Research Interests:
- Violence (public and private)
- Honor-Shame Cultures
- Chivalry and Knighthood
- Late Medieval/Early Renaissance Italy (especially Tuscany)
- The Historical uses of Imaginative Literature (romances, chanson de gestes, etc.)
My research focuses on the intersection of violence, chivalry, and the powerful cultural forces of honor-shame in Late Medieval/Early Renaissance Italy, especially Tuscany. My current book project examines the important influence of chivalric ideology on the lifestyle and mentality of the Florentine 'chivalric elite', a group of strenuous knights and arms bearers whose membership transcended traditional social and cultural boundaries. Specifically, I study chivalry's influence on their identity, which was closely connected to the profession of arms (war), as well as the exercise of honor- and social-violence. Moreover, I study the attitudes, ideas, and ideas that informed the mentality of these warriors.
