The noisy Renaissance : sound, architecture, and Florentine urban life
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The noisy Renaissance : sound, architecture, and Florentine urban life
Pennsylvania State University Press, c2016
- : cloth
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-254) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
From the strictly regimented church bells to the freewheeling chatter of civic life, Renaissance Florence was a city built not just of stone but of sound as well. An evocative alternative to the dominant visual understanding of urban spaces, The Noisy Renaissance examines the premodern city as an acoustic phenomenon in which citizens used sound to navigate space and society.
Analyzing a range of documentary and literary evidence, art and architectural historian Niall Atkinson creates an "acoustic topography" of Florence. The dissemination of official messages, the rhythm of prayer, and the murmur of rumor and gossip combined to form a soundscape that became a foundation in the creation and maintenance of the urban community just as much as the city's physical buildings. Sound in this space triggered a wide variety of social behaviors and spatial relations: hierarchical, personal, communal, political, domestic, sexual, spiritual, and religious.
By exploring these rarely studied soundscapes, Atkinson shows Florence to be both an exceptional and an exemplary case study of urban conditions in the early modern period.
Table of Contents
Contents
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Journey into the Noisy Renaissance
Chapter 1: The Acoustic Art of City-Building
Chapter 2: Florentine Soundscapes
Chapter 3: Sound, Space, and Meaning in Renaissance Florence
Chapter 4: Suoni, Voci, Rumori: Listening to the City
Chapter 5: Sonic Discord, Urban Disorder
Epilogue: Ephemerality, Durability, and Architectural History
Notes
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"