Aging Gracefully in the Renaissance: Stories of Later Life from Petrarch to Montaigne

193 Pages·2013·1.04 MB·English

by  Cynthia Skenazi

Aging Gracefully in the Renaissance
Medieval and Renaissance
Authors and Texts
Editor-in-Chief
Francis G. Gentry
Emeritus Professor of German, Penn State University
Editorial Board
Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia University
Cynthia Brown, University of California, Santa Barbara
Marina Brownlee, Princeton University
Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Craig Kallendorf, Texas A&M University
Alastair Minnis, Yale University
Brian Murdoch, Stirling University
Jan Ziolkowski, Harvard University and Dumbarton Oaks
Research Library and Collection
VOLUME 11
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mrat

Portrait of Montaigne. French School, circa 1590.
(From Philippe Desan. Portraits à l’essai. Iconographie de Montaigne.
Etudes montaignistes 50. Paris: Champion, 2007, p. 70.)
Private Collection. Courtesy Philippe Desan.
Aging Gracefully
in the Renaissance
Stories of Later Life from Petrarch to Montaigne
By
Cynthia Skenazi
LEiDEn • BOSTOn
2013
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Skenazi, Cynthia.
Aging gracefully in the Renaissance : stories of later life from Petrarch to Montaigne / by
Cynthia Skenazi.
  pages cm. — (Medieval and Renaissance authors and texts, iSSn 0925-7683 ; volume 11)
 includes bibliographical references and index.
 iSBn 978-90-04-25466-4 (hardback : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-90-04-25572-2 (e-book : alk.
paper)
1. European literature—Renaissance, 1450–1600—History and criticism. 2. Aging in
literature. 3. Aging—Europe—History. 4. Older people—Europe—History. i. Title.
 Pn721.S54 2013
 809’.031—dc23
2013027542
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters
covering Latin, iPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the
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iSSn 0925-7683
iSBn 978-90-04-25466-4 (hardback)
iSBn 978-90-04-25572-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill nV, Leiden, The netherlands.
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In memory of my parents

COnTEnTS
Acknowledgments  .......................................................................................... ix
Abbreviations  ................................................................................................... xi
introduction  ..................................................................................................... 1
1 A Sound Mind in a Healthy Body  ....................................................... 15
Galen  ...................................................................................................... 17
Petrarch  ................................................................................................. 22
Ficino and Zerbi  .................................................................................. 28
Cornaro  .................................................................................................. 36
Erasmus  ................................................................................................. 42
Montaigne  ............................................................................................. 47
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 58
2 The Circulation of Power and Knowledge  ....................................... 61
Petrarch  ................................................................................................. 64
Castiglione  ............................................................................................ 79
Montaigne  ............................................................................................. 86
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 95
3 Love in Old Age  ........................................................................................ 98
Petrarch  ................................................................................................. 100
Ronsard  .................................................................................................. 105
Montaigne  ............................................................................................. 111
Pasquier  ................................................................................................. 119
Conclusion  ............................................................................................ 136
4 Then and now  ............................................................................................. 138
The Care of the Aging Self  ............................................................... 139
Erasmus’s Colloquium “The Old Men’s Chat”  ............................. 142
A Way of Life and a Mode of Discourse:
 The Case of Montaigne  ................................................................ 150
In Vino Veritas  ...................................................................................... 165
Bibliography  ..................................................................................................... 167
index  ................................................................................................................... 177