Renaissance Masculinities, Diplomacy, and Cultural Transfer: Federico and Ferrante Gonzaga in Italy and Beyond [Hardcover]

Federico and Ferrante Gonzaga came of age during a time of intense change in sixteenth-century Italy: The Italian Wars (14941559). The first and third-born sons of Isabella dEste and Francesco Gonzaga spent their formative years at the courts of Francis I of France and Charles V of Spain, where, as effectively diplomatic hostages, they learned valuable lessons about the transnational social codes and rituals central to sixteenth-century political life. As adults, they applied these lessons in their political and martial collaborations with Charles V: supporting his dominions in Italy, facilitating his attempted colonisation of northern Africa, and praising his attacks on Muslim pirates in the Italian Mediterranean. This book uses epistolary, literary, and material sources to argue that the boyhood and adult experiences of Federico and Ferrante Gonzaga are illustrative of wider strategies adopted by elite Italians to respond to conflict and crisis in a global age.Acknowledgements, Abbreviations, List of Maps and Figures,Introduction, Chapter One, Crisis Diplomacies in the Italian Wars, Chapter Two, Warring Masculinities, Chapter Three, Imperial Masculinities, Chapter Four, Diplomacy of Magnificence, Chapter Five, Imperial Networks and Loyalties, Chapter Six, Interpretations of Renaissance Masculinities, Conclusion, Bibliography, Index.This book uses epistolary, literary, and material sources to argue that the boyhood and adult experiences of Federico and Ferrante Gonzaga are illustrative of wider strategies adopted by elite Italians to respond to conflict and crisis in a global age.Jessica OLeary is a Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University. She is a gender and cultural historian of the early modern period, interested in global history and connections between people around the world.US? J. OLeary / Taylor & Francis Group, 2024