Myths of Renaissance Individualism

John Jeffries Martin is Professor of History at Trinity University, the author of Venice's Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City, and editor of Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City State, and The Renaissance: Italy and Abroad.

'Myths of Renaissance Individualism gently but firmly cuts away the worst excesses of the postmodern critique of Renaissance identities. Suggesting some useful ways of rethinking the history of the self more broadly, Martin cogently asserts that Renaissance individualism must be studied in terms of Renaissance ideas. Using a mix of confessional literature and archival material, the author brilliantly draws from the essential 'I believe' of such documentation a vision of how humanists, intellectuals and everyday people viewed and understood themselves in this fascinating era. ' - Guido Ruggiero, University of Miami, USA 'John Martin's engaging discourse on how Renaissance men and women actually understood themselves disputes our traditional notions of Renaissance individualism in an erudite and compelling manner. With documentary, literary, and visual evidence, Martin convincingly posits that the Renaissance self was formed by an enigmatic and changeable relationship between interior and exterior identity, a relationship that can only be understood through close attention to its particular historical context. In doing so, he provides us with a provocative new way to understand the Renaissance and its relationship (or lack thereof) to our modern world' - Professor Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, Vassar College, author of The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy (1999) 'Martin's contribution to the much debated question of Renaissance individualism will be enormously stimulating to all students of the period.' - Peter Humfrey, Professor of Art History, University of St Andrews, UK 'This is a major contribution to the study of Renaissance individualism. John Jeffries Martin offers a lively and readable revisionist account, which suggests that rather than being either autonomous or constructed, the Renaissance self is relational. Building from primarily Italian examples, Martin's study will be essential reading for all students of Renaissance culture and ideology.' - Dr Richard D. Brown, Department of Literature, The Open University 'Beautifully written, richly documented, and philosophically nuanced, John J. Martin's Myths of Renaissance Individualism sets a new standard in the field of Renaissance studies...Martin explodes the anachronistic stereotypes of previous generations of scholarship concerning the Renaissance individual, and gives us a much-needed map of the frontiers of the early modern self.' - Professor Jon R. Snyder, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

• Prologue ''Individualism' - A Word Unknown to our Ancestors' The Inquisitor's Questions Spiritual Journeys A Journeyman's Feast of Fools Possessions The Proffered Heart Myths of Identity - An Essay Notes Bibliography Acknowledgements Index