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Visconti

Visconti

The House of Visconti were a noble family whose effectual founder, Oddone, wrested control of the city from the rival Della Torre family in 1277. The Visconti ruled Milan during the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance period, first as Lords of Milan, then, from 1395 as Dukes. From Uberto, brother of Matteo I, came the lateral branch of dukes of Modrone; to this family belonged Luchino Visconti, one of the most prominent film directors of Italian neorealist cinema.

Visconti rulers of Milan

See also: List of rulers of Milan
- Oddone Visconti, Archbishop of Milan 1277-1294
- Matteo I Visconti The 1294-1302; 1311-1322
- Galeazzo I Visconti 1322-1327
- Azzone Visconti 1329-1339
- Luchino I Visconti 1339-1349
- Bernabò Visconti 1349-1385
- Galeazzo II Visconti 1349-1378
- Matteo II Visconti 1349-1355
- Gian Galeazzo Visconti 1378-1402
- Giovanni Maria Visconti 1402-1412
- Filippo Maria Visconti 1412-1447

Visconti family tree (XIII cent.-1447)

Nobility

s.—After a Miniature of the Tournaments of King Réné (Fifteenth Century) MSS. of the National Library of Paris."]] The nobility represents, or has represented, the higher stratum of a society in which social classes can be distinguished. The most distinctive feature of nobilty is that once acquired, it is passed to descendants, possibly according to some rules. The word "noble" in "nobility" also means "doing an act worthy of respect" to people.

Western nobility

Initially nobility descended from chivalry (or warrior class) in the feudal stage of the development of a society. Originally, knights or nobles were mounted warriors who swore allegiance to their sovereign and promised to fight for him in exchange for allocation of land (usually together with serfs living there). The invention of the Musket slowly eliminated the privately owned and operated armies of nobles in feudal societies during the time period of the Military Revolution. The nobility of a person might be either inherited or earned. Nobility in its most general and strict sense is an acknowledged preeminence that is hereditary, i.e., legitimate descendants (or all male descendants, in some societies) of nobles are nobles, unless explicitly stripped of the privilege. In this respect, nobility is distinguished from British peerage: the latter can be passed to only a single member of the family. The terms aristocrat and aristocracy are a less formal means to refer to persons belonging to this social milieu. Those lacking a distinct title, such as junior siblings of peers (and perhaps even the children of 'self-made' VIPs) may be considered aristocrats, moving within a small social circle at the apex of a hierarchical social pyramid. Blue blood is an English expression for noble birth or descent. It may simply refer to the delicate, pale skin favoured within that social circle, which more transparently reveals the blueness of the veins and arteries beneath. Possibly the term may be be an appelation describing prevalent argyria among the upper classes. Argyria is permanent bluish discoloration of the skin caused by ingestion of silver metal, which was widely used in table service and as a medicinal agent. In the modern era, in countries where the nobility was the dominant class, the bourgeoisie gradually grew in power; a rich city merchant was more influential than a minor rural nobleman. In France, influential high bourgeois, most particularly the members of the parlements (courts of justice), obtained nobility titles from the King. The old nobility of military origin, the noblesse d'épée ("sword nobility") became increasingly irritated by this newer noblesse de robe ("gown nobility"). In the last years of the ancien régime, before the French Revolution, the old nobility, intent on keeping its privileges, had pushed for restrictions of certain offices and orders of chivalry to noblemen who could demonstrate that their family had enough "noble quarterings" (in French, 'quartiers de noblesse'), a reference to a noble's ability to display armorially their descents from armigerous noble forebears in each of their lines of descent to demonstrate that they were descended from old noble families, who bore arms that could be quartered with their own male line arms, and thus prove that they did not derive merely from bourgeois families recently elevated to noble rank. A noble could be asked to provide proof of noble antecedents by showing a genealogy displaying 'seize quartiers' (sixteen quarterings) or even 'trente-deux quartiers' (thirty-two quartering) indicating noble descent on all bloodlines back five generations (to great-great grandparents) or six generations (great-great-great grandparents), respectively. Nobles typically commanded resources, such as food, money, or labor, from common members or nobles of lower rank of their societies, and could exercise religious or political power over them. Also, typically, but not necessarily, nobles were entitled to land property, which was reflected in the title. For example, the title Earl of Chesterfield tells about property, while the title Earl Cairns was created for a surname. However all the above is not obligatory; quite often nobility was associated only with social respect and certain social privileges. An example of the latter would be Polish szlachta. In the modern age, the notion of inherited nobility with special rights has become, in the Western World, increasingly seen as irrelevant to the modern way of life. The founding fathers of the United States rejected anything that may help in recreating a nobility; the French Revolution abolished the nobility and its special rights (though some nobility titles would be recreated by Napoleon I and III, they were mostly honorific). A list of noble titles for different European countries can be found at Royal and noble ranks. To learn how to properly address holders of these titles, see Royal and noble styles. Some con artists also sell fake titles of nobility, often with impressive-looking documents to back them up. These may be illegal, depending on local law. law

Nobility by nation

For full categorized countries, see :Category:Nobility by nation; some other follow:
- Armenian nobility
- Austrian nobility
- Belgian nobility
- Bohemian nobility
- British honours system
- Peerage, an exposition of great detail
- Chinese nobility
- Dutch Nobility
- Fijian nobility - the Ratu
- French nobility
- German comital titles
- Hungarian nobility
- Imperial Roman titles
- Roman aristocracy and bureaucracy
- Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy
- Imperial Russian nobility
- Boyars
- Dvoryans
- Korean nobility
- Malay titles
- Maltese nobility
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth nobility
- szlachta
- Japanese nobility
- Spanish nobility
- Swedish nobility

External links

- [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/odegard/titlefaq.htm European Noble, Princely, Royal, and Imperial Titles]
- [http://www.friesian.com/rank.htm Feudal Hierarchy (scroll down)]
- [http://www.heraldica.org/faqs/titel.htm A Glossary of Titles in 35 Languages]
- [http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/nobility_faq.html The German nobility]
- [http://nobility.artsakhworld.com The Armenian nobility]
- [http://www.maltagenealogy.com The Maltese Nobility and its ilks.]
- [http://www.sardimpex.com/ Italian dynasties] GENEALOGIE DELLE DINASTIE ITALIANE (in Italian, with an introduction in English)
- [http://www8.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/cgi-bin/stoyan/wwp/LANG=engl/?1 WW-Person], an on-line database of European noble genealogy
- [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/gotha.htm Paul Theroff's An Online Gotha]
- [http://www.genealogics.org/index.php Genealogics, an extensive database of European nobles]
- [http://www.worldroots.com/ Worldroots, a selection of art and genealogy of European nobility]
- [http://www.royaute-noblesse.com Web site on the Royalty, the Nobility, the History and the Patrimony]
- [http://societe.org.co.nr/ Royal Society of Nord America] Category:Social groups Category:Positions of authority
-
- [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-blu1.htm Worldwidewords] sp. "sangre azul" blue blood zh-min-nan:Hôa-cho̍k ja:貴族

1277

For broader historical context, see 1270s and 13th century.

Events

- Burma's Pagan empire begins to disintegrate after being defeated by Kublai Khan at the Battle of Ngasaunggyan, at Yunnan near the Chinese border.
- Some 50,000 leaders and citizens of the Southern Song Dynasty of China become the first recorded inhabitants of Macau, as they seek refuge from the invading Mongol Empire.
- Mamluk sultan Baibars invades Anatolia and captures the emirates which once composed the Sultanate of Rüm.
- Llywelyn ap Gruffyd is subdued by King Edward I of England in the First Welsh War.
- St George's cross is first used as the flag of England.
- The philosophical doctrine Averroism is banned from Paris at a condemnation at the University of Paris.
- In Japan, a 20 kilometer stone wall defending the coast of Hakata Bay in Fukuoka is completed; it is built in response to the attempted invasion by the Mongol Empire in 1274.

Births

- Sempad of Armenia (died c. 1310)
- Isabella of Mar, first wife of Robert Bruce (approximate date; died 1296)
- Narymunt, Prince regnant of several principalities mostly in Belarus (approximate date; died 1348)

Deaths

- May 1 - Stefan Uros I of Serbia
- May 20 - Pope John XXI (born 1215)
- July 1 - Baibars, Mameluk sultan of Egypt (born 1223)
- October 27 - Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor of England and founder of Merton College, Oxford
- Folke Johansson Ängel, Archbishop of Uppsala Category:1277 ko:1277년

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the end of the Western Roman Empire (5th century) until the rise of national monarchies, the start of European overseas exploration, the humanist revival, and the Protestant Reformation starting in 1517. These various changes all mark the beginning of the Early Modern period that preceded the Industrial Revolution. The Middle Ages are commonly referred to as the medieval period or medieval times or simply medieval.

The Early Middle Ages

medieval flourished in the early Middle Ages: Hildesheim.]] As the authority of the Roman Empire dwindled in Western Europe, its territories were entered and settled by succeeding waves of "barbarian" tribal confederations, some of whom distrusted and rejected the classical culture of Rome, while others, like the Goths admired it and considered themselves the legatees and heirs of Rome. Prominent among these peoples in the movement were the Huns and Avars and Magyars with the large number of Germanic and later Slavic peoples. The era of the migrations is referred to as the Migration Period. It has historically been termed the "Dark Ages" by Western European historians, and as Völkerwanderung ("wandering of the peoples") by German historians. The term "Dark Ages" has now fallen from favour, partly to avoid the entrenched stereotypes associated with the phrase, but also partly because more recent research into the period has in fact revealed its surprising artistic sophistication, though its political and social senses were unevolved and its technologies undeveloped, compared to the preceding culture. Although the settled population of the Roman period were not everywhere decimated, the new peoples greatly altered established society, and with it, law, culture and religion, and patterns of property ownership. The Pax Romana, with its accompanying benefits of safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections, had already been in decline for some time as the 5th century drew to a close. Now it was largely lost, to be replaced by the rule of local potentates, and the gradual break-down of economic and social linkages and infrastructure. This break-down was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance and there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. The Islamic invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries, which conquered the Levant, North Africa, Spain, Portugal and some of the Mediterranean islands (including Sicily), increased localization by halting much of what remained of seaborne commerce. So where sites like Tintagel in Cornwall had managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into the 6th century, this connection too was lost. Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, leading to the rise of illiteracy among leadership.

A new order

Until recently it has been common to speak of "barbarian invasions" sweeping in from beyond Imperial borders and bringing about the end of the Roman Empire. Modern historians now acknowledge that this presents an incomplete portrait of a complex time of migration. In some important cases, such as that of the Franks entering Gaul, settlement of the newcomers took place over many decades, as groups seeking new economic opportunities crossed into Roman territory, retaining their own tribal leadership, and acculturating to or displacing the Gallo-Roman society, often without widespread violence. Other outsiders, like Theodoric of the Ostrogoths, were civilized, though illiterate patrons, who saw themselves successors to the Roman tradition, employing cultured Roman ministers, like Cassiodorus. Like the Goths, many of the outsiders were foederati, military allies of the Empire, who had earned rights of settlement, including among others the Franks and the Burgundians. Between the 5th and 8th centuries a completely new political and social infrastructure developed across the lands of the former empire, based upon powerful regional noble families, and the newly established kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigoths in Spain and Portugal, Franks and Burgundians in Gaul and western Germany, and Saxons in England. These lands remained Christian, and their Arian conquerors were soon converted, following the example of the pagan Frank Clovis I. The interaction between the culture of the newcomers, the remnants of classical culture, and Christian influences, produced a new model for society. The centralized administrative systems of the Romans did not withstand the changes, and the institutional support for large scale chattel slavery largely disappeared. However beyond these areas of Europe were many people with little or no contact with Christianity or with classic Roman culture. Warrior people such as the Avars and the Vikings were still capable of causing major disruption to the newly emerging societies of Western Europe. The Christian Church, the only centralized institution to survive the fall of the western Roman Empire intact, was the sole unifying cultural influence, preserving its selection from Latin learning, maintaining the art of writing, and a centralized administration through its network of bishops. The Early Middle Ages are characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts. The rise of urban communes marked the beginning of the High Middle Ages. bishop Outside the de-urbanized remains of cities, the power of central government was greatly reduced. Consequently government authority, and responsibility for military organization, taxation and law and order, was delegated to provincial and local lords, who supported themselves directly from the proceeds of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. In this lay the beginnings of the feudal system. The High Middle Ages would see the regrowth of centralized power, and the growth of new "national" identities, as strong rulers sought to eliminate competition (and potential threat to their rule) from powerful feudal nobles. Well known examples of such consolidation include the Albigensian Crusade and the Wars of the Roses. This hierarchy of reciprocal obligations, known as feudalism or the feudal system, binding each man to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection, made for a confusion of territorial sovereignty (since allegiances were subject to change over time, and were sometimes mutually contradictory). The benefit of feudalism however, was its resiliency, and the ability of local arrangements to provide stable government in the absence of a strong royal power in a political order distinguished by its lack of uniformity. Territoriality was reduced to a network of personal allegiances. In the east, the Eastern Roman Empire (called by historians the "Byzantine Empire"), maintained a form of Christianised Roman rule in the lands of Asia Minor, Greece and the Slavic territories bordering Greece, and in Sicily and southern Italy. The eastern emperors had maintained a nominal claim to rule over the west, reconquered by Belisarius, but this was a political fiction under Lombard rule and became strongly disputed from 800, with the creation of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, under Charlemagne, briefly uniting much of modern day France, western Germany and northern Italy. From now on, Europe was to be bi-polar, with east and west competing for power and influence in the largely un-christianized expanses of northern Europe. The spread of Christianity in the Migrations Period, both from the Mediterranean area and from Ireland, occasioned a pre-eminent cultural and ideological role for its abbots, and the collapse of a res publica meant that the bishops became identified with the remains of urban government. Christianity provided the basis for a first European "identity," Christendom, unified until the separation of Orthodox Churches from the Catholic Church in the Great Schism of 1054, one of the dates that marks the onset of the High Middle Ages.

A Carolingian renaissance

See also the careers of Charlemagne and Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor.
The High Middle Ages
:Main article: High Middle Ages From beginnings roughly about the year 1000, greater stability came to the lands of western Europe. With the brief exception of the Mongol incursions, major barbarian invasions had ceased. The advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic and Finnic northeast brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples to the European entity. The "High Middle Ages" describes the expansionist culture and intellectual revival from the late 11th century to the beginning of the 14th. In central and northern Italy and in Flanders the rise of towns that were self-governing to some degree within their territories marked a beginning for re-urbanization in Western Europe. In Spain and Portugal, a slow reconquest of the urban and literate Muslim-ruled territories began. One consequence of this was that the Latin-literate world gained access to libraries that included classical literature and philosophy. Through translations these libraries gave rise to a vogue for the philosophy of Aristotle. Meanwhile, trade grew throughout Europe as the dangers of travel were reduced, and steady economic growth resumed. This period saw the formation of the Hanseatic league and other trading and banking institutions that operated across western Europe. The first universities were established in major European cities from 1080 onwards, bringing in a new interest and inquisitiveness about the world. Literacy began to grow, and there were major advances in art, sculpture, music and architecture. Large cathedrals were built across Europe, first in the romanesque, and later in the more decorative gothic style.
The Crusades
:Main article: Crusade Following the Great Schism, prime examples of the force of the divided cultural identities of Christendom can be found in the unfolding developments of the Crusades, during which Popes, kings, and emperors drew on the concept of Christian unity to inspire the population of Western Europe to unite and defend Christendom from the aggression of Islam, often at the expense of the Byzantine Empire. From the 7th century onward, Islam had been gaining ground along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Muslim armies conquered Egypt, the rest of North Africa, Jerusalem, Spain, Sicily, and most of Anatolia (in modern Turkey), although they were finally turned back in western Europe by Christian armies at the Battle of Tours in southern France. Political unanimity in Europe was less secure than it appeared, however, and the military support for most crusades was drawn from limited regions of Europe. Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christendom until the twelfth century or later; these areas also became crusading venues during the expansionist High Middle Ages.
Technology
:Main article: Medieval technology During the 12th and 13th century in Europe there was a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the invention of cannons, spectacles and artesian wells; and the cross-cultural introduction of gunpowder, silk, compass and astrolabe from the east. There was also great improvements with ships and upon the clock. The latter advances made possible the dawn of the Age of Exploration.
The Late Middle Ages (circa 1300-1500)
:Main article: Late Middle Ages The 14th century witnessed a decline that began with the first economic retrenchment after the long, gently inflationary rise of a unified economy that had been under way since the 11th century. The European climate itself was worsening, after the long Medieval Warm Period, leading to the onset of the Little Ice Age. In the Black Death, large areas of Western Europe lost up to a third of their population, especially in the crowded conditions of the towns, where the heart of innovations lay. The Black Death sealed a sudden end to the previous period of massive change, which resumed centuries later in the Early Modern Period. Politically, the later Middle Ages were typified by the decline of feudal power replaced by the development of strong, royalty-based nation-states. Wars between kingdoms, such as the Hundred Years' War between England and France, weakened the Christian nations in their confrontations with Islam. Religously Christendom was increasingly divided during the Western Schism, which resulted in greater loyalty to national churches, though lay piety rarely wavered. The Great Famine of 1315-1317, the Black Death of 1348, popular uprisings all produced stresses while encouraging creative social, economic, and technological responses that signalled the end of the old medieval order and laying the groundwork for further great changes in the Early Modern Period. In the east, the Byzantine Empire followed a separate destiny, with its strongest period coinciding with the Western collapse during the Early Medieval period. After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the former empire was reduced to a shell; it survived until 1453, but in a diminished and weakened form.
Historiography

Middle Ages in history
:Main article: Middle Ages in history After the Middle Ages ended subsequent generations imagined, portrayed and interpreted the Middle Ages in different ways. Every century has created its own vision of the Middle Ages, the 18th century view of the Middle Ages was entirely different from the 19th century which was different from the 16th century view. The reality of these images remains with us today in the form of film, architecture, literature, art and popular conception.
Medieval and Middle Ages

"Middle Age"
The term "Middle Age" ("medium ævum") was first coined by Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century. Until the Renaissance (and some time after) the standard scheme of history was to divide history into six ages, inspired by the biblical six days of creation, or four monarchies based on Daniel 2:40. The early Renaissance historians instead talked about two periods in history, that of Ancient times and that of the period referred to as the "Dark Age". In the early 15th Century it was believed history had evolved from the Dark Age to a Modern period and scholars began to write about a middle period between the Ancient and Modern, which became known as the Middle Age. This is known as the three period view of history. The plural form of the term, Middle "Ages", is used in English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic while all other European languages uses the singular form. This difference originates in different Neo-Latin terms used for the Middle Ages before media aetas became the standard term. Some were singular (media aetas, media antiquitas, medium saeculum and media tempestas), others plural (media saecula and media tempora). There seem to be no simple reason why a particular language ended up with the singular or the plural form. Further information can be found in Fred C. Robinson: "Medieval, the Middle Ages" in Speculum, Vol. 59:4 (Oct. 1984), p. 745-56. The common subdivision Early, High and Late Middle Ages came into use after World War I. It was caused by the works of Henri Pirenne (in particular the article "Les periodes de l'historie du capitalism" in Academie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 1914) and Johan Huizinga (The Autumn of the Middle Ages, 1919). A medieval era can also be applied to other parts of the world that historians have seen as embodying the same feudal characteristics as Europe in this period. The pre-westernization period in the history of Japan is sometimes referred to as medieval. The pre-colonial period in the developed parts of sub-Saharan Africa is also sometimes termed medieval. Today historians are far more reluctant to try to fit the history of other regions to the European model and these terms are less often used.
"Medieval"
The term "medieval" was first contracted from the Latin medium ævum, or more precisely "middle epoch", by Enlightenment thinkers as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages. The spelling of "medieval" may depend on context. Medieval is the modern English spelling, used in normal discourse in England and elsewhere. Mediaeval is a legacy of the Latin spelling Mediæval, which uses the diphthong ae rendered as a ligature; it is an antiquated spelling found in older works, or those that emphesis the words Latin origins. Medieval was originally a pejorative description, and as such it has taken on broader meanings that usually impart some kind of value judgement, such as things that are old, "byzantine", "gothic", crude, heavy, harsh, or dark in nature.
Periodization issues
:See also: Periodization It is extremely difficult to decide when the Middle Ages ended, and in fact scholars assign different dates in different parts of Europe. Most scholars who work in 15th century Italian history, for instance, consider themselves Renaissance or Early Modern historians, while anyone working on England in the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the Turkish capture of Constantinople or the end of the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (both 1453), the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg (around 1455) or the fall of Muslim Spain or Columbus's voyage to America (both 1492), or the Protestant Reformation starting 1517 to mark the period's end. In England the change of monarchs which occurred on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth is often considered to mark the end of the period, Richard III representing the old medieval world and the Tudors, a new royal house and a new historical period. Similar differences are now emerging in connection with the start of the period. Traditionally, the Middle Ages is said to begin when the West Roman Empire formally ceased to exist in 476. However, that date is not important in itself, since the West Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. Today, some date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the division and Christianization of the Roman Empire (4th century) while others, like Henri Pirenne see the period to the rise of Islam (7th century) as "late Classical". The Middle Ages are often subdivided into an early period (sometimes called the "Dark Ages", at least from the fifth to eighth centuries) of shifting polities, a relatively low level of economic activity and successful incursions by non-Christian peoples (Slavs, Arabs, Scandinavians, Magyars); a middle period (the High Middle Ages) of developed institutions of lordship and vassalage, castle-building and mounted warfare, and reviving urban and commercial life; and a later period of growing royal power, the rise of commercial interests and weakening customary ties of dependence, especially after the 14th-century plague.
Religion in the Middle Ages

- Holy Roman Empire
- The Crusades
- Pilgrimage
- Papacy
- Medieval Inquisition
- Heresy (for example, Arian; Cathar; John Wyclif)
- Alchemy
- Monastic orders
- Benedictines
- Carthusians
- Cistercians
- Mendicant friars
- Franciscans
- Dominicans
- Carmelites
- Augustinians
- Judaism
- Islam (Western Europe): Moors
- Islam (Eastern Europe): Sultanate of Rum & Ottoman Empire
See also

- Medieval art
- Medieval architecture
- Medieval climate optimum
- Medieval communes
- Medieval Chronological Timeline
- Medieval demography
- Middle Ages in film
- Medieval guilds
- Medieval hunting
- Medieval medicine
- Medieval music
- Medieval tournament
- Slave trade in the Middle Ages
- History of the Jews in the Middle Ages
Selected bibliography

- Monumenta Germaniae Historica
- Migne's Patrologiae
- Liber Pontificalis
- C. Warren Hollister and Judith M. Bennett, Medieval Europe, A Short History. McGraw-Hill, 2002.
- David Abulafia et al., The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge, 1995.
External links

- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ Internet Medieval Sourcebook Project] Primary source archive of the Middle Ages. See also Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
- [http://www.the-orb.net/ The Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies] Academic peer reviewed articles. See also Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies.
- [http://the-orb.net/ The Labyrinth] Resources for Medieval Studies.
- [http://www.netserf.org/ NetSERF] The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources.
- [http://www.medievalmap.net Interactive Medieval Map] (Flash Plug-in Required.)
- [http://www.sca.org.au/cunnan/ Cunnan: A Wiki collecting information for re-enactors of the Middle Ages and Renaissance] with a heavy slant towards members of the SCA
- [http://www.shadowedrealm.com/ Shadowed Realm - Medieval Content and Discussion] Contains hundreds of glossary terms, a timeline, quotations, quizzes, a wiki, forums, and more.
- [http://www.medieval-castles.org Contains Medieval Castles and their history.] ja:中世 simple:Middle Ages

1395

Events

- End of reign of Hungary by Capet-Anjou family.
- Albert IV becomes archduke of Austria.
- Rama Ratchathirat becomes king of the Ayutthaya kingdom in Thailand.

Births

- January 11 - Michele of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France (died 1422)
- March 18 - John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, English military leader (died 1447)
- September 7 - Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr, English politician (died 1427)
- Fra Angelico, Italian painter (died 1455)
- Niccolò Da Conti, Italian merchant and explorer (died 1469)
- George of Trebizond, Greek philosopher and scholar (died 1484)
- William Waynflete, English Lord Chancellor and bishop of Winchester (died 1486)

Deaths

- March 13 - John Barbour, Scottish poet
- August 29 - Duke Albert III of Austria (born 1349)
- Acamapichtli, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan
- John I of Aragon (born 1350)
- Queen Mary of Hungary
- Prince Marko, Serbian leader Category:1395 ko:1395년

Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti, Duke of Modrone (November 2, 1906 - March 17, 1976) was an Italian theatre and cinema director and writer. Born into a noble and wealthy family, the Visconti (one of the richest of northern Italy), in Milan, at the age of 30 he went to Paris and began his filmmaking career as third assistant director in Jean Renoir's Une partie de campagne (1936), thanks to the intercession of a common friend, Coco Chanel. After a short tour to the U.S., where he visited Hollywood, he returned to Italy to be Renoir's assistant again, this time for La Tosca (1939), a production that was interrupted and later completed by German director Karl Koch because of the war. Together with Roberto Rossellini, Visconti joined the salotto of Vittorio Mussolini (the son of Benito, at the time the national arbitrator for cinema and other arts) and here presumably met also Federico Fellini. With Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli and Giuseppe De Santis he wrote the screenplay of his first film as a director: Ossessione (Obsession) (1943), the first neorealist movie. Visconti was also a celebrated theatre director. During the years 1946-1960 he directed many performances of the Rina Morelli-Paolo Stoppa Company, with Vittorio Gassmann, and several operas, including a famous revival of Donizetti's Anna Bolena at La Scala in 1957 with Maria Callas. In 1948, he wrote and directed La terra trema (The Earth Trembles), from the novel I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga. In Ischia there is a Museum dedicated to Luchino Visconti. He died in Rome at age 69.

Selected filmography

- Ossessione (1943) (based on James M. Cain's 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice)
- Giorni di Gloria (1945)
- La Terra trema (1950)
- Bellissima (1951)
- Senso (Livia) (1954)
- Le notti bianche (White Nights) (1957)
- Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) (1960)
- Boccaccio '70 (1961) (based on Boccaccio's Decamerone)
- Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) (1963) (based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel Il Gattopardo)
- Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa (Sandra of a Thousand Delights) (1965)
- Lo Straniero (1967)
- La caduta degli dei (The Damned) (1969)
- Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice) (1971) (based on Thomas Mann's novel)
- Ludwig (1972)
- Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Conversation Piece) (1974)
- L'Innocente (The Innocent) (1976) Visconti Visconti Visconti Visconti Visconti

Bibliographies

- [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/italianfilmbib.html#visconti Visconti bibliography] (via UC Berkeley)

External link

- [http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/galleries/visconti/ Luchino Visconti Stills & Posters Gallery]
- from the British Film Institute, (gallery navigation is to the left).
- [http://www.luchinovisconti.net/ Biography, filmography and more of Luchino Visconti. Most of the site is in Italian.] ja:ルキノ・ヴィスコンティ

Italian neorealism

Italian neorealism is a film movement lasting from about 1943 to 1952. The movement is characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed in long takes on location, frequently using non-actors for secondary and sometimes primary roles. Italian neorealist films mostly contend with the difficult economical and moral conditions of postwar Italy, reflecting the changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: defeat, poverty, and desperation. Because Cinecittà (a complex of studios in Rome--the center of commercial filmmaking in Italy since 1936) was occupied by refugees, films were shot outdoors, amidst devastation. The movement was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine Cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Gianni Puccini, Giuseppe De Santis, and Pietro Ingrao. Largely prevented from writing about politics (the editor-in-chief of the magazine was none other than Vittorio Mussolini, son of Il Duce), the critics attacked the telefono bianco films that dominated the industry at the time. As a counter to the poor quality of mainstream films, some of the critics felt that Italian cinema should turn to the realist writers from the turn of the century. The neorealists were heavily influenced by French poetic realism. Indeed, both Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti had worked closely with Jean Renoir. Additionally, many of the filmmakers involved in neorealism developed their skills working on calligraphist films (though the short-lived movement was markedly different from neorealism). Elements of neorealism are also found in the films of Alessandro Blasetti and the documentary-style films of Francesco De Robertis. Two of the most significant precursors of neorealism are Toni (Renoir, 1935) and 1860 (Blasetti, 1934). There are a number of traits that make neorealism distinct. Neorealist films are generally filmed with non-professional actors (though, in a number of cases, well known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types in front of a background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film). They are shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in poor neighborhoods and in the countryside. The subject matter involves life among the impoverished and the working class. Non-acting is always emphasized, and performances are mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, completely devoid of the self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films generally feature children in major roles, though their roles are frequently more observational than participatory. Neorealism was first introduced to the world in 1946 with Roma, città aperta (Rome, Open City), which was the first major film to come out Italy after the war. Despite containing many elements extraneous to the principles of neorealism, it depicted clearly the struggle of normal Italian people to live from day to day under the extraordinary difficulties of the German occupation of Rome, consciously doing what they can to resist the occupation. The children play a key role in this, and their presence at the end of the film is indicative of their role in neorealism as a whole: as observers of the difficulties of today who hold the key to the future. At the height of neorealism, in 1948, Luchino Visconti adapted I malavoglia, a novel by Giovanni Verga, written at the height of the 19th century realist verismo movement (in many ways the basis for neorealism), bringing the story to a modern setting, which resulted in remarkably little change in either the plot or the tone. The resulting film, La Terra trema, (The Earth Trembles) starred only non-professional actors and was filmed in the same village (Aci Trezza) as the novel was set in. Because the local dialect differed so much from the Italian spoken in Rome and the other major cities, the film had to be subtitled even in its domestic release. The celebrated 1952 film Umberto D., by Vittorio De Sica, about an elderly, impoverished retired civil servant struggling to make ends meet is often cited as a classic neo-realist effort. Italian neorealism has had as deep and broad an impact on the history of cinema as any of the most significant movements in film. Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Luchino Visconti, three of the most important and celebrated filmmakers of all time began their careers in neorealism, and brought elements of it with them through their careers. The French New Wave critics celebrated neorealism and incorporated much of it in their own movement. Other movements in The United States, Poland, Japan, The United Kingdom and elsewhere developed many of the ideas first articulated by the neorealists. Some of the most notable neo-realist influenced films were the popular "spaghetti westerns" directed by Sergio Leone in the mid-1960s, which spawned many subsequent imitators. Some of Pier Paolo Pasolini's works in the 1970s were considered part of a new neorealist sub-genre, even if Pasolini's attention to picaresque was this time openly declared and evident. The neorealist content would then be in an accessory description, spectacular and perhaps documentary, of some elements of true common life in Italy during and after the so-called economic "boom" of the 1960s. In recent times other movies have been produced that deeply recall the neorealist canons, including works by Gianni Amelio and others. Arguably, something of neorealism can be found in most Italian cinema and often also in TV fiction. Italian neorealism was inspired by French cinema verite (and deeply inspired the French New Wave), German Kammerspiel, and influenced the U.S. documentary movement and the Polish Film School. Its effects can be seen as recently as the Danish Dogme 95 movement.

Significant Works in Italian Neorealism

Precursors and influences:
- The works of Giovanni Verga
- 1860 (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934)
- Toni (Jean Renoir, 1935)
- La Nave bianca (Francesco De Robertis, 1941)
- Cristo si è Fermato a Eboli (novel, Carlo Levi, 1947) Main works:
- Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, 1943)
- Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
- Sciuscià (Vittorio De Sica, 1946)
- Paisa (Rossellini, 1946)
- Germania anno zero (Rossellini, 1948)
- Ladri di biciclette (De Sica, 1948)
- La Terra trema (Visconti, 1948)
- Stromboli (Rossellini, 1950)
- Umberto D. (De Sica, 1952)

Matteo I Visconti

Visconti rulers of Milan

Visconti family tree (XIII cent.-1447)

Galeazzo II Visconti

Galeazzo II (d. 1378) was a member of the celebrated Milan dynasty of Visconti of Italy, and held his court at Pavia. He was handsome and distinguished, the patron of Petrarch, the founder of the university of Pavia and a gifted diplomat. He married his daughter Violante to Lionel of Antwerp, son of Edward III of England, giving a dowry of 200,000 gold florins; and his son Gian Galeazzo to Isabelle, daughter of King John of France. ViscontI Visconti Visconti, Category:Visconti ja:ガレアッツォ・ヴィスコンティ2世

Francesco I Sforza

Francesco Sforza (1401 - 1466) was the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy. The son of Muzio Sforza, Francesco was originally a mercenary leader, most famous for being able to bend metal bars with his bare hands. He later proved himself to be an expert tactician and very skilled field commander. He saved the Visconti rulers of Milan from ruin on a number of occasions. As a reward, the then duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, allowed Francesco to marry his daughter Bianca, but after the duke died without a male heir, fighting broke out. During this time, Franscesco turned against the Visconti, and seized control of Milan and its possessions. Under his rule (which was moderate and skillful), Francesco modernized the city and Duchy of Milan. He created an efficient tax system that generated enormous revenues for the government, his court became a center of Renaissance learning and culture, and the people of Milan loved him. During Sforza's reign over Milan, Florence was under the command of Cosimo de' Medici and the two enlightened rulers became close friends. This friendship eventually manifested in the Peace of Lodi, an alliance between Florence and Milan that succeeded in stabilizing almost all of Italy for its duration. Francesco is mentioned several times in Niccolò Machiavelli's book The Prince; he is generally praised in that work for his ability to hold his country and as a warning to a prince not to use mercenary troops. Regretably Francesco's successors were not nearly as competent, a number of them being dangerously unbalanced individuals. Category:Dukes of Milan Sforza, Francesco Sforza, Francesco Sforza, Francesco Category:Sforza Sforza, Francesco

Category:Milan

Category:Cities in Italy

Category:Visconti

Category:Italian nobility Category:Families of Milan

Alice Freindlich

]] Alisa Brunovna Freindlikh is a major Russian actress from St Petersburg. She was born on December 8, 1934 in the family of Bruno Freindlich, a prominent actor and People's Artist of the USSR. She worked in the Lensovet Theatre from 1961 but had to leave it following her divorce with the theatre's director in 1982. Thereupon Georgy Tovstonogov invited her to join his company, in which she works to this day. Although Freindlich put a premium on her stage career, she starred in several notable movies, including the enormously popular comedy Sluzhebnyi Roman (1977), the long-banned epic Agony (1971) and Tarkovsky's sci-fi movie Stalker (1979). On her 70th birthday, Freindlich's flat was visited by President Putin, who invested her with one of the top decorations of the Russian Federation.

External links

- [http://ab-freindlih.narod.ru/ Fan club of Alice Freindlich] Friendlich Friendlich Friendlich

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