The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance

by Joscelyn Godwin

The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance recounts the almost untold story of how the rediscovery of the pagan, mythological imagination during the Renaissance brought a profound transformation to European culture. This highly illustrated book, available for the first time in paperback, shows that the pagan imagination existed sidebyside often uneasily with the official symbols, doctrines, and art of the Church. Godwin carefully documents how pagan themes and gods enhanced both public and private life. Palaces and villas were decorated with mythological images/ stories, music, and dramatic pageants were written about pagan themes/ and landscapes were designed to transform the soul. This was a time of great social and cultural change, when the pagan idea represented nostalgia for a classical world untroubled by the idea of sin and in no need of redemption.

A stunning book with hundreds of photos that bring alive this period with all its rich conflict between Christianity and classicism.

Genres: History, Renaissance, Art, Nonfiction, Alchemy, Mythology, Philosophy

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Composer, musicologist and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism and music in the occult.

Reviews

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I chose this book as an aid to understanding DP Walkers Spiritual and Demonic Magic. It has lived up to that purpose. I was fascinated by exploring the private sanctuaries built into wealthy homes, shrines to the imagination. Just as the author has separated the texts out of his historical overview, these rooms were more about artefacts than books, designed to aid their owners in introspection and character development.
There is an interesting chapter on the birth of opera, an out growth of private musical circles that went public. Apparently orphic overtones result in opera.
I very much enjoyed the discussion of esoteric garden design, and this book may have been one of Carolyn Stevenmer's resources when she wrote A College of Magic, which has an enchanted labyrinth. The garden served as a meeting place or potential meeting place for any social grouping of society- a place of assignation if you will. But here the setting isn't like jogging down to Starbucks, it is an indicator of what sort of meeting is planned, or what value a gathering might be honoring at the foot of a mythological statue. People were consciously casting themselves in dramas and the gardens provided scenery. I can't think creatively of such a context rich environment in our day, unless you attend role playing historical reenactment gigs.
Spoiler alert: There some interesting connections to a historical figure mentioned early in the book, Pletho, with some indications of a possible secret society that out lived him. Unfortunately I cannot spoil this entirely because my book notes died in a hard drive crash, but it is good incentive to read Godwin's book.
I would cheerfully revisit this book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this extensively-illustrated book, Joscelyn Godwin takes the reader on a tour of the public and private expressions of the brief but indelible influx of Classical Greek and Roman themes and images into the visual and performing arts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, beginning in Italy but quickly spread by craftsmen and their patrons among the courts of Europe. In this era, the fortuitous rediscovery of ancient pagan imagery, the historical vectors of which remain incompletely understood, was abetted by a simultaneous translation into Latin of Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophers whose works legitimized a celebration of archetypal ideas in aestheticly engaging and often erotic forms, and allowed its reconciliation - if only in the broadest of outlines - with a spirituality that remained nominally Christian. Classical subjects, and the humanist values they were perceived to embody, appeared in the private meditative chambers of the aristocracy, continued through the reception chambers and gardens of their villas, and were even dramatically brought to life for the public in triumphal processions and spectacles during civic festivities.

The decline of this appreciation of a pre-Christian aesthetic can be attributed to a number of factors, perhaps foremost an ideological retrenchment among both Catholics and Protestants in the age which spawned the European Wars of Religion, not to mention the very immediate concern with present matters which those conflicts imposed upon the magnates whose patronage had made the Renaissance possible. Godwin concludes with the afterlife of the Classical revival, as it has been sporadically invoked by philosophers and artists down to the present day, as well as forcefully rejected by some who see it as the beginning of a modern individualism which they despise.

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and edifying, but there's an odd Traditionalist patina throughout that explodes in the last chapter, which is essentially a polemic in favor of an optimistic Traditionalism derived from the work of Henry Corbin. Good work, but I docked a star for the last chapter.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly argued, beautifully illustrated - I love this book. Almost as hypnotic as Godwin's edition of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili . . .

[Samten De]

A lavish and sober overview for those who might wish to plunger into deeper waters.