Call for papers for a 2010 RSA session proposal on Doges' tombs

Memoria and self-fashioning: the Venetian Doges and their tombs

The proposed session(s) would welcome papers that offer new analyses of
ducal tombs in Venice from the beginning to the end of the Republic. Like
Rome, Venice can be considered an elective monarchy, meaning that the
status of the ruler was very different from that of a hereditary monarch
or duke. Precisely because of the absence of dynastic claims, many Popes,
Doges, and their heirs focused great energy on their memoria. But while
there seems to be abundant scholarship on papal self-representation in New
St. Peter's, the tombs of the Doges have been much less studied. The
papers may thus address questions of ducal self-fashioning, how the tombs
reflect the evolution of the status of the Doge in the Serenissima, and
the personal concerns of the descendents who were often the executioners
of the Doge's will.

Send copies of your proposed paper abstract (150 word maximum), c.v., and
contact information to Benjamin Paul (bpaulrci.rutgers.edu) by April 15,
2009.