New book on the Baroque Age

Consisting of 10 chapters and four appendices, this new book on the Baroque Age presents the reader with a universe of the mental attitudes of diverse Baroque personae towards a wide variety of themes, to better understand the ‘spirit’ of the Baroque age.

Based on selected extracts, chosen from the written evidence of a wide cross section of people living in the Baroque age, this book written by Professor Denis De Lucca reproduces and discusses numerous writings that reflect the mentality of people living in the Baroque age.

The themes of this book include religious reform and spirituality, political, military and civic affairs, philosophy, aesthetics, science, medicine, the love of theatrical spectacle, literary achievement and repeated evocations of past grandeur. The world of the late sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is presented as a colourful but double-faced cultural episode in the history of humanity that is described as having been reformist and spiritual; violent and intolerant; urban and urbane; theatrical, passionate, sensual, and overpowered by fierce emotions – emotions that would have been unleashed during the frequent celebrations of important events and important discoveries.

Spectacular multi-media performances of the likes that had never been seen before, now started being used as a powerful weapon to underline political and religious dominance – to impress, to dazzle, to sometimes instil awe and fear, to sometimes amuse and entertain a largely servile and hungry populace – fulfilling in an unprecedented manner the calendar and lifestyle of ruling kings, queens, popes, cardinals and princes of the time and therefore announce the arrival – during the second half of the sixteenth century – of a new age of absolute power structures, gunpowder wars, a new science of experimental enquiry and artistic patronage.

The accumulation of evidence furnished by the various eyewitnesses and others mentioned in this book do suggest that there were a set of unwritten priorities which would have conditioned the human mind of Europeans in the Baroque age. The religious concerns that were associated with the Tridentine renewal of the Catholic church (considered necessary by many in view of Luther’s revolt and the irreverent spending and dissolute lives of the Borgias and their successors in the first half of the sixteenth century) and its sequel (as manifest in the unprecedented splendour and elaborate ceremonies in Catholic Church rituals and the emphasis on the concept of dying well to acquire eternal bliss in heaven ) would have constituted the first of these conditioning priorities.

Being an age of intrinsically violent behaviour patterns, the Baroque mind would have also prioritized the need of living not only in the grace of God, but also securely in towns which were well equipped with rings of fortifications, with firearms and ammunition, and with supportive urban armatures. Well organized standing armies and formal instruction in military matters would have also been on the mind of powerful rulers, who would have been determined to cling to what they believed were God-given Absolute rights over their subjects. All this would have given rise to a stifling air of suspicion and intolerance of Church and State to any winds of change, which could have inspired in the populace thoughts of rebellion against the established order. Many were those ardent minds, however, who defied the spy networks of their peers to create marvellous novelties such as new approaches to mathematics and astronomy, medical practice, and women’s rights. Reacting to the general air of suspicion, oppression and atrocious punishments which pervaded the Baroque age, other ardent minds found solace in an unprecedented appreciation of all that was beautiful and fine in cities and their buildings so that there was never an age so infatuated with the patronized achievements of its architects, sculptors, painters and art collectors.

It has also been shown in this book that in all things, the Baroque mind was obsessed with a love of all for all kinds of spectacle, used by ruthless rulers to impress crowds and discourage rebellion, which provided distracting enjoyment and recreation. For this purpose, everything seems to have been orchestrated to provide a show – theatrical performances, public punishments, medical dissections, military drills and parades, spectacular banquets, garden festivities with breathtaking pyrotechnics and, for good measure, an impressive range of indoor and outdoor religious rituals concerned with life and death.

Intended to serve as an important reference work for all who are engaged in studies of the Baroque age, the last chapter of this book – entitled A Perennial Baroque? - provides much food for thought. In this context, the emergence of a so-called neobaroque phenomenon that has already been widely debated by a broad range of twentieth-century philosophers, cultural critics, and writers from both Europe and the Americas, becomes an important field for further academic investigation, even in an age when robots without a soul may eventually be permitted to become our servants or our masters, signalling the end of human history! A copy of ‘The Baroque Mind’ can be obtained from the administrative office of the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta and from major bookshops