Pregnant Wit: ingegno in Renaissance England

Abstract

This article examines the protean nature of ingegno in Renaissance England. Beginning with dictionary definitions and period translations, it traces the semantics of ingegno in writings by Haydocke, Hilliard, Sidney, Harington, and Dee, and in images by Gheeraerts the elder and Hilliard. The term’s semantic elasticity carried over into English, changing shape to denote variously “wit”, “inborn talent”, “sharpness”, “swiftness”, “nobility”, “freedom”, and “ingenuity”. The article concludes by considering the socio-economics of ingenuity, and how the slippage between “ingenious” and “ingenuous” speaks to a newly emerging understanding of the liberal status of the artist and his craft.

Keywords

• freedom
• iconology
• Geeraerts
• Haydocke
• ingenuity
• limning
• Lomazzo
• Sydney
• wit
• medieval art