Exploring Sixteenth-Century Italy Through the Poems of Giulio Cesare Croce

Lena Breda is a doctoral student in history at the University of Oxford. Lena was a 2021 Fulbright Scholar to Bologna, Italy and received her Masters in Early Modern History from the University of Cambridge in 2022. She received a B.A. in History with a Minor in Italian Language and Culture from the University of Chicago in 2020. Lena studies early modern Italy with a focus on inequality, urban life, famine, and political communication across socio-economic strata.

• Croce’s BolognaIntroduction1: City Life: the Good, the Bad, and the In-BetweenThe Most Pleasing MascherateA Praise and Condemnation of PrisonThe Lamentation of the Paupers who Rent a Home and Must Pay RentThe Lamentation of the DrunksPredictions and a Stupendous and Marvellous Almanac About the Present Year2: Dalla Campagna alla Città: The Margins of Urban and Rural Life in Early Modern ItalyA Debate between Wheat Bread and Bean Bread for SuperiorityThe Lamentation of the HarvestersThe Lamentation of the Bandits3: Fame, Freddo: Calamities in Early Modern ItalyThe Most Solemn Triumph of AbundanceLamentation For the Poverty Caused by the Extreme ColdBanquet of the Ill-FedThe Despair of the Failed Carnival4: The Comedy and Contradictions of HierarchyDescription of the Life of Giulio Cesare CroceThe Cleverest Tricks of BertoldoThe Greatness of PovertyThe Song of the PorcellinaAppendixCurrenciesOriginal TextsBibliography Index