‎Giovanna Guidicini‎
‎Triumphal Entries and Festivals in Early Modern Scotland. Performing Spaces‎

‎, Brepols, 2020 Hardback, 349 pages, Size:178 x 254 mm, Illustrations:45 b/w, 23 col., Language: English. ISBN 9782503585413.‎

Reference : 65680

‎Summary This book offers unprecedented insights into the richness of Scottish culture in the early modern period, studying triumphal entries - that is, processional civic welcomes offered to royal guests - staged in Edinburgh in the period between 1500 and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Based on a comprehensive and imaginative analysis of the written and archival sources available for these events, it also brings renewed attention to the country's artistic, architectural, and literary traditions. The analysis of comparable events staged in England and continental Europe - in France, the Italian peninsula, and the Low Countries - helps frame Scotland's distinctiveness within a network of international connections. The book explores how the urban space of early modern Edinburgh was employed with changing fortunes to address potentially explosive power dynamics, expressed by civic and royal, secular and religious (pre and post Reformation), Scottish and post-1603 pan-British worldviews. Scottish triumphal culture is presented as profoundly embedded in the urban context within which it is set, rich in politicised rituals of negotiation and mutual acknowledgement, and visually vibrant through temporary structures, decorations, pageants, and costumed performers. This book offers a well-rounded answer to the still relevant question of Scottish identity, and how identity and power - individual, communal, national, royal - can be performed through active engagement with civic space. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Chapter I. Introduction to Edinburgh as a Ceremonial City Chapter II. The Outdoors: Wilderness and Taming Nature Extramural Nature and Edinburgh's Surroundings Triumphal Entries: Nature and the Outdoors Burgh's Rights: The Otherness of Outside Space Addressing Local and International Views of Scottish Nature The Triumphal Route: The Role of Nature Wild Men and Highlanders in Scottish Ceremonies Extramural Sites and the Use of Chivalric Language Chapter III. The West Port: The Meeting of Royal and Civic Identities The West Port Triumphal Entries: Gateways and Urban Borders Burgh's Rights: Defence and Identity The Triumphal Route: Approaching the West Port Absent Royal Residences: The Castle and Holyrood Palace Ceremonies of Negotiation and Gift-Giving Thresholds, Fabric, and Spaces of Portable Royalty Chapter IV. The Overbow: Discovering and Creating History The Overbow The Triumphal Route: A Tour through History Romanitas in Scottish Triumphal Entries Representing an Alternative Past The Legitimizing Power of Shared History Chapter V. Butter Tron: Representing a Mercantile Community The Butter Tron Triumphal Entries: Representing Local Economy Burgh's Rights: Producing and Trading The Triumphal Route: Visiting a Productive Community The Burgh as Organiser and Host Inhabiting the Productive Space; Identity during Triumphal Entries Spectators: Inclusion and Exclusion Chapter VI. Tolbooth, St Giles Kirk, and the Market Cross: Displaying and Defending Government and Authority The Tolbooth, St Giles Kirk, and the Market Cross Triumphal Entries: The Role of Core Buildings Burgh's Rights: Secular and Religious Self-Determination Tolbooth and Representations of Virtuous Judgement St Giles Kirk and Religious Identities The Triumphal Route: Addressing Stability and Change Market Cross: Concord, Abundance, and Merriment Chapter VII. The Salt Tron: Some Iconographic Considerations The Salt Tron The Triumphal Route: Selecting Iconographies The European Dimension of Scottish Triumphal Language Triumphal Entries and Courtly Ceremonies Triumphal Language in the Context of Scotland's Artistic Production Chapter VIII. The Netherbow: Expectations and Outcomes The Netherbow Farewells and Predictions at the Exit Gateway The Triumphal Route: Visiting Extramural Communities Non-Royal Processions and the Urban Spaces Welcoming Monarchs in Edinburgh after 1633 Index of Stewart Triumphal Entries Index of Triumphal Stations in Edinburgh General Index‎