Appendix - "The Medieval Antecendents of Renaissance Humanism"__

Representing an extraordinary lifetime of scholarship, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources offers a systematic account of major themes in Renaissance philosophy, science, and literature. Here, in some of Paul Oskar Kristeller's most comprehensive and ambitious writings, is an exploration of the distinctive trends and concepts of the Renaissance, grounded in detailed historical investigation.

Written by an eminent authority on the Renaissance, these classic essays deal not only with Paul Kristeller's specialty, Renaissance humanism and philosophy, but also with Renaissance theories of art. The focus of the collection is on topics such as humanist learning, humanist moral thought, the diffusion of humanism, Platonism, music and learning during the early Renaissance, and the modern system of arts in relation to the Renaissance. For this volume the author has written a new preface, a new essay, and an afterword.

Gives accurate and reliable summaries of the current state of research. It includes entries on philosophers, problems, terms, historical periods, subjects and the cultural context of Renaissance Philosophy. Furthermore, it covers Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Byzantine and vernacular philosophy, and includes entries on the cross-fertilization of these philosophical traditions. A unique feature of this encyclopedia is that it does not aim to define what Renaissance philosophy is, rather simply to cover the philosophy of the period between 1300 and 1650.

"[Fifteen scholars examine the life and thought of Paul Oskar Kristeller (1905-1999) to uncover the relationship between the man and his interpretation of Renaissance humanism and its relation to intellectual and cultural life]"--Provided by publisher.

"Professor Weiss traces the gradual growth of the Renaissance from the late thirteenth century onwards. He devotes a whole chapter to Boccaccio and Petrarch, another to Sannazzaro, Castiglione, Ariosto and Machiavelli. One of his recurrent themes is the conflict between Platonism and Aristotelianism in the thought of the times. After considering the novel literary genres developed by the Italian writers, he turns to the influence of humanism in western Europe generally, and in particular the rise of Petrarchism and pastoral literature in France, Spain, and England. A final chapter discusses Renaissance fiction which, with de Rojas' play, La Celestine, the work of Rabelais, and the Spanish picaresque novel, looks forward to Cervantes and Shakespeare." -- Book jacket.

Philosophers of the Renaissance introduces readers to philosophical thinking from the end of the Middle Ages through the sixteenth century.

This book presents a lost tradition of inner work, the way of the householder, which was believed by the Brotherhood of Common Life to have been the teaching of the Apostles. It focuses on the emergence, amidst the decay of medieval culture, of "the mixed life," this reconciliation of action and contemplation, as the essential link between Catholic spirituality and Protestantism. The transmission of this work to lay persons seeking the interior dimensions of their lives without withdrawing from the world is presented. The hitherto monastic spiritual exercises for strengthening attention are discussed in depth. The traditional and vital Christian knowledge of the human condition, which the Brothers and Sisters verified for themselves, is emphasized, especially the crucial significance of the force of attention in the recollection of oneself and God. The importance of strengthening attentive awareness is everywhere alluded to in the sources, but virtually ignored in current accounts of the Christian heritage. The book traces a transmission of spiritual exercises supported by a strongpsychological base that is strangely familiar to the climate of today's search for meaning.

Offers a broad sampling of humanist work by educators, statesmen, philosophers, churchmen and courtiers translated into English.

This book establishes that the ancient Greeks had a prevailing method of doing philosophy which was rooted in philosophical realism. Through extensive historical and philosophical analysis, it demonstrates that this method was challenged in ancient times by an apocryphal notion of philosophy which eventually became confused with philosophical reasoning, and was passed on to posterity through the work of Christian theologians until it was called into question by leading thinkers of the thirteenth century. It shows how this thirteenth-century challenge influenced the growth of the Renaissance humanist movement and how this movement, in turn, passed on to modernity the same apocryphal notion of philosophy as a rhetorical theology of allegorical prefiguration.