[Milton-L] CFP RSA 2010: Milton in Italy

[john rumrich]

Sorry for the mistaken send of an embryonic message.  I hadn't even gotten
rid of the typos yet.  Do me a favor and delete it.

John Rumrich




On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 1:58 PM, john rumrich <rumrich at mail.utexas.edu>wrote:

> Dear Kimberly
>
> Here is the abstract for a paper I would like to present at the 2010 RSA
> conference.  I will also attach a short vita below.
>
> John Rumrich
>
>
>
> *Abstract*:
>
> *Milton among the Castrati*
>
> Clement VIII (1592-1605) was the first to open the Pontifical choir to
> castrati singers, who by 1625 had replace all of the soprano falsettos in
> the Sistine Chapel.  Doctrinally, the Church consistently opposed
> castration, Clement VIII and his successors were fascinated  by the voices
> of the castrati sopranos, so much so that despite the doctrinal
> inconsistency Clement VIII ruled that castration could be allowed solely for
> the glory of God.  Subsequently, young castrati in the guise of stripling
> cherubs participated in church parades and for more than a century were
> available for hire to keep vigil and take part in children's funerals (this
> became a significant source of revenue during times of high infant
> mortality).
>
> Scholars have established Milton's preoccupation with music during his stay
> in Rome, pointing to his large purchases of musical scores, his visit to
> Cardinal Barberini for an evening of music, and the epigrams to Leonora
> Baroni, who was the protege of Rospigliosi, an early composer of operas.  In
> short, it is scarcely credible that Milton could have avoided encountering
> eunuchs whose sexual maturity had been sacrificed for the sake of their art
> and God's glory.  Milton naturally bore a resemblance to these young men.
>  Referred to as the Lady while at Cambridge, he was slow to develop
> secondary sexual characteristics,  and possessed a remarkably fair
> complexion.  One never sees the stubble familiar from Shakespeare's
> frontispieces on Milton's portraits. Milton in his Commonplace Book
> addresses the Pauline injunction to become a eunuch for God and although he,
> like the Church, opposed the literal practice, metaphorical castrations
> occur in his later works particularly in connection with the advancement of
> God's glory.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 2:13 PM, kimberly  johnson <
> kimberly.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association invites papers
> for a
> > proposed session on Milton and Italy, to be held at the 2010 RSA
> conference
> > in Venice, Italy.
> >
> > The proposed session aims to explore the political, artistic, and
> > epistemological effects of Milton’s 1638-9 travels through Italy.
> Milton’s
> > journey made him the acquaintance of such figures as the Vatican’s
> > librarian, the grammarian Benedetto Buonmattei, Venetian scholar and
> papal
> > critic Fra Paolo Sarpi, and Galileo, and exposed the emerging political
> > thinker to new modes of civic governance. Barbara Lewalski has noted that
> > “[t]he Venice Milton visited was the most tolerant state in Italy,” one
> > which had resisted many of the censorious acts of the Inquisition. We
> invite
> > paper abstracts (200 words) on any aspect of Milton’s response to the
> > philosophy, literature, culture, or religion of Italy.
> >
> > Paper proposals (250 word maximum) and a brief c.v. should be sent to
> > kimberly.johnson71 at gmail.com, by no later than March 31, 2009. Please
> label
> > e-mail subject as “Milton in Italy.”
> >
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> > Milton-L web site: http://johnmilton.org/
> >
>
>
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