The Reception of Dreams in Early Modern Italian Popular Culture - 1450-1550.

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"Dreams are one of the few common threads of experience tying together all cultures, serving an influential purpose in the production of popular culture. Yet surprisingly, few comprehensive studies exist of dreams and their reception within popular culture in Renaissance Italy. Not only is the literature of dreams alone worthy of analysis, its impact on popular culture can be linked to common human experience and everyday practices by a close examination of print culture. Furthermore, a transcultural approach is vital. I want to investigate the process of transmission and reception in the face of continual effacement of Arabic and Islamic influence on Renaissance Italian dream literature. This innovative study of Renaissance dream culture will contribute to the already rich historiography on visions, inspiration, and genius in the Italian Renaissance. The project will address a set of defined questions. Primarily, how did popular audiences interpret their dreams, and did this shape how they navigated everyday life? Secondly, how did contradictory views of dreaming within the Catholic Church shape people's interpretations of dreams? Moreover, how did women interpret their dreams? Finally, to what extent did Arabic texts influence popular interpretations of dreams, and to what extent were audiences aware of it? There is a lack of precise study on the process of contemporary and historiographical effacement and how the Arabic influence was removed from popular consciousness. However, Saif (2015), Oberhelman (2016), and Knysh (2012) largely set the precedent in showing how the sources I wish to analyse overlap with Islamic ideas. I aim to contribute to an existing debate about the cross-cultural exchanges between Renaissance Italian and Arabic literature. Within historiographical literature on dreams, Ruvoldt is at the forefront. Ruvoldt traces the origins of dream theory to creation and production of visual imagery. Ruvoldt wished to connect dreams to a 'larger social and historical context', but the sharp focus on art history leaves vast amounts of Renaissance dream literature unexplored. Furthermore, while monographs by Lynch, Clark, and the edited collection Reading the Early Modern Dream attempt to tackle the dream in early modern societies, these books are unable to offer a defined investigation into the popular culture of dreams in Renaissance Italy. Holland (1999) provides a 'roadmap' of dreams in Europe, but again lacks the detail necessary to fully understand dreams in the Renaissance. While these works remain influential in the intellectual origins of dreams in early modern Europe, these studies have neglected themes of popular reception in early modern Italy. This study will focus on the period between 1450 and 1550, analysing the socio-cultural reception of dreams by examining dream manuals and handbooks, literary prose, poetry, diaries, and letters. Many dream manuals and handbooks also either entirely ignored the dreams of women or presented a derogative and cynical view of the presence of women in dreams. Digging deeper into the role of women in dreams and trying to uncover the dreams of women is an exciting opportunity. Continuity and narratives of change will also be considered, recognising that the reception of dreams in early modern Italy was in part born from a long-standing tradition of dreams stemming from antiquity. In summary, my aim with this PhD is to elucidate an area in Italian history which has largely remained confined to narrow intellectual studies or to interpretations of visual culture. Much work on dreams has had little impact on the wider historiography, so by bringing my interpretive framework of dreams to a wider inspection of society, I can expand and revise existing historiography."