Book contents
- Learning through Images in the Italian Renaissance
- Learning through Images in the Italian Renaissance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- Chapter One Introduction
- Chapter Two Two Youths
- Chapter Three Mental Images
- Chapter Four Virtues, Sins, and the Senses in the Fior di Virtù
- Chapter Five Serving the State in the Fior di Virtù
- Chapter Six Dealing with Others in the Esopo Volgarizzato
- Chapter Seven The Flesh in the Fior di Virtù and the Esopo Volgarizzato
- Chapter Eight Mathematics, Body, Form, and Metaphor in Libri d’Abbaco
- Chapter Nine The Cosmos in Goro Dati’s Sfera
- Chapter Ten Navigation and Geography in the Sfera
- Chapter Eleven Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Chapter Four - Virtues, Sins, and the Senses in the Fior di Virtù
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2020
- Learning through Images in the Italian Renaissance
- Learning through Images in the Italian Renaissance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- Chapter One Introduction
- Chapter Two Two Youths
- Chapter Three Mental Images
- Chapter Four Virtues, Sins, and the Senses in the Fior di Virtù
- Chapter Five Serving the State in the Fior di Virtù
- Chapter Six Dealing with Others in the Esopo Volgarizzato
- Chapter Seven The Flesh in the Fior di Virtù and the Esopo Volgarizzato
- Chapter Eight Mathematics, Body, Form, and Metaphor in Libri d’Abbaco
- Chapter Nine The Cosmos in Goro Dati’s Sfera
- Chapter Ten Navigation and Geography in the Sfera
- Chapter Eleven Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
Carruthers has convincingly argued that one of the functions of bestiaries in the Middle Ages was to introduce learners to mnemonic mental imaging, at the same time as teaching them about the virtues and the vices. Accordingly, we may consider that the illustrated bestiary in the Fior di virtù was used to fix in young minds images of good and bad behaviour. This chapter, therefore, focusses on the illustrations of the virtues of love, joy, humility, and fortitude, and those of the vices of envy, folly, anger, cruelty, and vainglory. In light of medieval and modern postulates on cognition and memory, I explore how animal similes in the Fior di virtù could facilitate the formation of mental images of the virtues and the sins by evoking the input of the external senses, as well as bodily pain and movement.
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- Learning through Images in the Italian RenaissanceIllustrated Manuscripts and Education in Quattrocento Florence, pp. 58 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020