Description
The gradual secularization of European society and culture is often said to characterize the development of the modern world, and the early Italian humanists played a pioneering role in this process. Here Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, with Elizabeth B. Welles, have edited and translated seven primary texts that shed important light on the subject of "civic humanism" in the Renaissance.
Included is a treatise of Francesco Petrarca on government, two representative letters from Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni's panegyric to Florence, Francesco Barbaro's letter on "wifely" duty, Poggio Bracciolini's dialogue on avarice, and Angelo Poliziano's vivid history of the Pazzi conspiracy. Each translation is prefaced by an essay on the author and a short bibliography. The substantial introductory essay offers a concise, balanced summary of the historiographcal issues connected with the period.
About the Author
Benjamin G. Kohl (1938-2010) was Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Vassar College. Ronald G. Witt (1932-2017) was Distinguished Professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Duke University.
Reviews
"An enlightening and stimulating source book and as good an introduction to Renaissance humanism as one can find." * Speculum *
"The translations are fluent and accurate. The introductions to each of the authors, with bibliographies, effectively summarize contemporary American and continental scholarship." * Church History *
Book Information
ISBN 9780812210972
Author Benjamin G. Kohl
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint University of Pennsylvania Press
Publisher University of Pennsylvania Press
