Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance

by Paul Oskar Kristeller

Book Overview

Italian Renaissance thought has been gaining ever-increasing recognition as seminal to the thought of the whole Renaissance period, affecting in many subtle ways the development and understanding of artistic, literary, scientific, and religious movements. The importance, then, of this detailed and careful survey of Italy's leading Renaissance philosophers and the intricate philosophical problems of the time can scarcely be exaggerated.

Based...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804701113
• ISBN13: 9780804701112
• Release Date: June 1964
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Good intro to Renaissance philosophy

This was a solid introduction to the thought and philosophy of the Italian Renaissance. We are introduced to each of the following men who all had a significant influence on the era: Francis Petrarch Lorenzo Valla Marsilio Ficino Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Pietro Pomponazzi Bernardino Telesio Francesco Patrizi Giordano Bruno The book was published in 1964, but seems not to have lost any relevance with age. The book is concise, with each individual garnering around 20 pages of treatment. I must confess to reading in full only the chapters on the first four gentlemen, as was required of me for class. The rest I skimmed through. Renaissance humanism was not, as sometimes thought, a movement simply inclined towards human values (as opposed to metaphysical values), but it was essentially a study of the humanities. Instead of simply science and theology, the humanists concentrated on things like rhetoric, philosophy, literature and history. Most humanists remained dedicated believers. Many of the men in question spent much time researching and translating ancient Greek and Latin works, a subject that was missing throughout much of the medieval era. This includes the writings of Plato and Arisotle which figured heavily in the thought and debates of the Renaissance era. My personal favorite would have to be Lorenzo Valla, largely because in his debate on Epicureanism versus Stoicism, he comes down on the side of the former.