Renaissance Humanism: An Anthology of Sources

378 Pages·2014·3.677 MB·English

by  Margaret L. King (editor)

RENAISSANCE
HUMANISM
An Anthology of Sources
Edited and Translated, with an Introduction, by
MARGARET L. KING
Renaissance Humanism
An Anthology of Sources

Renaissance Humanism
$ $ $
An Anthology of Sources
Edited and Translated, with an Introduction, by
M L. K
ARGARET ING
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Renaissance humanism : an anthology of sources / edited and translated, with an
introduction, by Margaret L. King.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978‑1‑62466‑111‑2 (pbk.) — ISBN 978‑1‑62466‑112‑9 (cloth)
1. Humanism—History—Sources. 2. Renaissance—Sources. I. King,
Margaret L., 1947– editor of compilation.
B778.R427 2014
144—dc23 2013030804
Adobe ebook ISBN: 978‑1‑62466‑146-4
CONTENTS
General Introduction ix
Bibliographical Note xxi
Chapter 1: Antiquity Reborn
Introduction 1
1. Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 3
Letter to Cicero (1345) 6
Letter to Homer (1360) 8
2. Giovanni Boccaccio 11
Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, Book XIV (1360/1374) 14
3. Pier Paolo Vergerio 20
On Liberal Studies and the Moral Education of the Free- Born Youth
(c. 1402/1403) 23
4. Poggio Bracciolini and Cencio Romano, Book Hunters 27
Poggio Bracciolini, Letter to Guarino Veronese (1416) 30
Cencio Romano, Letter to Francesco da Fiano (1416) 32
Chapter 2: Explorations of the Self
Introduction 35
5. Petrarch 37
To Posterity (1351/1372) 39
6. Giannozzo Manetti 44
On the Dignity and Excellence of Man (1452/1453) 47
7. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 52
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 55
8. Michel de Montaigne 59
To the Reader (1580) and Of Experience (1587– 1588) 62
Chapter 3: The Civic Experience
Introduction 68
9. Leonardo Bruni 70
In Praise of the City of Florence (1404) 73
10. Francesco Barbaro 77
On Marriage (1415) 81
11. Alamanno Rinuccini 86
On Liberty (1479) 89
v
vi Contents
12. Juan Luis Vives 94
On Assistance to the Poor (1526) 97
Chapter 4: A World in Crisis
Introduction 103
13. Lauro Quirini 104
Letter to Pope Nicholas V, on the Fall of Constantinople (1453) 108
14. Angelo Poliziano 112
Account of the Pazzi Conspiracy (1478) 115
15. Luigi Guicciardini 120
The Sack of Rome (1527) 123
16. Olympia Fulvia Morata 129
Letters (1551– 1555) 130
Chapter 5: Machiavelli, Erasmus, and More: Visions of the State
Introduction 137
17. Niccolò Machiavelli 138
The Prince (1513) 141
18. Desiderius Erasmus 147
On the Education of a Christian Prince (1516) 150
19. Thomas More 157
Utopia (1516) 159
Chapter 6: Humanism and the Arts
Introduction 167
20. Leon Battista Alberti 169
On Painting (1435) 171
21. Isabella d’Este 176
Letters on Painters and Painting (1497– 1506) 178
22. Albrecht Dürer 182
Letters to Willibald Pirckheimer (1506) 184
23. Benvenuto Cellini 190
Autobiography, Book II (1558/1566) 192
Chapter 7: Humanism and Religion
Introduction 198
24. Lorenzo Valla 200
On the Donation of Constantine (1440) 203
25. Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples 207
Exhortatory Letter on Translating the Gospels into French (1523) 209
Contents vii
26. Bernardino Ochino 213
Dialogue about the Thief on the Cross (1540) 216
27. Gasparo Contarini et alii 221
Report on the Reform of the Church (1537) 223
Chapter 8: Humanism, Science, and Philosophy
Introduction 230
28. Marsilio Ficino 232
Letters (1473/1474) 235
29. Nicholas Copernicus 240
Preface to On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543) 244
30. Galileo Galilei 248
Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615) 250
31. René Descartes 255
Discourse on Method (1637) 257
Chapter 9: Women and Humanism
Introduction 264
32. Isotta Nogarola 266
Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve (1451) 268
33. Laura Cereta 274
Letters to Bibolo Semproni (1488) and Lucilia Vernacula (1487) 276
34. Cassandra Fedele 282
Oration in Praise of Letters (c. 1487) 284
35. Marie Le Jars de Gournay 287
The Equality of Men and Women (1622) 289
Chapter 10: Other Worlds
Introduction 296
36. Amerigo Vespucci 297
New World, Letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici (1502/1503) 300
37. Garcilaso de la Vega, “El Inca” 305
Royal Commentaries of the Incas (1609– 1617) 307
38. Saint Francis Xavier 312
Letter to His Companions in Europe (1552) 314
39. Luís Vas de Camões 320
The Lusiads (1572) 322
Texts and Studies 327
Index 344
in memory of my father,
Reno C. King, Jr.
the greatest humanist of them all
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The humanists of Renaissance Europe would have been astonished to
learn what is meant by today’s “humanism,” or “secular humanism,” or
“Humanism,” with an initial capital as some of its proponents insist. Modern
humanism, which has been around since at least the 1920s, dispenses with
theism and replaces divine providence with the scientifi c method, social jus-
tice, and multiculturalism. Not so the Renaissance antecedents of today’s
humanism, whose passions and commitments arose from and extended the
legacy of the Latin Christian civilization of medieval Europe. Their humanism
embraced both Cicero and God.
But what was it? On that question, scholars have not reached full agree-
ment, although there is a consensus on certain essentials. Renaissance
humanism was not a philosophy. It entailed no common set of principles
(other than those that were the common assumptions of the age) about the
natural, social, or political world. It was more like a way of life. It involved a
commitment to the world of ideas guided by the classics, which were to be
read in the original Latin (more rarely, Greek), mastered, imitated, and to
some extent enacted, in communities that gathered in schools and homes and
shared public spaces. The process was consistent: humanists read and inter-
acted with the classical tradition. The content, however, varied: over time,
from setting to setting, according to circumstances, and among actors of dif-
ferent social classes and occupations.
The classical tradition that the humanists reintroduced to Europe had long
roots. It was, of course, the product of a fused Greco- Roman civilization that
was the last to emerge in the ancient Mediterranean region. It triumphed
with Rome’s political ascent, the civilizational adjunct to the Roman con-
quest of the Mediterranean world. It lingered even after Christianity arose
within its bosom, before the Roman Empire dwindled and, in its Western
zone, decayed. Christianity had been born in the Levant, far from the capital,
and quickly implanted itself in the major Roman centers of Constantinople,
Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. Here Christian thinkers incorporated
classical thought into a new set of Christian classics, written in the same
prose, both Greek and Latin, of the masters of secular literature. Greek and
Latin culture would live on, wrapped in Christian integuments.
Increasingly, the Latin and Greek cultural zones diverged: the Greek-
speaking scholars of Constantinople pursued their studies almost without
The never-failing assistance of the Brooklyn College librarians, especially Bridget Nowicki and
Sherry Warman, made possible the writing of this book.
ix