At the Margins

At the Margins

Minority Groups in Premodern Italy

Stephen J. Milner, editor

$26.00 Paper
ISBN 0-8166-3821-7

$75.00 Cloth
ISBN 0-8166-3820-9

Reconsiders the nature of societal margins in premodern Italy.

Slaves, foundlings, prostitutes, nuns, homosexuals, exiles, the elderly, and mountain communities—such groups stood at the margins of society in premodern Italy. But where precisely the margins were was not so easily determined.

Examining these minorities as the buffer zones between more readily recognizable centers, At the Margins explores identity as a process rather than a fixed entity, stressing the multiplicity of groups to which individuals belonged. By tracing the shifting relations of social margins to centers in Italy between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries—and showing how these shifts in turn relate to social order and identity formation—the authors challenge entrenched ideas about the nature of the Renaissance and its role in shaping modernity.

“The articles, all by well-regarded scholars, are of a uniformly high quality; each one ventures into some aspect of social and cultural history that has received too little attention in traditional scholarship, and each one stands on its own as a scholarly endeavor. This is a book well worth reading. this collection proves that good social and cultural history does not hide its light under a bushel of hyper-specialized, pseudo-technical gobbledygook. At the Margins presents a fine collection of compelling and exceptionally well-researched articles on groups or activities that have attracted less scholarly attention than they deserve. It leaves the reader with a richer, fuller sense of premodern Italian society and the diversity of groups that comprised it.” —The Medieval Review

"The volume provides a good methodological framework to explore marginal groups and excellent case studies of minorities in premodern Italy." —Comitatus

Contributors: Judith Bryce, Peter Burke, Samuel K. Cohn Jr., Derek Duncan, Steven A. Epstein, Philip Gavitt, Mary Laven, Michael Rocke, Dennis Romano, Kenneth R. Stow, Anabel Thomas.

Stephen J. Milner is senior lecturer in Italian at the University of Bristol.

312 pages | 5 halftones | 5 7⁄8 x 9 | 2005
Medieval Cultures Series, volume 39

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



At the Margins Minority Groups in Premodern Italy Stephen J. Milner, editor		$26.00 Paper ISBN 0-8166-3821-7 $75.00 Cloth ISBN 0-8166-3820-9
Reconsiders the nature of societal margins in premodern Italy. Slaves, foundlings, prostitutes, nuns, homosexuals, exiles, the elderly, and mountain communities—such groups stood at the margins of society in premodern Italy. But where precisely the margins were was not so easily determined. Examining these minorities as the buffer zones between more readily recognizable centers, At the Margins explores identity as a process rather than a fixed entity, stressing the multiplicity of groups to which individuals belonged. By tracing the shifting relations of social margins to centers in Italy between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries—and showing how these shifts in turn relate to social order and identity formation—the authors challenge entrenched ideas about the nature of the Renaissance and its role in shaping modernity. “The articles, all by well-regarded scholars, are of a uniformly high quality; each one ventures into some aspect of social and cultural history that has received too little attention in traditional scholarship, and each one stands on its own as a scholarly endeavor. This is a book well worth reading. this collection proves that good social and cultural history does not hide its light under a bushel of hyper-specialized, pseudo-technical gobbledygook. At the Margins presents a fine collection of compelling and exceptionally well-researched articles on groups or activities that have attracted less scholarly attention than they deserve. It leaves the reader with a richer, fuller sense of premodern Italian society and the diversity of groups that comprised it.” —The Medieval Review "The volume provides a good methodological framework to explore marginal groups and excellent case studies of minorities in premodern Italy." —Comitatus Contributors: Judith Bryce, Peter Burke, Samuel K. Cohn Jr., Derek Duncan, Steven A. Epstein, Philip Gavitt, Mary Laven, Michael Rocke, Dennis Romano, Kenneth R. Stow, Anabel Thomas. Stephen J. Milner is senior lecturer in Italian at the University of Bristol. 312 pages \| 5 halftones \| 5 7⁄8 x 9 \| 2005 Medieval Cultures Series, volume 39