Abstract

The collection “Court Culture in the Renaissance” was published in 2014 by the Commission for Renaissance Culture of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences “History of World Culture”. The collection’s authors include scholars of Medieval history, art historians, specialists in the history of science, literature and theater. The presented studies are focused on individual topics concerning the court culture of the Renaissance and at the same time touch upon the fundamental questions of the functioning of court society in the late Middle Ages and the early Modern times. N.A. Khachaturian offers a look at court culture as a social phenomenon tied to the formation of a new structure of the royal Medieval court. M.A. Yusim, V.A. Dyatlov and T.M. Ruyatkin examine the status of specific personalities of court culture and their relationship with the court, rulers and other communities. Several articles are dedicated to the transformation of Medieval figures in the Renaissance court culture. A.V. Romanchuk and G.A. Yalovko trace the transformation of the figure of the warrior into the figure of the courtier on the example of Italian visual sources of the 14th–16th centuries. M.K. Popova demonstrates the use of the Medieval motif of courtly love for the benefit of the strengthening absolutism at the court of Elizabeth I. The use of artistic images for exalting the monarch is also considered by I.Y. Elfond on the example of the French king Francis I. M.V. Panfilova examines the topic of court ceremonies on the example of the papal court through the prism of the Roman throne’s claims to supremacy over secular sovereigns. V.M. Volodarsky presents the criticism of court customs on the part of Humanists, analyzing the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Sebastian Brant and Ulrich von Hutten. The role of the ruler in the cultural life of the court is considered in the articles of N.A. Bagrovnikova and T.V. Sonina. The scientific studies at the courts of Renaissance monarchs are also discussed: R.M. Aseynov analyzes the court historiography of the duchy of Burgundy in the early Renaissance and A.V. Kuzmin on the example of Italian visual sources of the 14th–16th centuries the court science in the transition era from the Renaissance to the Baroque on the example of the work of Galileo Galilei. In addition, a number of studies concerns works of visual art and theater. The analysis of the collection’s articles gives an idea of the current state and the current problems of studying the Renaissance court culture in Russian-language historiography.