Early modern celebrations — whether of public or private events, marked locally or fêted internationally — are also celebrations of early modern culture, or of the artistic invention and technological innovation that figure so prominently in early modern festivities. Yet what are the politics behind such festive displays? And what reactions might the spectacle of celebration, in performance or in print, provoke? The essays in this volume collectively examine the relationship between the festive artist and the audience or readership of celebratory display, as festivities move between tradition and innovation, in live performance and in its written record. With its focus upon a range of art forms — music, dance, performance, poetry, sculpture, decoration — in examples from France, Italy and beyond, this volume celebrates the early modern culture of celebration while also highlighting and questioning the purposes to which that celebratory culture could be put.

The authors of these collected essays include leading specialists in early modern French, Italian and festive studies. The essays are written in tribute to Richard Cooper, and they celebrate many of the subjects and methods — Franco-Italian relations; Rabelais; royal entries; printing; archival research — that distinguish his work.