Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation

(Bozica Vekic) #1

landscape; later works include paintings of the Madonna,
the Incredulity of St. Thomas (1504; National Gallery, Lon-
don), and an altarpiece (1493) for the cathedral of
Conegliano. Typical of his contemplative paintings is the
Madonna with Six Saints (c. 1496–99; Accademia, Venice).


Cinquecento (Italian, “five hundred”) The period of
artistic and cultural development in Italy during the 16th
century. This period witnessed the culmination of the hu-
manist movement in Renaissance Italy and the spread of
mannerist ideals (see MANNERISM) from such cultural cen-
ters as Venice, Ferrara, Mantua, and Rome under the pa-
tronage of the MEDICI, ESTE, GONZAGA, and FARNESE
FAMILIES, among others. Leading Italian figures of the cen-
tury included ARIOSTO, MACHIAVELLI, and CASTIGLIONEin
literature, LEONARDO DA VINCI, RAPHAEL, MICHELANGELO,
GIORGIONE, TITIAN, and CORREGGIOin painting, Michelan-
gelo in sculpture, PALESTRINAin music, and Michelangelo,
Raphael, PALLADIO, VASARI, BRAMANTE, and PERUZZIin ar-
chitecture.


Cinthio (Giambattista Giraldi) (1504–1573) Italian
dramatist, critic, and writer
Cinthio (an epithet adopted in some of his verses) re-
ceived a humanist education and taught rhetoric at the
university of his native Ferrara (1541–62) until he fell
from favor with Ferrara’s Este rulers after a lengthy liter-
ary feud. He then taught in Pavia, returning to Ferrara
shortly before his death. His Orbecche (1541), the first
performance of tragedy in Italian, is important for intro-
ducing the Senecan model (see SENECA) in the Renais-
sance: its main features are a five-act structure, emphasis
on the horror of events, and a moralizing style. Three fur-
ther tragedies, Didone, Cleopatra, and Altile (c. 1543),
were followed by the pastoral Egle (1545). Later plays
look forward to the genre of tragicomedy. Cinthio’s collec-
tion of novelle, Hecatommithi (One Hundred Tales; 1565)
provided plots for his own plays and those of other drama-
tists, including Shakespeare (Measure for Measure and Oth-
ello). The theory of his dramatic practice was expounded
in the discourse Intorno al comporre delle commedie e delle
tragedie (1543) and a defense of the romance epic, such as
ARIOSTO’s Orlando furioso, was argued in Intorno al com-
porre dei romanzi (1548).


ciompi The low-paid day-laborers in Florence’s wool in-
dustry. In July 1378 the ciompi rebeled against their low
wages and their subjection to their employers and the
wool guild. They armed themselves and seized power with
the help of artisans and shopkeepers. Having overthrown
the oligarchy, they then forced through radical and demo-
cratic legislation. Their extremism and the worsening eco-
nomic situation alarmed their allies, many of whom
deserted them. The guilds were able to regain control late
in August 1378 and to restore oligarchy to Florence.


Cisneros, Cardinal Francisco Ximénes de See
XIMÉNES DE CISNEROS, CARDINAL FRANCISCO

Civitali, Matteo (1436–1501) Italian architect and
sculptor in marble
Civitali was born and died in Lucca, and most of his work
remains in the city or its environs. The cathedral at Lucca
contains tombs by Civitali, a pulpit (1494–98), and the
Tempietto del Volto Santo (1484), an octagonal marble
shrine housing a wooden image of Christ believed to have
been the work of Nicodemus. Civitali was the original ar-
chitect of Lucca’s Palazzo Pretorio (1492) and his statue
stands in the portico there. Outside Lucca, Civitali has a
lectern and candelabra in the cathedral at Pisa and statues
of Old Testament figures in Genoa cathedral.

classics, study of See CRITICISM, LITERARY; CRITICISM,
TEXTUAL; GREEK STUDIES; HUMANISM; LATIN STUDIES

Claudin See SERMISY, CLAUDIN DE

Clavius, Christopher (Christoph Klau) (1537–1612)
German mathematician and astronomer
Born at Bamberg, Clavius became a leading Jesuit and pro-
fessor of mathematics at the Collegio Romano. His views
were often sought by the Vatican on controversial scien-
tific matters; thus, between 1588 and 1603, he wrote no
fewer than five separate works defending the calendrical
reforms of Pope GREGORY XIIIin 1582. Clavius was again
called upon in 1611 to advise the Vatican authorities upon
the reliability and seriousness of GALILEO’s telescopic ob-
servations. While responding sympathetically to Galileo’s
work, he advised, nonetheless, that the observations did
not constitute a convincing proof of the COPERNICAN
SYSTEM. The lunar mountains described by Galileo were
covered, Clavius said, with a smooth but transparent crys-
talline surface. As a mathematician Clavius was known as
the author of Epitome arithmeticae (1583) and Algebra
(1608), widely used textbooks of arithmetic and algebra,
and he also wrote a major treatise on gnomonics (1581).
Further reading: James M. Lattis, Between Copernicus
and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic
Cosmology (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press,
1994).

Clemens (non Papa), Jacobus (c. 1510–55/56) Franco-
Flemish composer
Clemens was succentor at Bruges cathedral (1544–45),
and in late 1550 was at ’s-Hertogenbosch. It is known that
he spent some time in Ypres, but he also had links with
Leyden and Dort. The reason for the “non Papa” (not the
pope) in his name is uncertain, though it was probably
coined as a joke, for Pope Clement VII died in 1534, and
the name was not used in a publication until 1545.
Clemens was a prolific composer known chiefly for his sa-

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