Renaissance and Reformation

Cheke, Sir John To Clovio, Giulio (Jure Clovil) (Renaissance and Reformation)

Cheke, Sir John (1514-1557) English humanist Cheke was born in Cambridge, where he became a fellow of St. John’s College (1529) and took his MA in 1533. He became first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge (1540), a canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1544), and tutor in Latin and Greek to King Edward VI. He […]

Clusius, Carolus (Charles de l’Ecluse) To Comedy (Renaissance and Reformation)

Clusius, Carolus (Charles de l’Ecluse) (1526-1609) Franco-Flemish physician and botanist Clusius was born into a Lutheran family in Arras. From his travels in Spain, Portugal, France, Hungary, and Austria he introduced many new garden plants, especially bulbs, to western Europe. The imperial garden in Vienna, which he controlled from 1573 to 1587, was a source […]

Comes, Juan Bautista To Conversos (Renaissance and Reformation)

Comes, Juan Bautista (1568-1643) Spanish composer Comes began his musical education at the cathedral of Valencia where he was a chorister and a pupil of Gines Perez. In 1605 he was appointed choirmaster at the cathedral of Lerida and in 1613 he became the choirmaster of Valencia cathedral. In 1619 he entered the service of […]

Coornheert, Dirck Volckertsz. To Costa, Lorenzo di Ottavio (Renaissance and Reformation)

Coornheert, Dirck Volckertsz. (1522-1590) Dutch humanist and scholar As a young man Coornheert, who was born in Amsterdam, read widely on religious matters, eventually adopting a brand of evangelical humanism which brought him into conflict with both Catholics and reformers. From 1566 he was also associated with william the silent in the political struggle against […]

Coster, Samuel To Credi, Lorenzo di (Lorenzo d’Andrea d’Oerigo) (Renaissance and Reformation)

Coster, Samuel (1579-1665) Dutch dramatist and surgeon Coster is important as the founder of the duytsche acad-emie in his native Amsterdam and for his tragedies, which are in the tradition of seneca. His Iphigenia (1617) was one of the anti-Calvinist satires that brought the academy into disfavor with the authorities; in other respects the tragedies, […]

Criticism, literary To Dance (Renaissance and Reformation)

Criticism, literary Theoretical discussion of the nature, kinds, and purpose of literature (as opposed to "practical" or applied criticism or guides to technique) originated and attained most sophistication in Italy. The common assumption in Renaissance criticism, as in the neoclassicism which succeeded it, was that literature imparted knowledge or truths. This view was usually stated […]

Dance of Death (French danse macabre, German Toten-tanz) To Della Robbia, Luca (Renaissance and Reformation)

Dance of Death (French danse macabre, German Toten-tanz) A pictorial and literary theme originating in the late Middle Ages, in which Death, usually in the form of a skeletal musician, leads away representatives of every class of society, from pope to beggar, from emperor to peasant. The dance of Death appeared first in the form […]

Della Rovere family To Dissection (Renaissance and Reformation)

Della Rovere family A Ligurian family of obscure origins which acquired wealth, power, and status during the papacy of Francesco della Rovere (Pope sixtus iv; 1471-84). An enthusiastic nepotist, Sixtus generously bestowed cardinal’s hats and lordships on his nephews. Giovanni della Rovere (1457-1501), whom Sixtus made lord of Senigal-lia, married the daughter of the last […]

Dissolution of the monasteries To Drawing (Renaissance and Reformation)

Dissolution of the monasteries The closure of the religious houses in England under henry viii. Monasteries, nunneries, and friar houses were common in Catholic England and large numbers of ascetics lived in them. These religious communities had long attracted controversy: critics lamented that members were morally lax, that their Christianity was excessively contemplative, that they […]

Drayton, Michael To Dutch East India Company (Dutch Vereenigde Oost-indische Compagnie, VOC) (Renaissance and Reformation)

Drayton, Michael (1563-1631) English poet Born at Hartshill, Warwickshire, Drayton spent his youth in the household of the local Goodere family, before moving to London in about 1591. There he published the pastoral poems Idea, The Shepheard’s Garland (1593) and the fine sonnet sequence Ideas Mirrour (1594). The lady celebrated in these poems, Anne Goodere, […]

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