The two Latin cultures and the foundation of Renaissance humanism in medieval Italy / Ronald G. Witt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Witt, Ronald G.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Humanism.

History.

Italy--Intellectual life--1268-1559.

Italy.

Intellectual life.

Latin literature, Medieval and modern--Italy--History and criticism.

Latin literature, Medieval and modern.

Humanism--Italy--History--To 1500.

Renaissance--Italy.

Renaissance.

Physical Description:

xii, 604 pages ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Summary:

"This book traces the intellectual life of the Kingdom of Italy, the area in which humanism began in the mid-thirteenth century, a century or more before exerting its influence on the rest of Europe. Covering a period of over four and a half centuries, this study offers the first integrated analysis of Latin writings produced in the area, examining not only religious, literary, and legal texts. Ronald G. Witt characterizes the changes reflected in these Latin writings as products of the interaction of thought with economic, political, and religious tendencies in Italian society as well as with intellectual influences coming from abroad. His research ultimately traces the early emergence of humanism in northern Italy in the mid-thirteenth century to the precocious development of a lay intelligentsia in the region, whose participation in the culture of Latin writing fostered the beginnings of the intellectual movement which would eventually revolutionize all of Europe"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Introduction; Part I. The Two Latin Cultures of Medieval Italy: 1. The Carolingian conquest; 2. Italy and the Ottonian renaissance; 3. The golden age of traditional book culture and the birth of a new book culture (1000-1075); Part II. The Birth of New Order: 4. The investiture conflict and the emergence of the communes; Part III. The Dominance of the Legal-Rhetorical Mentality: 5. The triumph of the legal culture; 6. The institutional structure of education, 1100-1180; 7. Literary creativity in an age of intensifying legal-rhetorical culture; Part IV. The French Renaissance of the Twelfth Century: 8. French literary and scholarly achievement in the twelfth century; Part V. Toward a Broader Intellectual Life: 9. The destabilization of the elites and the expanding market for education; 10. New knowledge and the tempering of the legal-rhetorical culture; 11. The development of the traditional disciplines and the resolution of the crisis of language; 12. The return to antiquity; Conclusion; Appendix.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780521764742

0521764742

OCLC:

651153745

Online:

Publisher description

Contributor biographical information