Le feste del Principe
Games, entertainment, shows in court

Il Bulino, Modena 2002

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Following the books on hunting and banqueting, this third volume ends the research on Court life by analysing entertainment habits in Mantua. Such research reveals a process of gradual transformation of the medieval village or city fair, and analyses the wide variety of shows the Prince – and often common people as well – relied on to escape the trivialities of everyday life. This book endeavours to classify, through unpublished archive documents, the diverse typologies of feasts, fairs and shows: weddings, balls, funerals, mysteries, plays, jousts, tournaments, carnivals, fashion, fireworks… Everything was intended to cement an interactive system of elements into that peculiar social phenomenon called ‘feast’. This research covers three centuries of history, from the 15th to the 17th, during which the feast makes its triumphant entrance into public imagery, expanding to manifold events which get to be a subtle machine of hidden persuasion, operated with the intention of transforming of society. As usual for the collection ‘Il Giardino delle Esperidi’, a delicious iconography, specifically chosen to illustrate the topics, accompanies and completes the research.