Relics, Dreams, Voyages

Peter Davidson is Senior Research Fellow of Campion Hall, University of Oxford

‘Davidson is one of the most diversely learned scholars writing today. His global scholarship connects exiles and visionaries across continents, centuries, languages and religions. To read is to explore unfamiliar libraries and secret gardens. With astonishing erudition and warm sympathy, Davidson reveals submerged codes and contexts that have kept major works half hidden. Exceptionally lucid on matters of great complexity, these essays gleam among the shadows of dangerous and defiant arts.’—Prof Alexandra Harris, author of Weatherland, The Rising Down‘A truly fascinating book. There can be few scholars in the world capable of leading us on such an extraordinary journey through Baroque art, religion and culture from Aberdeen to the Andes, taking in an Italian garden, a Slovak castle and a Japanese crucifix along the way.’—Sir Noel Malcolm, All Souls College, Oxford‘The fine threads and variegated colors of this bright tapestry of case studies combine in considerable luxury to make a resounding case for a universal “Catholic Baroque” that encompassed centuries and crossed the ocean seas.’—Earle Havens, Director of the Stern Center for the History of the Book, Johns Hopkins University

• Prologue: The Gestures of the Skeletons, reticulations of the baroque worldPart I: Centres and peripheries 1 James Fraser: experiencing the arts of Italy in the mid seventeenth century2 The Jesuits and the languages of Britain: the case of Robert Corbie SJ3 Gentileschi and the ancestors4 Pope’s recusancy5 Mr Gibbon’s shadow, or ‘the parent of the arts’Part II: Materialities 6 The solemnity of the Madonna Vulnerata, Valladolid, 16007 Opposing Elizabeth8 Relics and memorials of Mary Stuart in the Low Countries9 Viper wine 10 The Assassin’s new Castles: frescoes and textiles for the Leslies at Nové Mesto nad Metují and Ptui 11 A Jesuit reliquary Crucifix from Japan12 The Jesuit Garden Part III: Designs of the imagination 13 The dream of Raphael 14 Alexander Seton, his house, his library, his world15 Paper gardens16 Imaginary Baroque cities: the Chearnley circle and the Earl of Mar17 Artificial Islands AfterwordBibliographyIndex