the duke also published and circulated a book that included an illustration of the boat. His book is just one of the highlights of the exhibition “Celebrating Italian Festivals,” which opens on Wednesday, Oct. 3, at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

This show was organized by three Yale graduate students — Eric Knibbs, Ayesha Ramachandran and Torrence Thomas — and Beinecke acquisitions assistant Amelia Prostano under the leadership of Robert G. Babcock, curator of early books and manuscripts.

From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the royal and aristocratic courts behind Europe’s most illustrious festivals printed elaborate, illustrated volumes to record the celebrations that they organized to mark births, deaths, betrothals, weddings, coronations and visits. Often circulated for the benefit of rival noble families and in the interests of self-promotion, festival books are witnesses to aristocratic culture and art during the Early Modern period, note the exhibit organizers.

Featuring over 60 volumes from across Italy, “Celebrating Italian Festivals” is designed to provide a rare and up-close look at the Italian festival book tradition. The books on display document a wide array of festivities, among them athletic competitions, tournaments, parades, fireworks, and theatrical and operatic performances. The cities, noble families and wealthy individuals who organized these celebrations competed with each other to hold the most illustrious events possible, note the organizers, and hired Italy’s most famous artists, composers, librettists, choreographers, actors, singers and architects to develop their elaborate spectacles.

One highlight of the exhibit is a book describing the wedding celebration of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Published in 1579, it is one of the first books ever printed with color plates. The Beinecke show will exhibit three variant copies of this rare volume. Also on display will be several volumes with illustrations by the printmaker Jacques Callot, who spent almost a decade in Florence and produced plates for a number of festival books. One book, published to describe a tournament held in Florence in 1616, includes an illustration by Callot that depicts a mock battle held in the Piazza Santa Croce. Another Callot illustration accompanies a description of the obsequies held to honor the death of the Emperor Matthias of Hapsburg in 1619.

Italian festival books grew more elaborate with the passage of time, say the organizers. One volume in the exhibit commemorates a parade held in Palermo on the feast day of Santa Rosalia in 1704. The book not only describes the event, but also includes a fold-out illustration of the entire parade. Over six feet in length, it depicts every float and participant, in order. Another book documents the procession for the feast of Corpus Christi organized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1838. The book consists of a single color illustration that, unfolded, is more than 38 feet long. It includes every one of the thousands of participants in the procession, including the pope himself, at about the midpoint of the procession.

Other books in the display record the celebrations surrounding the law school graduation of a relative of Pope Clement XI, the discovery of the relics of San Placido, the coronation of the Emperor Charles VI as King of Sicily and the annual Bolognese festival involving the roasting of a pig.

“Celebrating Italian Festivals” will continue through Jan. 9. Opening night will include a lecture by Sarah Knight of the University of Leicester, at 5:15 p.m. with a reception afterward. The event is free and open to the public.

The Beinecke Library, 121 Wall St., is open for exhibition viewing 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday; and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. For further information, call (203) 432-2972 or visit the library’s website at www.library.yale.edu/beinecke.


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‘Yale at Carnegie’ series to feature performances by students, faculty

Yale makes dramatic changes in research compliance procedures

Web-based system for effort reporting launched


ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

Once a ‘musical theater guy,’ writer is now a ‘gadget freak’

Forum to examine ways that New Haven can become a ‘sustainable city’

The allure of fly fishing is explored in museum exhibit

Workshops to explore global issues . . .

World Fellows share in a night of ‘intercultural understanding’

Beinecke show examines the Italian festival book tradition

Center’s events to feature internationally known architects

Issues of spirituality to be explored in exhibit, poetry reading

Scavenger hunt orients new graduate students to the campus and Elm City

United Way Days of Caring brings out volunteers from the Yale community

Campus Notes


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