Name: Reception of Plutarch's 'Lives' in Fifteenth-Century Italy
Brand: Museum Tusculanum Press (DK)
SKU: 9788763505321
Price: 53.94 GBP
Availability: InStock

Reception of Plutarch's 'Lives' in Fifteenth-Century Italy

Two-Volume Set

By (author): Marianne Pade

Published by Museum Tusculanum Press (DK)

In Stock

£82.99

£53.94

Published: 20-Aug-2007
ISBN: 9788763505321

Paperback
754 Pages
colour plates

Subjects:
Literary studies: classical
early & medieval
Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700
History of ideas
Italy
Ancient Greece
c 1000 CE to c 1500

Quantity

Plutarch's Lives of great Greek and Roman public figures are among the central texts of European culture. Like most Greek authors Plutarch had been virtually unknown in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, but when Renaissance humanists rekindled interest in Greek language and culture, he became one of the most widely read authors of the period. Marianne Pade discusses the many Latin translations of the Lives produced during the fifteenth century, examines their diffusion in manuscripts and printed books and shows how Plutarch came to influence fifteenth-century Italian culture. The overwhelming interest in the Lives can be explained by studying the way Classical Antiquity was used for ideological purposes in Renaissance Italy. To a great extent the historical effects of the biographies reflect the ideologies of the environments in which they were translated and read. The purpose of the biographies, and often of the forewords of the translations as well, was to evoke or create a city?s national myths or to promote a patron or the city itself. The second volume contains an edition of all the letters of dedication and a catalogue of the preserved manuscripts.

"... Pade's study is a substantial contribution to the study of fifteenth-century Italian humanism. The transcriptions and indices of her second volume also provide resource for other scholars. The book is beautifully produced and generously illustrated." - Julia Haig Gaisser, Renaissance Quarterly, spring 2008

"Though much of this material had been published before, both by P. herself and by earlier scolars, there never has been a comparable effort at a comprehensive survey, and many points of detail, especially pertaining to dates, are reassessed and corrected here. On the whole this is an impressive piece of meticulous scolarship, and vol. ii contains a great amount of raw material that can be utilized. The two volumes are beautifully produced with some eye-catching illustrations; there are but a few trivial misprints and virtually no mistakes in the text. Plutarch would have loved this book." Joseph Geiger, Scripta Classica Israelica Vol. XXVII, 2008

"Outstanding Title! Pade (Univ. of Aarhus) offers a major new study about how the Italian Renaissance used ancient sources. Plutarch, a Greek, wrote lives of great Greek and Roman public figures. The Middle Ages did not know them well, partly because of the lack of good Latin translations from the Greek. By contrast, 15th-century humanists loved them. They translated lives not previously translated, produced new translations of others, and used the lives to air views about government and society. Florentine humanists used Plutarch's Lives to endorse a republican, civic ideology. Venetian humanists used the Lives to present Venice as the heir to ancient Greece and the public figures as mirrors of behavior for members of the Venetian ruling class. Guarino Guarini, by contrast, used some lives to defend Caesar against humanist republican critics. In volume 2, Pade provides detailed information about 578 manuscripts containing Latin translations of one or more lives, and prints the Latin prefaces of many. The book is comprehensively documented and has 16 lovely color illustrations. A fine combination of technically challenging research and a good understanding of the Italian Renaissance, the book is a major scholarly achievement. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty." - P. Grendler, CHOICE, aug. 2008.