Table Of ContentEssays in Renaissance Thought and Letters
Brill’s Studies in
Intellectual History
General Editor
Han van Ruler (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Founded by
Arjo Vanderjagt
Editorial Board
C.S. Celenza (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore)
M. Colish (Yale University)
J.I. Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
A. Koba (University of Tokyo)
M. Mugnai (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
W. Otten (University of Chicago)
VOLUME 241
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsih
Essays in Renaissance
Thought and Letters
In Honor of John Monfasani
Edited by
Alison Frazier and Patrick Nold
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Bessarion’s In calumniatorem Platonis (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1503), sign. o5r. Courtesy
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Bessarion’s In calumniatorem Platonis, an attack on
George of Trebizond’s interpretation of Plato, has been central to John Monfasani’s scholarship. The image
here comes from Book V, where Bessarion comments on the ‘natural theology’ presented in Plato’s Laws,
Bk. X.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Essays in Renaissance thought and letters : in honor of John Monfasani / edited by Alison Frazier and
Patrick Nold.
pages cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; volume 241)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-29447-9 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29465-3 (e-book) 1. Renaissance.
2. Intellectual life—History—To 1500. 3. Byzantine Empire—Intellectual life. 4. Philosophy, Renaissance.
5. Philosophy, Ancient. 6. Philosophy—Byzantine Empire. 7. Latin literature—History and criticism.
8. Byzantine literature—History and criticism. I. Frazier, Alison Knowles. II. Nold, Patrick. III. Monfasani,
John.
CB361.E777 2015
940.2’1—dc23
2015009630
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 humanities.
For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0920-8607
isbn 978-90-04-29447-9 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29465-3 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,
Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Contributors x
Introduction xiii
Patrick Nold and Alison Frazier
Publications by John Monfasani, 1969–2014 xlii
part 1
Notes
1 Byzantines at Rome in the Fifteenth Century 3
Concetta Bianca
2 Badgering for Books
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini and Leonardo Bruni’s Translation of
Aristotle’s Politics 12
Thomas Izbicki
3 Heralds of Antiquity
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini and the British “Thucydides” 23
David Rundle
4 Petrus Crinitus and Ancient Latin Poetry 36
Christopher S. Celenza
5 Erasmus’s Use of George Trapezuntius of Crete in De conscribendis
epistolis 53
Peter Mack
Part 2
Essays
6 The Byzantine Social Elite and the Market Economy, Eleventh to
Mid-Fifteenth Century 67
David Jacoby
viii contents
7 George of Trebizond, Renaissance Libertarian? 87
James Hankins
8 The School of San Lorenzo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Paolo Sassi, and
Benedetto Riccardini 107
Robert Black
9 Renaissance Sources in Medieval Mirrors for Princes
Petrarch and Andreas Pannonius 134
Sándor Bene
10 Marsilio Ficino as a Reader of Proclus and Most Notably of Proclus’
In Parmenidem 179
Michael J.B. Allen
11 De-essentializing the World
Valla, Agricola, Vives, and Nizolio on Universals and Topics 196
Lodi Nauta
12 The Quest for Certainty in Fact and Faith
Pierre-Daniel Huet and Josephus’ Testimonium Flavianum 216
April G. Shelford
Part 3
Extended Discussions and Editions
13 Christian Scepticism
The Reception of Xenophanes’ B34 in Heathen and Christian Antiquity
and its Sequel in Byzantine Thought 243
John A. Demetracopoulos
14 Lactantius Philosophus?
Reading, Misreading, and Exploiting Lactantius from Antiquity to the
Early Renaissance 446
David Rutherford
contents ix
15 Andreas Chrysoberges’ Dialogue against Mark Eugenikos 492
Martin Hinterberger and Chris Schabel
16 Notes from a Nominalist in a New Incunabulum by Symphorien
Champier 546
Brian Copenhaver and Thomas M. Ward
Index of Manuscripts 605
Index of Modern Authors 607
Index of Pre-modern Authors and Persons 625
Contributors
Michael J.B. Allen
is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at UCLA, and an authority on
Renaissance Platonism. He recently edited and translated Marsilio Ficino’s
commentary on two treatises attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, On
Mystical Theology, and On the Divine Names.
Sándor Bene
is senior research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest,
Hungary) and associate professor of Hungarian Studies at the University of
Zagreb (Croatia). He is co-editor of The Old and the New: Parallels and Contacts
in Croatian and Hungarian Renaissance (forthcoming).
Concetta Bianca
is full professor of Mediaeval and Humanistic Philology at the University of
Florence, and has published widely on Coluccio Salutati, Bessarion, Roman
Humanism, and the history of libraries and printing. She directs the journal
Medioevo e Rinascimento.
Robert Black
is Emeritus Professor of Renaissance History at the University of Leeds. His
most recent book, Machiavelli (2013), was a Times Literary Supplement book of
the year in 2013; an Italian translation (Viella, Rome) will be published in 2016.
Christopher S. Celenza
formerly director of the American Academy in Rome (2010–2014), is now
Chairman of the Classics Department at Johns Hopkins University. His most
recent book is Machiavelli: A Portrait (2015).
Brian Copenhaver
is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and History and holds the Udvar-
Hazy Chair at UCLA. His recent writing is about medieval logic, magic in
Western culture and philosophy in the sixteenth century.
John A. Demetracopoulos
is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Patras,
Greece. Several of his publications over the last decade regard the reception of
the thought of Thomas Aquinas in Late Byzantium.
contributors xi
Alison Frazier
is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. Following
Possible Lives: Authors and Saints in Renaissance Italy (2005), her publications
include The Saint Between Manuscript and Print: Italy 1400–1600 (2015).
James Hankins
is Professor of History at Harvard University and the General Editor of the
I Tatti Renaissance Library. He is finishing a book on The Virtue Politics of the
Italian Humanists.
Martin Hinterberger
is Associate Professor of Byzantine Philology at the University of Cyprus. His
research focuses on emotions in Byzantine literature, the language of Byzantine
literature (learned and vernacular), (auto)biography and hagiography as well
as on intellectual history.
Thomas Izbicki
is Interim Associate University Librarian for Collection Development, Rutgers
University Libraries, and received his doctorate in Medieval History from
Cornell University (1973) and a library degree from Indiana University (1986).
His publications focus on Pope Pius II, Nicholas of Cusa and Juan de
Torquemada.
David Jacoby
is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
His research focuses on intercultural exchanges and maritime trade between
the West, Byzantium, the Crusader states and Egypt in the 11th–15th centuries.
His current projects include Crusader Acre and Silk and Silk Textiles in
Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean.
Peter Mack
is Professor of English at the University of Warwick, and has been editor of
Rhetorica and Director of the Warburg Institute, University of London. His
most recent book is A History of Renaissance Rhetoric 1380–1620 (2011).
Lodi Nauta
is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Groningen, and Dean of its
Faculty of Philosophy. His most recent book is In Defense of Common Sense:
Lorenzo Valla’s Humanist Critique of Scholastic Philosophy (2009).
