The Idea of the RenaissanceJacob Burckhardt's seminal "Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" provides the point of departure for this wide-ranging inquiry into the meaning and usefulness of the term 'Renaissance' as a period concept. The authors modify and build on Burckhardt's work, applying his notion of individualism to England and other European nations. Turning to intellectual history, they then examine Ernst Cassirer's "Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Thought" and explore the work of four key Renaissance philosophers -- Nicolas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and René Descartes. A final section puts the authors' newly emerging concept of the Renaissance to the practical test of literary criticism, with the focus on love poetry from Petrarch to Milton. -- From publisher's description. |
Contents
Beyond Burckhardt | 37 |
A Fable | 55 |
Cassirers Legacy to the Burckhardt Tradition | 73 |
Copyright | |
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Adam ambition angels Averroës become Burck Burckhardt Cambridge Canzoniere Cartesian Cassirer Cassirer's century chap Christian classical cogito crown culture Cusa Descartes Descartes's desire divine Donne English epic Ernst Cassirer erotic Essays Eve's fame fantasy Freud frustration heaven honor human humanist idea ideal imagination immortality imperial individual infinite intellectual Italian Italy Leon Battista Alberti libertine literary love poetry lover lyric Machiavelli Marsilio Ficino medieval metaphor metaphysical Milton mind modern moral myth Narcissus Narcissus myth nature Neoplatonism Neoplatonists Nicolas Nicolas of Cusa Nicolas's object Paradise Lost period concept Petrarch Petrarchan philosophy Pico Pico della Mirandola Pico's Piconian Pietro Aretino Platonic Plotinus poem poets political Prince Renais Renaissance Philosophy Renaissance thought sance Satan seems sense seventeenth-century sexual Shakespeare skepticism sonnet soul spirit story symbolism thee things thou tion tradition trans translation truth University Press vols woman write York