The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge Companions to Literature) [Paperback]

Jill Kraye (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature | Publication Date: February 23, 1996

Beginning as a movement based on the recovery of ancient texts, and archaeological study, humanism turned into a dynamic cultural program, influencing almost every facet of the intellectual life of the Renaissance. The fourteen original essays in this volume deal with all aspects of the movement, from its origins in Italy to its manifestation in the literature of More, Sidney and Shakespeare. Overall, The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism provides a comprehensive introduction to a major movement in the culture of early modern Europe.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Taken together, the essays offer a very good, accessible overview of this important movement in the history of intellectual enterprises....an impressive array of essays...I would not hesitate to place the book in the hands of bright undergraduate and beginning graduate students." The Sixteenth Century Journal

Book Description

Beginning as a movement based on the recovery of ancient texts, and archaeological study, humanism turned into a dynamic cultural program, influencing almost every facet of the intellectual life of the Renaissance. The fourteen original essays in this volume deal with all aspects.

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 23, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521436249
• ISBN-13: 978-0521436243
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Superlative Compendium of Italian Humanism, January 12, 2006

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Johannes Platonicus (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge Companions to Literature) (Paperback)

The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism provides readers with a useful collection of essays that discuss humanism from its origins in late medieval Italy up to its impact upon the literature of Elizabethan England. In essence, this is a remarkable and insightful compendium on Italian humanism; and it will be supremely beneficial to impressionistic students and accomplished scholars alike. The only fault to this volume is that it does not sufficiently handle northern humanism. True, it rightfully pays a particular respect to the grandiose surge of English poetry during the 16th-17th centuries. However, everyone knows that Northern Humanism was a far greater phenomenon than that, for it was a movement that touched every facet of European society and then molded it. So it is sad to say that these essays only offer minimal lip-service to northern enthusiasts like Erasmus, More, Colet, Melanchton, Rhenanus and Estiene, whose vision of humanitas was just as clear as Pico's, Petrarch's, or Valla's. Regardless of this, it may be estimated that the chairman, the committee and the worthy scholars who wrote, edited, and compiled these essays had viable reasons for leaving much of northern Europe's role in humanism untold, as it is a subject in itself that calls for a complete volume of its own.