BNCF

Historiography

Historiographical interpretations of humanism

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

Paul Oskar Kristeller

argued that humanists focused on the five subjects of the studia
humanitatis – history, poetry, grammar, rhetoric, and moral philosophy

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

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

Setting the Scene

Religious Setting

Spiritual Crisis

Edelheit: sparked by Black Death

Influence of other religions: 'Oriental' (Babylonian, Persian, Chaldean etc), Islam, Judaism)

Economic Setting

Political Setting

Crusades

Accessibility to Arabic philosophy

Increased popularity of astronomy

Translation of Latin docs by Jews

Political Crisis

Social Setting

Limited social mobility

Civic vs country culture- "two city model"

codependent / symbiotic relationship between the plebians and patricians

Advent of printing

Scholastic movements/ trends

How humanistic thought may have influenced structure/ emphasis of specific themes

emphasis on natural sciences

beauty of nature

importance of beauty of expression/ prose

Notes on style/ conventions f humanistic writing

cicero considered "purest model of prose" (Burckhart, 2014)

Influence of noteworthy works

John Ridewall's work (mid 15th century)

Individuals involved in production of text

Del Nero

Lorenzo de Medici

Why would he commission the piece?

Expanding Laurentian library

Supporting development of humanism

Pico de Mirandola

Ficino

Poliziano

attempted to merge Plato's ideas with Christianity

Personal interest

diplomatic efforts

Author

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

Ficino

Introducing the text

Significance of text's format (see p.56 on of Edelheit)

Text's summary

Text's main argument

Scholastic trends

how were ideas disseminated?

Cultural influences

Moral ideologies

Civic humanism

ideal of the active life of a citizen.8

Behaviour

Philosophical issues/ questions

Man's place in the cosmos

Resources

Who were the humanists?

Core group of exceptional humanists

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.

Text's plotline/ narrative (general summary)

Editorial Notes

Structure

Moralising tools

Parable

Allegory

Devices

Tropes

Themes

The universe/ world

Nature

Man's purpose

Divinity of the soul

Micro vs macrocosmic thinking

Civil life

Legacy of ancient philosophy

how that affects current culture

Recent wars/ battles/ upheavals

Significance for current culture

Romance of Euhemerism

development of mythologies' origins

History of paganism under Christian rule

How was it able to develop so completely when posing threat to the church?

Theological/ scholastic/ cultural difference between the Middle Ages and Renaissance- a schism or a continuation? A. Both, depending on the category and lens

Development from gods as benefactors to all humanity to specific subsets of people

parallels drawn with the biblical tales

Parallels between deities and saints (both purpose oriented)

Astronomy

Reconciling Christianity with paganism

Specific beliefs

Science vs superstition

Astrology

Fatalism vs free will

demons (friendly and unfriendly)

angels

magicians

Belief that knowledge of natural history= essential to accurate reading of Scripture/ understanding of the Divine

Practices

Christian hostility to paganism

Time

Magic/ witchcraft

natural vs spiritual demonic

Natural magic Practised by Pico and Ficino

Characters

Mythological

Greek

Roman

Egyptian

Biblical

Contemporary

Ficino

Edited works of Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus

Saw all mythologies through their interpretations (which he and his students held in high esteem)

Some of his close friends:

Naldo Naldi, Alessandro Braccesi, Niccolò
Michelozzi, and Angelo Poliziano.

Cosimo de Medici

Lorenzo de Medici

Pico de Mirandola

Neoplatonists

Historical

Artistotle

Virgil

Cicero

Plato

Dante

St Thomas Aquinas

Known for introducing philosophies as dialogues

Stoics

Homer

Aeschylus

Ovid

Magi of Egypt

Often treated with almost religious reverence

Petrarch

Founder of Humanism

Horace

Patristic

Origen

Significance to writers/ readers

In political terms

Social/ cultural

mythology's role in role in nourishing contemporary culture

Scholastic

Religious

What is the text missing?

What does this absence of further info tell us?

metrics for changing political culture, values and expectations?

Depends on which aspects we're analysing:

Seznec argues that mythological tradition= continuation

Scholastic legacy = break

cultural legacy = mixed?

political organisation = break (from feudal system)

social structure = needs more research

How do ideas work in a culture? How are they disseminated? Content vs approach. mostly oral tradition) Whats the cacapacity of the audience to receive the message? What have they heard/ what what are they reading? How has their culture influenced their ability to understand/ learn?