The Poet's Wisdom: The Humanists, the Church, and the Formation of Philosophy in the Early Renaissance

334 Pages·2006·5.227 MB·English

by  Timothy Kircher

THE POET’S WISDOM
BRILL’S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A.J. Vanderjagt, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
C.S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
M. Colish, Oberlin College
J.I. Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
J.D. North, University of Groningen
W. Otten, Utrecht University
VOLUME133
THE POET’S WISDOM
The Humanists, the Church, and the Formation of
Philosophy in the Early Renaissance
BY
TIMOTHY KIRCHER
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2006
On the cover: Andrea di Bonaiuto (14th CE), “The Church Militant and Triumphant,”
detail: St. Thomas Aquinas and Heretics (detail). Spanish Chapel, S. Maria Novella,
Florence, Italy. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY. [COA0034010].
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kircher, Timothy.
The poet’s wisdom : the humanists, the church, and the formation of philosophy
in the early Renaissance / by T. Kircher.
p. cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; v. 133)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-14637-7 (alk. paper)
1. Humanism—History. 2. Church history. 3. Philosophy—History. 4. Petrarca,
Francesco, 1304-1374. 5. Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375. I. Title. II. Series.
B778.K57 2005
144—dc22
2005050829
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 14637 7
© Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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,
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
To Tonya

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ...................................................................... ix
List of Illustrations .................................................................... xi
I. Introduction ........................................................................ 3
II. Tracking the Vagaries of Time: Anxiety and Freedom
in Humanist Accounts of the Plague of 1348 ................ 43
III. Morality’s Hazy Mirror: The Humanist Modality of
Moral Communication in the Decameron ........................ 99
IV. The Paradox of Experience and Moral Authority in
Petrarch’s Writings ............................................................ 145
V. The Sea as an Image of Temporality ............................ 185
VI. The Ethics of Pleasure: Faces of the Feminine .............. 229
VII. Senescence and Renascence ............................................ 283
Bibliography ................................................................................ 297
Index .......................................................................................... 311