af Alexandra Rubenstein 8 år siden
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mythology's role in role in nourishing contemporary culture
Origen
Horace
Petrarch
Founder of Humanism
Often treated with almost religious reverence
Magi of Egypt
Ovid
Aeschylus
Homer
Stoics
St Thomas Aquinas
Known for introducing philosophies as dialogues
Dante
Plato
Cicero
Virgil
Artistotle
Neoplatonists
Cosimo de Medici
Some of his close friends:
Naldo Naldi, Alessandro Braccesi, Niccolò Michelozzi, and Angelo Poliziano.
Edited works of Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus
Saw all mythologies through their interpretations (which he and his students held in high esteem)
Egyptian
Roman
Greek
natural vs spiritual demonic
Natural magic Practised by Pico and Ficino
Christian hostility to paganism
Practices
Specific beliefs
Belief that knowledge of natural history= essential to accurate reading of Scripture/ understanding of the Divine
magicians
angels
demons (friendly and unfriendly)
Astrology
Fatalism vs free will
Science vs superstition
parallels drawn with the biblical tales
Parallels between deities and saints (both purpose oriented)
History of paganism under Christian rule
Development from gods as benefactors to all humanity to specific subsets of people
Theological/ scholastic/ cultural difference between the Middle Ages and Renaissance- a schism or a continuation? A. Both, depending on the category and lens
How was it able to develop so completely when posing threat to the church?
development of mythologies' origins
Significance for current culture
how that affects current culture
Divinity of the soul
Nature
Allegory
Parable
men and women outside core group of humanists= primary audience for humanist and classical books. Most part of higher society. (amateur/ professionals)
Lauro Martines:very few humanists were wandering scholars who used letters for subsistence and languished outside the halls of political power. Rather, humanists were members of wealthy and powerful political groups within Florentine society.
ideal of the active life of a citizen.8
What is prerogative/ agenda of author? To what extent is his work scholastic, religion- oriented, pandering to what he believes patron wants to hear? How do we determine this? See Maxson- literary patronage
Why would he commission the piece?
diplomatic efforts
Personal interest
Supporting development of humanism
attempted to merge Plato's ideas with Christianity
Poliziano
Ficino
Pico de Mirandola
Expanding Laurentian library
Influence of noteworthy works
John Ridewall's work (mid 15th century)
Notes on style/ conventions f humanistic writing
cicero considered "purest model of prose" (Burckhart, 2014)
How humanistic thought may have influenced structure/ emphasis of specific themes
importance of beauty of expression/ prose
beauty of nature
emphasis on natural sciences
Advent of printing
Civic vs country culture- "two city model"
codependent / symbiotic relationship between the plebians and patricians
Limited social mobility
Political Crisis
Crusades
Translation of Latin docs by Jews
Increased popularity of astronomy
Accessibility to Arabic philosophy
Influence of other religions: 'Oriental' (Babylonian, Persian, Chaldean etc), Islam, Judaism)
Spiritual Crisis
Edelheit: sparked by Black Death
Hans Baron
pointed to the ideal of the active life, particularly in the context of a republic, as the defining aspect of humanist thought
Margery Ganz, Arthur Field, Mark Jurdjevic, and others have convincingly argued that this ideal of “civic humanism” continued even after many Florentine intellectuals began focusing on metaphysical questions
Eugenio Garin
focused on the philosophical writings of the humanists and argued that they shared an advocacy for the active life and a rudimentary form of historicism
Paul Oskar Kristeller
argued that humanists focused on the five subjects of the studia humanitatis – history, poetry, grammar, rhetoric, and moral philosophy
Ronald Witt
argued that the style of humanist Latin set humanists apart from previous thinkers and authors. This style gradually moved across literary genres and culminated in changes in oratory in the early fifteenth century