Vernon Hyde Minor - Baroque Visual Rhetoric

No writer stands alone. There are myriads of texts and a plenitude of sharp, critical minds forming the congregation within which writers and scholars work. Our colleagues inspire us, while the system of higher education provides us with an institutional framework for our thinking, our teaching, our discussions, and our writing. It probably is impossible to sort out where ones contributions begin and end: no single person owns an idea or an area of study, a topic or a topos. We are all in this together.

Having said that, of course, I still must (and very much wish to) acknowledge specific friends, colleagues, and institutions. First of all, my wife, Heather Hyde Minor, to whom I dedicate this book, has been by my side throughout the time I worked on these essays. As a highly productive scholar herself, she understands the discourse of critical writing and therefore has been unfailingly helpful to me. Her ways of assisting and encouraging are too many to describe. I hope my dedication conveys a true sense of obligation, love, and appreciation.

As for institutions, there are many to thank. First of all, the places where I have taught the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign have aided my research and writing with funding and encouragement. I especially wish to thank the Illinois Campus Research Board for its support. The Ricker Library of Architecture and Art at the University of Illinois stands with the finest art libraries in the United States. Its director emerita, Professor Jane Block, shared her vast bibliographic knowledge with me and provided assistance in more ways than I can enumerate. Also unfailingly helpful is and has been Christopher Quinn, interim head and assistant architecture and art librarian.

When in Rome I have had the pleasure of reading in the Bibliotheca Hertziana, ably directed by Elisabeth Kieven and Sybille Ebert-Schifferer, both of whom I thank for their administration of an extraordinary institution. It is the best library for post-classical and pre-modern art in Italy. I also have been helped in a number of ways by Ornella Rodengo, who is in the Directors Office at the Hertziana. For her assistance in finding an image in the Muse Grenoble (France), I thank Sylvie Portz.

The American Academy in Rome, housed in a grand McKim, Meade, and White building on Romes Janiculum Hill, has supported me in many ways. I especially wish to thank Lester Little, Carmella Franklin, Christopher Celenza, and Pina Pasquantonio. In association with the American Academy, I also express my gratitude to the National Endowment for the Humanities for their support and funding of an NEH Summer Seminar I directed at the American Academy in 2011. In that seminar I met and worked with scholars of sparkling wit and impressive backgrounds. One and all provided me with ideas that helped in the formation of this text.

I also thank Giancarla Periti, John Senseney, and Jeffery Geller, who have read large swathes of this text and have provided very useful and encouraging comments.

When working at the Library of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum and Institute, I was assisted by the very able and endlessly helpful librarian Valerie Krall and was helped in many ways by Michael Ann Holly, Keith Moxey, and Michael Conforti.

Most recently I was fortunate to be a Resident Associate at the National Humanities Center. I thank the Fellows and Residents, generous and entertaining scholars with whom I was able to share my ideas while learning much from theirs. I thank especially Geoffrey Harpham, Director and President, and Elizabeth (Cassie) C. Mansfield, Vice President for Scholarly Programs. The NHC in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is a national treasure.

Finally I thank two people at the University of Toronto Press: Ron Schoeffel and Suzanne Rancourt. When I first approached Ron about my text, he responded with a long message, both cautionary (we all know the uncertain state of academic publishing) and reassuring. Although I never met him in person, just the same I experienced Rons generosity, which shone through his frequent communications with me and his enthusiastic support of my project. Since Rons death, I have been ably and encouragingly assisted by Suzanne Rancourt, editor at the University of Toronto Press.

All translations are mine unless otherwise noted.