This book theorizes the baroque as neither a time period nor an artistic style but as a collection of bodily practices developed from clashes between governmental discipline and artistic excess, moving between the dramaturgy of Jesuit spiritual exercises, the political theatre-making of Angelo Beolco (aka Ruzzante), and the civic governance of the Venetian Republic at a time of great tumult. The manuscript assembles plays seldom read or viewed by English-speaking audiences, archival materials from three Venetian archives, and several secondary sources on baroque, Renaissance, and early modern epistemology in order to forward and argument for understanding the baroque as a gathering of social practices. Such a rethinking of the baroque aims to complement the already lively studies of neo-baroque aesthetics and ethics emerging in contemporary scholarship on (for example) Latin American political art.
"Baroque, Venice, Theatre, Philosophy is a clearly written, closely argued, and carefully drawn study of the Italian baroque in historical (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), architectural, and metaphorical space and time." (Spencer Golub,Theatre Journal, Vol. 71 (4), December, 2019)
"A worthy addition to the Jesuit theater bookshelf." (Kevin J. Wetmore, Journal of Jesuit Studies, Vol. 5, 2018)
"A worthy addition to the Jesuit theater bookshelf." (Kevin J. Wetmore, Journal of Jesuit Studies, Vol. 5, 2018)