This edition, the first modern one in English, introduces undergraduates and more advanced students to the therapeutic possibilities of Seneca's Stoic philosophy. The short treatises De otio and De brevitate vitae balance each other by representing different but complementary aspects of Senecan philosophy: in De otio, one's duty to the 'active' life, in De brevitate vitae, one's duty to oneself in reclaiming life from the impositions made upon the self. The provocative Senecan message is to promote introspection in life, and to suggest the benefits of an inner existence of the personal. In addition to its literary and linguistic emphasis, this edition tries to advertize the means by which Seneca conveys the attractions of his therapeutic 'philosophy'.

The most comprehensive and extensive treatment to date, based on a major reinterpretation, of what has been called late medieval Augustinianism.

De Otio (On Leisure) is a Latin work by Seneca (4 BC-65 AD). It survives in a fragmentary state. No degree of absolute certainty about the date of writing is possible, but it is thought by a majority of critics to have been written 62 AD or shortly after. Otio is from otium, this literally translates as leisure, vacant time, freedom from business.Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC - AD 65), fully Lucius Annaeus Seneca and also known simply as Seneca (/ˈsɛnɪkə/), was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and--in one work--humorist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. As a tragedian, he is best-known for his Medea and Thyestes.He was a tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. He was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero. However, some sources state that he may have been innocent. His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan.

AT SOME POINT in January or early February of 1347, Petrarch briefly visited the remote Carthusian monastery of Montrieux, where, four years before, his beloved brother, Gherardo, had pledged himself to live in perpetuity as a renditus, one who took the same vows as a monk but who was not cloistered. In the day and night he spent at Montrieux, Petrarch spoke privately with Gherardo, had lively discussions with other residents, and attended religious services celebrated by the brothers with "angelic singing." Unwilling to disturb the rigid discipline of the monastery longer, he reluctantly departed the next morning accompanied by the prior and the brothers to the limits of their property and he imagined them continuing to watch him until he disappeared from view. Returning to the Vaucluse, still "mindful of that whole blessed sweetness which I drank in with you," and troubled that in the course of the hasty visit he had not been able to say many things that he would like to have said, he decided "to express in writing what I was not able to do in person." The body of the work that was to become the De otio religioso was composed sometime during Lent or between February 11 and March 29 of that year. Not untypically, however, Petrarch continued to add to the text as late as 1356, and the finished treatise was probably not dispatched to Gherardo until 1357. This first English translation by Susan S. Schearer faithfully and elegantly presents Petrarch's exordium to the life of contemplation and offers the reader a fresh view into the spiritual world of fourteenth-century humanism. Ronald G. Witt's introduction places the work into its historical and intellectual context, discusses its structure and development, and examines Petrarch's characteristic synthesis of Christian and classical sources. First English translation. Introduction, Notes, Bibliography, Index of Citations, General Index.

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304–74), best known for his influential collection of Italian lyric poetry dedicated to his beloved Laura, was also a remarkable classical scholar, a deeply religious thinker and a philosopher of secular ethics. In this wide-ranging study, chapters by leading scholars view Petrarch's life through his works, from the epic Africa to the Letter to Posterity, from the Canzoniere to the vernacular epic Triumphi. Petrarch is revealed as the heir to the converging influences of classical cultural and medieval Christianity, but also to his great vernacular precursor, Dante, and his friend, collaborator and sly critic, Boccaccio. Particular attention is given to Petrach's profound influence on the Humanist movement and on the courtly cult of vernacular love poetry, while raising important questions as to the validity of the distinction between medieval and modern and what is lost in attempting to classify this elusive figure.

Despite the high regard in which Francesco Petrarca (1304-74) held St. Augustine, scholars have been inclined to view Augustine’s impact on the content of Petrarch’s thought rather lightly. Wedded to the ancient classics, and prioritising literary imitation over intellectual coherence, Petrarch is commonly thought to have made inconsistent use of St. Augustine’s works. Adopting an entirely fresh approach, however, this book argues that Augustine’s early writings consistently provided Petrarch with the conceptual foundations of his approach to moral questions, and with a model for integrating classical precepts into a coherent Christian framework. As a result, this book offers a challenging re-interpretation of Petrarch’s humanism, and offers a provocative new interpretation of his role in the development of Italian humanism.

Studies of the notion of theoria and of the contemplative life have often been restricted to Plato and Aristotle. This volume shows that aspirations to contemplation and the life of the intellect survived long after the classical period, turning into topics of heated debates, powerful arguments and original applications throughout the Hellenistic, imperial, and late antique periods. The introduction attempts to reconstruct all the problems pertaining to the contemplative life in Antiquity, and the twelve papers, written by distinguished scholars, offer a thorough study of the appropriation, criticism and transformation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s positions on the contemplative life, including its epistemological and metaphysical foundation. The volume ranges from Theophrastus to the end of Antiquity, including Jewish and Christian authors, with a focus on Platonism from Cicero to Damascius.

This book aims to contribute to the knowledge of the cultural and linguistic relations between Italy and the Crown of Aragon in the 15th century. In particular, it studies some relevant aspects of the chivalric romance entitled Curial e Guelfa, written in Italy around 1443-1448 in Catalan, but mainly Italian in spirit, sources and onomastics. It is probably the very first work of a genre known as “humanistic chivalry”, the epitome of which will be Ariosto’s Orlando furioso. The literary context of Milan and Naples (The Three Crowns, Troubadour Lyrics, Humanism) is analyzed in the first part of the volume. It is this context that made possible the gestation of the Curial, an extraordinary anonymous romance, which was most likely written by the knight Enyego d’Àvalos (Inico d’Avalos), born in Toledo but raised in Valencia. The second part of the volume is devoted to the study of some lexical, stylistic and syntactic aspects of the Curial, which show the author's excellent knowledge of Catalan and the constant influence of Italian in the romance. Questo libro si propone di contribuire alla conoscenza delle relazioni culturali tra l'Italia e la Corona d’Aragona nel XV secolo. In particolare, studia il romanzo dal titolo Curial e Güelfa, scritto in Italia intorno al 1443-1448, dotato di italianità, fonti e onomastica, ma scritto in catalano. È probabilmente la primissima opera di un genere noto come “cavalleria umanistica| , la cui epitome sarebbe l’Orlando Furioso dell’Ariosto. Questo volume analizza il contesto letterario di Milano e Napoli che ha reso possibile questo straordinario romanzo anonimo, di cui conosciamo ormai con quasi assoluta certezza che il suo autore era Enyego o Inico d'Avalos. I contributi in questo volume approfondiscono alcuni degli aspetti lessicali, stilistici e sintattici di Curial e Güelfa, e mettono in evidenza l'eccellente conoscenza del catalano da parte del suo autore, nonché la presenza onnipresente della lingua italiana. El libro pretende contribuir al conocimiento de las relaciones culturales entre Italia y la Corona de Aragón en el siglo XV. En concreto se ocupa de la novela Curial e Güelfa , gestada en Italia hacia 1443-1448, de espíritu, fuentes y onomástica principalmente italianos, pero redactada en lengua catalana. Es probablemente la manifestación más primeriza del género literario conocido como “caballería humanística”, que tendrá su punto culminante con el Orlando furioso, d’Ariosto. Este volumen analiza el contexto literario de Milán y Nápoles que hizo posible esta extraordinaria novela anónima, de la que ahora sabemos con casi absoluta certeza que su autor fue Enyego o Inico d’Avalos. Las contribuciones de este volumen profundizan en algunos de los aspectos léxicos, estilísticos y sintácticos de Curial e Güelfa, y destacan el excelente conocimiento del catalán de su autor, así como la presencia omnipresente de la lengua italiana.