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‘My love is as a fever . . .’: Love Treatises in the Renaissance
Friday, Jan 20, 2017 - Saturday, Jan 21, 2017
CMRS Ahmanson Conference
| Treatises discussing the origin, nature, and effects of love are prevalent throughout the European Renaissance. The Neo-Platonic tradition of love treatises has been studied for its philosophical and literary implications and for its influence on sixteenth-century culture; these studies have illuminated how the “ladder of love” model permeates poetry, prose narratives, and religious and moral treatises.
Less attention has been paid to medical treatises dealing with the somatogenesis of love and its effects, or chapters in books of natural philosophy discussing the workings of erotic passion. While Neo-Platonic treatises focus on how one should love and the moral and spiritual value of love, medical treatises offer insight into the early modern conception of what love is and how the body reacts to it. A coherent discussion of love in the Renaissance must concern itself with both types of treatises because the phenomenon as a whole can only be understood if both aspects are studied together. How was the experience of love conceived of as a bodily phenomenon? How does that inflect our understanding of love as a moral value, a religious experience, or an object of aesthetic representation? In addition to exploring how love was valued in Renaissance culture, this conference also examines how love was constructed and conceived of in physical, medical terms, approaching the two types of love treatises as creating one complex, coherent genre. This conference is made possible thanks to a generous gift from the Ahmanson Foundation. |
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| FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2017 in ROYCE HALL ROOM 314 | |
| 8:30 | Coffee, fruit, pastries |
| 9:00 | Opening Remarks Massimo Ciavolella, CMRS Director (UCLA) Lee Walcott, Managing Director Emeritus (Ahmanson Foundation) |
| SESSION I – INTIMACY AND SEDUCTION | Chair: Allison Collins (UCLA) | |
| 9:15 | Jean Claude Carron (UCLA) “The Philosopher as Seducer: the Hazards of Teaching Love” |
| 10:00 | Break |
| 10:15 | Natascia Tonelli (Università di Siena) “What Remains of Guido Cavalcanti? Two 16th-Century Commentaries to His Canzone d’Amore“ |
| 11:00 | Break |
| 11:15 | Roberta Morosini (Wake Forest University) “‘Why do kisses give so much pleasure?’ The Kiss in Francesco Patrizi da Cherso” |
| 12:00 | Break |
| 12:15 | Jessica Coope (University of Nebraska) “Love, Friendship, and Intimacy in Muslim Spain: Ibn Hazm and The Dove’s Neck-Ring” |
| 1:00 | Lunch Break |
| SESSION II – GENDER | Chair: Adriana Guarro (UCLA) | |
| 2:15 | Elisa Tosi Brandi (University of Bologna) “Passionate Love and Immortality: a Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and His Court from the Liber Isottaeus” |
| 3:00 | Break |
| 3:15 | Armando Maggi (University of Chicago)
“‘Amor non può durar senza pigliar frutto’: The Role of ‘Genital Humor’ in Mario Equicola’s Libro de natura de amore“ |
| 4:00 | Break |
| 4:15 | Rossella Pescatori (El Camino College) “‘Lovesickness from a Woman’s Perspective’; How Ovid’s Heroides and Boccaccio’s Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta Echo in Leone Ebreo’s Dialogues on Love“ |
| 5:00 | Break |
| 5:15 | Jessica C. Murphy (University of Texas, Dallas) “Women in Love: Early Modern Medical Understandings” |
| SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017 in ROYCE HALL ROOM 314 | |
| 8:30 | Coffee, fruit, pastries |
| SESSION III – REMEDIES FOR LOVE | Chair: Rebecca Rosenberg (UCLA) | |
| 9:00 | Paolo Fabbri (Centro Internazionale Scienze Semiotiche, University of Urbino) “Eros and Anteros: the Macheronic Cure” |
| 9:45 | Break |
| 10:00 | M. L. Stapleton (Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne) “Thomas Heywood’s The Remedy of Loue“ |
| 10:45 | Break |
| 11:00 | Donald Beecher (Carleton University, Ottawa) “Jean Aubery’s L’Antidote d’Amour (1599): A Treatise of Its Time for the Curing of Amorous Despair” |
| 11:45 | Break |
| 12:00 | Roberto Fedi (Università per Stranieri p.za Fortebracci) “A Case of Not-Love: Della Casa’s An uxor sit ducenda“ |
| 12:45 | Lunch Break |
| SESSION IV – NATURE AND BEAUTY | Chair: Massimo Ciavolella (UCLA) | |
| 2:00 | Selena Simonatti (Università di Pisa) “El ‘amor puro humano’ de Dameo y Dórida: Damasio de Frías entre León Hebreo y Sperone Speroni” |
| 2:45 | Break |
| 3:00 | Paolo Cherchi (University of Chicago) “Agostino Nifo: the Nature of Beauty and Love” |
| 3:45 | Break |
| 4:00 | Remo Bodei (Università di Pisa & UCLA) “Beauty’s Fatal Attraction” |
| 4:45 | Closing Remarks: Allison Collins (UCLA) |
| Advance registration not required. No fee. Limited seating. Self-pay parking in lots 2, 3, 4, and 5. More parking information at https://main.transportation.ucla.edu/campus-parking/visitors |
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| Image above: Portrait of a Woman and a Man at a Casement by Fra Filippo Lippi, ca. 1440. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art | |
| Click here for a PDF version of the conference program. | |