Cinquecento Plurale is an international network of scholars dedicated to research on the Italian Renaissance, particularly on those aspects that criticism traditionally has neglected or marginalised. It focuses on those elements of Cinquecento culture that undermine and challenge the canonical version of Renaissance art and literature, be it by inverting its premises through satire, parody, or paradox, or by contesting and even attacking its basic ideological and artistic assumptions: from pasquinades to heresy. By concentrating on this 'other' Cinquecento, and on the dynamic exchanges between 'lower' and 'higher', more canonical aspects of its culture, the network aims to unravel the many differences and pluralities that make the Italian Renaissance a period of such unprecedented richness and subtlety, that still in many ways needs to be further explored.

See Programme.

Besides short profiles of the Scholars involved in the network, the Cinquecento Plurale website offers an Archive, containing information on the results of completed research projects, along with a list of the Projects still being carried out, an Agenda with upcoming events, a Collection of publications, hosting some of the contributions to the project, and finally a Bibliography, which presents up-to-date bibliographical surveys and other research tools on Cinquecento themes and authors.