A Place to See...Verona,Italy

In Fair Verona where we lay our scene is how Shakespeare begins his classic play of the two star crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. And Verona has been living on the reputation ever since. One cannot go to Verona without stumbling over artifacts (or supposed artifacts) of the story. Yet, Verona is more than just the venue of a teen aged romance gone very wrong.

Verona, Italy, the pulchritudinous city, in which Romeo and Juliet takes place has remarkable history dating back to 89 B.C., which is a long time ago I might add. Verona is and was still very active in the art department. I decided to go a little more in depth and explain myself. I searched the Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Answers search engines and managed to get a microscopic amount of information so I am not going to give you an exact web page, at the end I will name a few. Well here goes nothing, Verona has preserved a remarkable number of monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold. The 15Th century takes place from 1401 to 1500 as I hope you would know this was the period that would be considered as the Renaissance, let me add that this was the only information in which www.wikipedia.com had offered! During the Renaissance, Verona produced major artists, (remarkably these are just minor examples) the architects Giocondo and Sanmichele and the painters Pisanello and Paolo Veronese, who embellished both Verona and Venice. Life in Verona in my opinion would be like something out of a fairytale, many architectures such as Juliet's balcony (see above) really this is pretty and all but the way it is described on the web page makes you believe its the most beautiful thing you could ever see (I don't believe that), and The Duomo (this will be pictured at the bottom).

Now for a little more information about the arts and all that hogwash. The Dominican church of St. Anastasia is a mine of wealth in early examples of paintings and sculpture, and one of the finest buildings in Italy of semi-Gothic style. It consists of a nave in six bays, aisles, transepts, each with two eastern chapels, and an apse, all vaulted with simple quadripartite brick groining. It was begun in 1261, but not completed till 1422, and is specially remarkable for its very beautiful and complete scheme of coloured decoration, much of which is contemporary with the building. The vaults are gracefully painted with floreated bands along the ribs and central patterns in each cell in rich soft colours on a white plastered ground.

Now lets hear about 15th century royalty (yay!) In the 15th Century we find an "Antonio Serenelli" is noted as a member of a delegation chosen by Bergamo, and is sent to Venice to request transfer of authority from Milan to Venice. On May 6th, he was present at the transfer of Power, which was a ceremonial transfer of the key to Girolamo Contarini. The Venice Government allowed Bergamo to retain their laws and allowed them many privileges, immunity, distinctions and one magistrate was appointed as a representative of the Venetian Government to Bergamo. In 1450 most of the family was in Verona. On August 11, 1450, in Verona we note the presence of "Bartolomeo Serenelli", son of "Sereno", who was son of "Pietro Serenelli", mentioned by Torresani, in a document notarized by Benassuti. Below as I said Before is the Duomo I think, personally that this is one of the lavish buildings I ever had the chance on seeing on the web.

Okay Now to the religion part. The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of western Europe. It encompassed a revival of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting (I remember doing stuff like that for the Renaissance fair in 5th grade), and educational reform. The Renaissance saw developments in most intellectual pursuits, but is perhaps best known for its artistic aspect and the contributions of such polymaths as Da Vinci and Michelangelo, who have inspired the term "Renaissance Men". The Renaissance received a major boost in the 15th century, when the Fall of Constantinople and the closing of its university by the Ottoman Turks forced thousands of Greek scholars to flee to Italy bringing with them the majority of the texts of Hellenic and Roman literature and law, that still survive today.

The Links:
www.the-orb.net/textbooks/muhlberger/15c_religion.html
www.southernct.edu/~ils69314/Radioshake/webquest.htm
http://www.wikipedia.org/
www.answers.com/topic/verona
http:/encyclopedia.jrank.org/VAN_VIR/VERONA.html
www.citylightsnews.com/serenelli/serenelli-history-eng.htm
www.1911encyclopedia.org/Verona
www.wga.hu/database/glossary/cities/verona.html
and of course to get the guelling assignment
knightsenglish9rocks.blogspot.com

*For the record this assignment was excruciatingly frustrating and detestable in so many ways I can't even explain. I managed to take in some imformation in though. I hope this is what you were looking for and that being said, to be honest I couldn't find class systems and occupations; the rest was not easy but arduous and backbreaking but upbeat. This was probably not the best work I have done so just be far warned if you are deeply chagrined after reading this, I will undividedly and completely agree with you. So have a great day, night, weekend, or whatever it is when you are reading this.

Hugs Not Drugs,

Miss Mercedes

MeRcE...YOU KNOW THE REST