In the footsteps of the ancients : : the origins of humanism from Lovato to Bruni / / by Ronald G. Witt.

• Superior document: Studies in medieval and Reformation thought, v. 74
• Author: Witt, Ronald G.
• Year of Publication: 2000
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in medieval and Reformation thought ; v. 74.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (580 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This monograph demonstrates why humanism began in Italy in the mid-thirteenth century. It considers Petrarch a third generation humanist, who christianized a secular movement. The analysis traces the beginning of humanism in poetry and its gradual penetration of other Latin literary genres, and, through stylistic analyses of texts, the extent to which imitation of the ancients produced changes in cognition and visual perception. The volume traces the link between vernacular translations and the emergence of Florence as the leader of Latin humanism by 1400 and why, limited to an elite in the fourteenth century, humanism became a major educational movement in the first decades of the fifteenth. It revises our conception of the relationship of Italian humanism to French twelfth-century humanism and of the character of early Italian humanism itself. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Ch. 1 Introduction 1 -- Ch. 2 The Birth of the New Aesthetic 31 -- Ch. 3 Padua and the Origins of Humanism 81 -- Ch. 4 Albertino Mussato and the Second Generation 117 -- Ch. 5 Florence and Vernacular Learning 174 -- Ch. 6 Petrarch, Father of Humanism? 230 -- Ch. 7 Coluccio Salutati 292 -- Ch. 8 The Revival of Oratory 338 -- Ch. 9 Leonardo Bruni 392 -- Ch. 10 The First Ciceronianism 443 -- Ch. 11 Conclusion 495 -- Appendix 509 -- Bibliography 515 -- Index of Persons 549 -- Index of Places 556 -- Index of Subjects 558.