John Monfasani - Böcker

Although the immense importance for the Renaissance of Greek émigrés to fifteenth-century Italy has long been recognized, much basic research on the phenomenon remains to be done. This new volume by John Monfasani gathers together fourteen studies filling in some of the gaps in our knowledge. The philosophers George Gemistus Pletho and George Amiroutzes, the great churchman Cardinal Bessarion, and the famous humanists George of Trebizond and Theodore Gaza are the subjects of some of the articles. Other articles treat the émigrés as a group within the wider frame of contemporary issues, such as humanism, the theological debate between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics, and the process of translating Greek texts into Latin. Furthermore, some notable Latin figures also enter into several of the articles in a detailed way, specifically, Nicholas of Cusa, Niccolò Perotti, and Pietro Balbi.

Language was the Italian humanists’ stock-in-trade, rhetoric their core discipline. In this volume Professor Monfasani collects together his most important articles on these subjects. One group of these, including two review essays, focuses specifically on the humanist Lorenzo Valla and on his philosophy of language. The third section of the book opens out the coverage of Italian Renaissance cultural history and includes studies of several new texts - among them a description of the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, and a call for press censorship - and of the religious culture of mid-15th-century Rome. Le langage était l’instrumet de base des humanistes italiens, la rhétorique leur discipline de fond. Dans ce volume, le professeur Monfasani rassemble ses articles les plus importants sur le sujet . Un groupe d’entre eux, comprenant deux comptesrendus, se concentre spécifiquement sur l’humaniste Lorenzo Valla et sur sa philosophie du langage. La troisième section du recueil élargit le champ de connaissance de l’histoire culturelle de la Renaissance italienne et inclus des études de plusieurs textes nouveaus - parmi ceux-ci, une description de la décoration intérieure de la chapelle Sixtine et un appel à la censure de la presse -, ainsi que de la culture religieuse romaine au milieu du 15e siècle.

The twelve essays in this new collection by John Monfasani examine how, in particular cases, Greek émigrés, Italian humanists, and Latin scholastics reacted with each other in surprising and important ways. After an opening assessment of Greek migration to Renaissance Italy, the essays range from the Averroism of John Argyropoulos and the capacity of Nicholas of Cusa to translate Greek, to Marsilio Ficino's position in the Plato-Aristotle controversy and the absence of Ockhamists in Renaissance Italy. Theodore Gaza receives special attention in his roles as translator, teacher, and philosopher, as does Lorenzo Valla for his philosophy, theology, and historical ideas. Finally, the life and writings of a protégé of Cardinal Bessarion, the Dominican friar Giovanni Gatti, come in for their first extensive study.

The Greek philosopher George of Trebizond started the Plato-Aristotle Controversy of the Renaissance with two works published in Rome in the late 1450s. The first was his Protectio Aristotelis Problematum (The Protection of Aristotle’s Problemata), which was as much a treatise on translation as it was a polemic in defense of Aristotle. The second was his Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis (A Comparison of the Philosophers Plato and Aristotle). This publication is the critical edition. It analyze the background, themes, and arguments of the works, as well as offering the texts themselves in new English translations.

Starting with an essay on the Renaissance as the concluding phase of the Middle Ages and ending with appreciations of Paul Oskar Kristeller, the great twentieth-century scholar of the Renaissance, this new volume by John Monfasani brings together seventeen articles that focus both on individuals, such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, and Niccolò Perotti, and on large-scale movements, such as the spread of Italian humanism, Ciceronianism, Biblical criticism, and the Plato-Aristotle Controversy. In addition to entering into the persistent debate on the nature of the Renaissance, the articles in the volume also engage what of late have become controversial topics, namely, the shape and significance of Renaissance humanism and the character of the Platonic Academy in Florence.

The twelve essays in this new collection by John Monfasani examine how, in particular cases, Greek émigrés, Italian humanists, and Latin scholastics reacted with each other in surprising and important ways. After an opening assessment of Greek migration to Renaissance Italy, the essays range from the Averroism of John Argyropoulos and the capacity of Nicholas of Cusa to translate Greek, to Marsilio Ficino's position in the Plato-Aristotle controversy and the absence of Ockhamists in Renaissance Italy. Theodore Gaza receives special attention in his roles as translator, teacher, and philosopher, as does Lorenzo Valla for his philosophy, theology, and historical ideas. Finally, the life and writings of a protégé of Cardinal Bessarion, the Dominican friar Giovanni Gatti, come in for their first extensive study.

Although the immense importance for the Renaissance of Greek émigrés to fifteenth-century Italy has long been recognized, much basic research on the phenomenon remains to be done. This new volume by John Monfasani gathers together fourteen studies filling in some of the gaps in our knowledge. The philosophers George Gemistus Pletho and George Amiroutzes, the great churchman Cardinal Bessarion, and the famous humanists George of Trebizond and Theodore Gaza are the subjects of some of the articles. Other articles treat the émigrés as a group within the wider frame of contemporary issues, such as humanism, the theological debate between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics, and the process of translating Greek texts into Latin. Furthermore, some notable Latin figures also enter into several of the articles in a detailed way, specifically, Nicholas of Cusa, Niccolò Perotti, and Pietro Balbi.

Starting with an essay on the Renaissance as the concluding phase of the Middle Ages and ending with appreciations of Paul Oskar Kristeller, the great twentieth-century scholar of the Renaissance, this new volume by John Monfasani brings together seventeen articles that focus both on individuals, such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino, and Niccolò Perotti, and on large-scale movements, such as the spread of Italian humanism, Ciceronianism, Biblical criticism, and the Plato-Aristotle Controversy. In addition to entering into the persistent debate on the nature of the Renaissance, the articles in the volume also engage what of late have become controversial topics, namely, the shape and significance of Renaissance humanism and the character of the Platonic Academy in Florence.

In 1458 George of Trebizond transferred the Plato-Aristotle controversy from the Byzantine world to the Latin by publishing his Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis et Praestantia Aristotelis, a full-scale attack on Plato and the Platonic tradition from antiquity to the present day, ending with a violent diatribe on the dangers posed by the influence of Cardinal Bessarion’s recently deceased teacher, George Gemistus Pletho. To respond, Bessarion knew that he would have to do so in Latin, but in actuality, he composed his response in Greek and then translated it into Latin. The result was the Liber Defensionum contra Obiectiones in Platonem, which was ready for publication by 1466. At that point, however, he withdrew it from publication in order to expand its content as well as to refine its Latinity. Bessarion’s response finally appeared in 1469 as the In Calumniatorem Platonis. But it was in the Liber Defensionum that Bessarion made his major decisions on what to include as well as what to exclude from his original Greek text and exactly how he would render the Greek into Latin. Thus, to understand the language and structure of the In Calumniatorem Platonis one must turn first to the Liber Defensionum.

Renaissance Politics and Culture collects ten essays by eminent scholars in Renaissance studies to celebrate the life and work of Robert Black, who has made some of the most original and significant contributions to the history of the Renaissance. Reflecting his interdisciplinary interests and approaches, these essays analyze education, humanism, political thought, printing, and the visual arts during this key period in their development.Contributors: James R. Banker, Jérémie Barthas, Davide Baldi Bellini, Jane Black, Lorenz Böninger, Jonathan Davies, James Hankins, John Monfasani, John M. Najemy, and Brian Richardson.