Making and Rethinking the Renaissance: Between Greek and Latin in 15th-16th Century Europe

Published by De Gruyter 2019

Making and Rethinking the Renaissance

Between Greek and Latin in 15th-16th Century Europe

Edited by: Giancarlo Abbamonte and Stephen Harrison

Volume 77 in the series Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110660968

Overview
Contents

About this book

The purpose of this volume is to investigate the crucial role played by the return of knowledge of Greek in the transformation of European culture, both through the translation of texts, and through the direct study of the language. It aims to collect and organize in one database all the digitalised versions of the first editions of Greek grammars, lexica and school texts available in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries, between two crucial dates: the start of Chrysoloras’s teaching in Florence (c. 1397) and the end of the activity of Aldo Manuzio and Andrea Asolano in Venice (c. 1529). This is the first step in a major investigation into the knowledge of Greek and its dissemination in Western Europe: the selection of the texts and the first milestones in teaching methods were put together in that period, through the work of scholars like Chrysoloras, Guarino and many others. A remarkable role was played also by the men involved in the Council of Ferrara (1438-39), where there was a large circulation of Greek books and ideas. About ten years later, Giovanni Tortelli, together with Pope Nicholas V, took the first steps in founding the Vatican Library.

Research into the return of the knowledge of Greek to Western Europe has suffered for a long time from the lack of intersection of skills and fields of research: to fully understand this phenomenon, one has to go back a very long way through the tradition of the texts and their reception in contexts as different as the Middle Ages and the beginning of Renaissance humanism. However, over the past thirty years, scholars have demonstrated the crucial role played by the return of knowledge of Greek in the transformation of European culture, both through the translation of texts, and through the direct study of the language. In addition, the actual translations from Greek into Latin remain poorly studied and a clear understanding of the intellectual and cultural contexts that produced them is lacking. In the Middle Ages the knowledge of Greek was limited to isolated areas that had no reciprocal links. As had happened to many Latin authors, all Greek literature was rather neglected, perhaps because a number of philosophical texts had already been available in translation from the seventh century AD, or because of a sense of mistrust, due to their ethnic and religious differences. Between the 12th and 14th century AD, a change is perceptible: the sharp decrease in Greek texts and knowledge in the South of Italy, once a reference-point for this kind of study, was perhaps an important reason prompting Italian humanists to go and study Greek in Constantinople.

Over the past thirty years it has become evident to scholars that humanism, through the re-appreciation of classical antiquity, created a bridge to the modern era, which also includes the Middle Ages. The criticism by the humanists of medieval authors did not prevent them from using a number of tools that the Middle Ages had developed or synthesized: glossaries, epitomes, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, translations, commentaries. At present one thing that is missing, however, is a systematic study of the tools used for the study of Greek between the 15th and 16th century; this is truly important, because, in the following centuries, Greek culture provided the basis of European thought in all the most important fields of knowledge. This volume seeks to supply that gap.

Author / Editor information

G. Abbamonte, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy and S. Harrison, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Reviews

"The quality of writing and proof-reading is high, and the editors are surely correct in hoping that this volume will open up ‘new perspectives for unexpected further research’."
John Godwin in: Classics For All (29.08.2019), https://classicsforall.org.uk/book-reviews/making-and-rethinking-the-renaissance-between-greek-and-latin-in-15th-16th-century-europe/

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of figures Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Introduction Giancarlo Abbamonte and Stephen Harrison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Through the Eyes of the Greeks: Byzantine Émigrés and the Study of Greek in the Renaissance Federica Ciccolella Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Janus Lascaris’ Florentine Oration and the ‘Reception’ of Ancient Aeolism Han Lamers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Manuel Calecas’ Grammar: Its Use and Contribution to the Learning of Greek in Western Europe Fevronia Nousia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Issues in Translation: Plutarch’s Moralia Translated from Greek into Latin by Iacopo d’Angelo Giancarlo Abbamonte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Translating from Greek (and Latin) into Latin: Niccolò Perotti and Plutarch’s On the Fortune of the Romans Fabio Stok Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Humanist Translations and Rewritings: Lucian’s Encomium of the Fly between Guarino and Alberti Martin McLaughlin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Cardinal Bessarion and the Introduction of Plato to the Latin West Michael Malone-Lee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
The Reception of Aeschylus in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Case of Coriolano Martirano’s Prometheus Bound (1556) Giovanna Di Martino Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Rethinking the Birth of French Tragedy Tristan Alonge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
‘Pantagruel, tenent un Heliodore Grec en main [...] sommeilloit’: Reading the Aethiopica in Sixteenth-Century France Wes Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
From Greek to the Greeks: Homer (and Pseudo-Homer) in the Greco-Venetian Context between the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Caterina Carpinato Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
The Wanderings of a Greek Manuscript from Byzantium to Aldus’ Printing House and Beyond: The Story of the Aristotle Ambr. B 7 inf. Stefano Martinelli Tempesta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
The Reception of Horace’s Odes in the First Book of Marcantonio Flaminio’s Carmina Giacomo Comiati Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Orazio Romano’s Porcaria (1453): Humanist Epic between Classical Legacy and Contemporary History Marta Celati Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars and advanced students of Classics, Renaissance studies, the history of the book, Italian cultural history.
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 261
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 27
Keywords: Greek; Latin; Renaissance

eBook

Published: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 9783110660968

Hardcover

Published: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 9783110657838