On the edge of the Italian Renaissance

Abstract

This chapter situates René de Challant on the edge of Renaissance historiography in several ways. The geographic reach of his fiefs and political activities spanned from northwestern Italy across the Alps into the borderlands between France and the Empire. His service to the House of Savoy raises questions about the boundaries of scholarly work on the Italian Renaissance. His activities as a feudal lord with pretensions of sovereign status help us to reevaluate the relationship between the historiography on the European nobility and studies of Italian Renaissance elites. Biography as a genre of history is perched between contextual narrative description and comparative analysis. Recent work on the spatial dimensions of early modern history draw our attention to this material dimension of René’s experiences.