Royal and ducal entries into major cities were an important aspect of political life in Renaissance and early modern Europe and the New World. The festivities provided an opportunity for the municipal authorities to show off their wealth, learning, political nous, and aspiration while allowing writers, painters, sculptors, architects, set-designers, scene-painters, dancers, musicians, choreographers, and others an unparalleled opportunity to showcase their wares. The essays in this volume cover a range of royal and ducal entries, some well documented and well known, others less so, some barely documented at all. Each essay tackles an aspect of the business of putting together an entry festivity, discusses a particular difficulty posed for the contemporary scholar by the extant documentation, or offers a consideration of issues central to the development of this type of festivity or the literature associated with it. The entries and royal progresses of members of the Habsburg, Medici, Valois, Bourbon, and Tudor dynasties are examined, as are the festivities commissioned and mounted by powerful and strategically important cities such as Berlin, Antwerp, Paris, Florence, London, and Mexico City to welcome these great personages or their marginally less great ducal representatives.
