Pagan Virtue in a Christian World: Sigismondo Malatesta and the Italian Renaissance

In 1462 Pope Pius II performed the only reverse canonization in history, damning a living man to an afterlife of torment. What had Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini and a patron of the arts, done to merit this fate? Anthony D’Elia shows how the recovery of classical literature and art during the Italian Renaissance led to a revival of paganism.

Table of Contents:
Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Illustrations Chapter 1. The Pope’s Wrath and the Black Legend Damnation Bernardino of Siena’s Vision of Hell The Anti-Sigismondo: Saint Catherine of Siena The History of a Legend A Classical Life for a Renaissance Lord Chapter 2. Court Culture and the Renaissance in Rimini The Castle Connections and Cultural Models: Ferrara Florence Rome Venice Malatesta Novello (Lord of Cesena 1429–1465) Chapter 3. The Greek Renaissance and the Return of the Paideia The Renaissance of Greek Greek in Rimini Homer on the Adriatic Homer and Pagan Virtue Reviving the Greek Paideia The Greek Athletic Ideal A Hero’s Education and the Art of Hunting Sigismondo and the Spartan Ideal A Renaissance of Classical Wrestling Chapter 4. An Ancient Hero on Renaissance Battlefields The Making of a Classical Hero: Sigismondo’s Childhood and Virtue Revealed Italy and the Barbarian Invasion The First Tuscan War and the Siege of Piombino Gradara, October 1446 The Second Tuscan War Accusations The Soul in Rimini: Astrology Omens and Oracles Plato and the Pagan Soul’s Afterlife Sigismondo, Devout Pagan: Sacrifices Oaths Malatesta Heaven: Immortality and the Path of Glory Sigismondo’s Journey to Heaven Chapter 6. Pagan Sex and Heroic Virtue Husband Gone Mad: From Lust Fiend to Uxoricide Isotta’s Sacred Grove An Imagined Romance: Sigismondo and Isotta The Dead and Divinized Isotta Porcellio on Jupiter’s Love for Isotta Chapter 7. Questioning Virtue in Malatesta Literature The Dangers of Classicism Sculpture and Poetry in Sigismondo’s Court Antiwar Rhetoric in the Hesperis Other Heroes in Sigismondo’s Army Sigismondo’s Prowess and the Debate over Ancients and Moderns Chapter 8. Sigismondo’s Peril and Defiance Sigismondo’s Hell The War before Hell Courting the Turk: Sigismondo and Mehmet II After Hell Conclusion: The Pagan Renaissance Notes Acknowledgments Index

Review :
Ideas mattered materially in the world of Sigismondo Malatesta, and it's the sharp clash of ideas that forms the fascinating heart of Pagan Virtue in a Christian World. -- Steve Donoghue Open Letters Monthly Well-crafted and thoughtfully written, Pagan Virtue in a Christian World is by far the most comprehensive treatment we possess of the humanistic literature produced in Rimini under Sigismondo Malatesta. This is an important contribution to Renaissance studies, one that will considerably enrich our current understanding of the cultural dynamics that characterized Italian humanism in its courtly setting. -- Gary Ianziti, University of Queensland This is an elegantly designed, splendidly composed, and immensely learned work on Renaissance civilization, centered on, but not limited by, the heroic career of one of its notorious antiheroes. Not many authors can combine high scholarship with dramatic narrative, but D'Elia does. -- Margaret King, Brooklyn College Anthony F. D'Elia's Pagan Virtue in a Christian World is an intricately argued reconciliation of Malatesta's divided nature. An image of Malatesta for our times, it examines the creation of the original Malatesta legend. -- Dominic Green History Today