Details

Subject(s)

• Renaissance—Italy [Browse]
• Humanism—Italy—History [Browse]
• Eloquence in literature [Browse]
• Latin language [Browse]

Series

Ideas in context [More in this series]

Summary note

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.

Notes

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

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.

Show 4 more Contents items

ISBN

9781316282311 (ebook)

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...