Italian Renaissance humanism in the mirror / Patrick Baker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baker, Patrick, 1976- author.

Series:

Ideas in context ; 114.

Ideas in context ; [114]

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Renaissance--Italy.

Renaissance.

Humanism.

History.

Italy.

Humanism--Italy--History.

Eloquence in literature.

Latin language.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 335 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Summary:

"This important study takes a new approach to understanding Italian Renaissance humanism, based not on scholarly paradigms or philosophical concepts but on a neglected yet indispensable perspective: the humanists' understanding of themselves. Through a series of close textual studies, Patrick Baker excavates what humanists thought was important about humanism, how they viewed their own history, what goals they enunciated, what triumphs they celebrated -- in short, he attempts to reconstruct humanist identity. What emerges is a small, coherent community dedicated primarily not to political ideology, a philosophy of man, an educational ethos, or moral improvement, but rather to the pursuit of classical Latin eloquence. Grasping the significance this stylistic ideal had for the humanists is essential to understanding both their sense of themselves and the importance they and others attached to their movement. For eloquence was no mere aesthetic affair but rather appeared to them as the guarantor of civilisation itself"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

The Renaissance of eloquence

The scholastic studia humanitatis and the hagiography of humanism

The triumph of Cicero

Philology, printing, and the perfection of humanism

Italian Renaissance Humanism in the Mirror

Appendix : the pantheon of humanism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-323) and index.

ISBN:

9781107111868

1107111862

9781107530690

1107530695

OCLC:

909776657

Online:

Cover image