Lost Italian Renaissance

Christopher S. Celenza is a professor of Romance languages at the Johns Hopkins University.

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A ''Lost'' Renaissance and a ''Lost'' LiteratureChapter 1. An Undiscovered Star: Renaissance Latin and the Nineteenth CenturyChapter 2. Italian Renaissance Humanism in the Twentieth Century: Eugenio Garin and Paul Oskar KristellerChapter 3. A Microhistory of IntellectualsChapter 4. Orthodoxy: Lorenzo Valla and Marsilio FicinoChapter 5. Honor: The Humanists of the Classic Era on Social PlaceChapter 6. What Is Really There?Appendix: The State of the Field in North AmericaNotesIndex

There is no doubt that with this book Celenza has drawn attention to a body of work that deserves far more attention than it has received and that offers exciting new avenues for historical study. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004 This impressive volume offers a fresh interpretation of Italian Renaissance learned culture and vindicates that culture's abiding importance... Lucid in its exposition of complex philosophical and linguistic theories, whether from the 15th century or the 20th, this exceptional book will help us to advance constructively to the 21st. Choice 2005 An intelligent, learned, and well-written historical and critical account of how we have failed over the past century to meet the challenge of fully appreciating, and making relevant to our own time, the neo-Latin culture of Renaissance Italy... A fine book that should help frame the debate about humanism in the Renaissance. -- Douglas Biow American Historical Review 2005 An important, thought-provoking book, one which at least suggests an approach to Italian Renaissance humanism that can allow a group of important authors to speak in such a way that they can, finally, take their rightful place in the history of Western philosophy. -- Craig Kallendorf British Journal for the History of Philosophy 2004 An original, engaging, well-written book. -- Michael J. B. Allen Renaissance Quarterly A courageous book that aims at a broad audience and takes an orignal approach. -- Carol Quillen Journal of Modern History 2006 Intellectually stimulating book. -- Charles G. Nauert Sixteenth Century Journal 2006 For this sizable and important sector of academia, The Lost Italian Renaissance should be considered essential reading. -- Emily O'Brien Erasmus of Rotterdam Society 2006 Informative and brave book. Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 2007