Strano and Franco

Via

 I've been busy trying to clean my house after a week or so of neglect. That and four kids don't really mix; unless your goal is a giant mess. Therefore, no crafting happened today. I spent my down time reading. I'm catching up on Italian culture since I've been more immersed in medieval Russia up to this point. I'm drifting more and more towards a change to an Italian (or possibly expatriot Greek) persona though so want to ground myself in the history. I've been working through a lot of art history and enjoying it a great deal. I needed to branch out in order to better understand the art though, so I got a copy of Margaret Rosenthal's biography of Veronica Franco, The Honest Courtesan ,as well as Franco's Poems and Selected Letters edited by Rosenthal and Ann Rosalind Jones. Just starting them, but it's certainly fascinating and dives right into to sociological issues.

 Medievalists.net posted a link to a thesis I found interesting today as well, so I figured I'd pass the link along. "Defining the Strano, Madness in Renaissance Italy" by Nicole Cama. There actually is a relationship as both are in some way dealing with the Other. Certainly a round about way of familiarizing myself with Italian history, but I'm having loads of fun dipping my toes in.