The Secret of San Miniato (Storie del mondo)

Literature & Fiction

Manetti, Renzo

Contemporary

Edizioni Polistampa

San Miniato al Monte (1018-1207): Simboli e Mistero di un’Architettura Sacra (Storie del mondo) (Italian Edition)

Arts & Photography

Architecture

This volume accompanied the exhibition of the same name celebrating the one thousandth anniversary of the San Miniato al Monte Basilica in Florence. Begun at the end of the eleventh century, the basilica was built in stages over the course of two hundred years, with each stage adding its own modifications to the initial plan. Scholarly texts and numerous illustrations document different aspects of the basilica, its polychrome decorations and the cosmic symbolism that characterized the religious edifices of its time. Italian text.

Dieci secoli per la Basilica di San Miniato al Monte (Italian Edition)

Gurrieri, Francesco

In this book there are collected the three theories about the most studied and famous painting in history, Leonardo's Gioconda, expressed during a round table within the event Genio Fiorentino 2006 [Florentine Genius 2006], promoted by the Province of Florence and entitled Mona Lisa: The Hidden Face of Leonardo . The three authors offer new interpretations of this masterpiece: Schwartz and Manetti's theories are based on the firm belief that Mona Lisa is the idealized self portrait of Leonardo; Vezzosi claims that Mona Lisa does not represent Francesco Del Giocondo's wife, which is contrary to what most of Leonardo's experts believe. Lillian Schwartz supplies convincing facts to support her theories: the image under the painting revealed by the X-rays shows a different face from the one that appears on the surface. On the original face, perhaps the portrait of a real woman, Leonardo would have imprinted the actual features until he obtained the painting we know today. What Lillian does not explain is why Leonardo would have done this. Manetti's hypothesis supplies an answer to this question, thus strengthening Schwartz's research. Manetti believes in fact that Mona Lisa, initially conceived as a real portrait, ended up in an ideal image, the iconic talisman of Leonardo's hidden face, the guiding spirit which the stilnovista tradition allegorically represented with the female angel and, therefore, with the feminine nature. Alessandro Vezzosi expresses the prudent opinion of the academic world that demands proof more solid than those offered by the computer. But with his text he provides us with a fascinating and attentive explanation of the Gioconda's history. This book, through the reading and confrontation of these three brief essays, offers itself to the judgment and the close examination of the readers. Testi in italiano e inglese / Italian and English texts.

Mona Lisa: Il volto nascosto di Leonardo / Leonardo's hidden face

SCHWARTZ, DAVID

Vezzosi, Alessandro

History & Criticism

With Desiderium Sapientiae (The Desire for Wisdom) written in 1996, and Le Porte Celesti (The Doors of Heaven) published in 1999, now both out of print, Renzo Manetti returns in this book to his favourite theme of medieval sacred architecture and its symbols. Taking his cue from the complex symbolic vocabulary of the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte in Florence, he explores the true significance of the church as a Door to Heaven, one of those mysterious thin places on our planet where the spirit materialises and the body becomes spirit under the influence of powerful currents of energy. This new essay completes his first historical novel Il Segreto di San Miniato (The Secret of San Miniato), explaining some of the more arcane passages in the novel which may appear at first sight to be beyond the informed layman's grasp. The two books are complementary because each contains something the other is missing. This essay explains the symbols, but only the novel provides the key to open the hidden door. Italian original edition: March 2009

The Language of the Angels: Symbols and Secrets in the Basilica of San Miniato in Florence (La Storia Raccontata)

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Books by Manetti, Renzo