The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy

by Charles B. Schmitt (Editor), Quentin Skinner (Editor)

The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy offers a balanced and comprehensive account of philosophical thought from the middle of the fourteenth century to the emergence of modern philosophy at the turn of the seventeenth century. The Renaissance has attracted intense scholarly attention for over a century, but in the beginning the philosophy of the period was relatively neglected and this is the first volume in English to synthesize for a wider readership the substantial and sophisticated research now available. The volume is organized by branch of philosophy rather than by individual philosopher or by school. The intention has been to present the internal development of different aspects of the subject in their own terms and within their historical context. This structure also emphasizes naturally the broader connotations of "philosophy" in that intellectual world.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Renaissance

922 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 1988

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of my favorite parts include the articles (long-form 'entries') written here by Kristeller, Skinner, and Jardine. But ultimately this collection is very easy to put down, and it's very difficult, even disheartening, to try and finish the entire volume. The objection is, to bring in an authority here, reminiscent of Arnold J. Toynbee's criticism of similar such projects by Cambridge University, going back to the early 20th-century compilations made in this series: In 1934 Toynbee decried the ‘industrialisation of historical thought’ --any suggestion that historians should be inspired by the Industrial System much in vogue at the time-- and in particular he was much exercised about The Cambridge Modern History (1902-12), a 14-volume history of Europe since the Renaissance with four editors and dozens of authors. These kinds of assembly-line histories --standardised collections of facts produced by the division of scholarly labour* -- could be catastrophically sterile endeavors, that looked more like feats of engineering rather than achievements of scholarship, according to Toynbee. The editors of such projects in particular deserved sympathy, as they seemed to be reduced to assembling facts and chapters by collected authors as though in a factory, and the output a product of bricolage, rather than a wise contribution to the garden of letters. At least in the case of this Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (first published 1988), pace Toynbee, there is the imprimatur of just one mind (Charles B. Schmitt, editor) --not four-- presiding over the whole of the collection in this single-volume --not fourteen-- but it does involve weighty contributions from something less than two dozen authors (22 scholars listed), over some 930 pages (including potted biographies of the historical figures involved, plus bibliographies, primary and secondary). At least one of the entries seems to be twice the needed length (that is, should have been edited down to half its size, viz. the entry for section X "Metaphysics" by Charles H. Lohr, pp.535-638, or more than one hundred pages, representing more than 10% of the total girth of the tome).

Perhaps instead of getting overwhelmed with this large volume, somewhat repetitive in places and dry throughout, it would be best, rather than this multi-authored tome, to consider books on the same topic that are written by a single author at a stretch, books with a concerted thesis throughout that drives the reader forward to completion, such as Paul Oskar Kristeller's Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance, or William J. Bouwsma's A Usable Past: Essays in European Cultural History, or the first volume of Quentin Skinner's The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume One: The Renaissance. Two cheers for the monograph! (However, I do not recommend Louis Dupré's book Passage to Modernity: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture which strikes me as obscurantist.)

Enough with the polemics: There is definitely something relevant for you herein, whether your interest is Bruni or Salutati, Ficino or Pico, Poliziano or Zabarella. The collection is perhaps best at placing the various authors in the context of the philosophic traditions in which they were writing, or responding to, or dissenting against, or innovating within -- "the ebb and flow of philosophical teaching and speculation at different times" among Renaissance writers (p.1)
On occasion, there is a tempting insight into how the politics of the day influenced the philosophies current at the time, e.g. how the demise of the Council of Basel (1431-49) could mean not only the effective end of the conciliarist position, but also philosophically the end of Lullism and the revenge of Thomism (p.598) --for example, Nicholas of Cusa wrote De concordantia catholica (The Catholic Concordance) in 1434, trying to balance hierarchy with consent-from-the-governed in a kind of bottom-up argument that apparently derived from a dynamic Lullist vision of the Church unfolding in history, but then post-Basel, he reneged on this, instead arguing for reform in a top-down fashion, starting with a virtuous pope, in his Reformatio generalis, a treatise written in 1459 on the general reform of the church, outside the remit of conciliar excercises; e.g. how a succession of dire events late 15th century could push Ficino into a more pessimistic philosophy (p.569 "contributed to the pessimism which pervades the work of Ficino and his contemporaries" q.v. his biobibliography provided at the end of the volume mentions how he retired to the country after the Medici were expelled from Florence in 1494); e.g. how the crises of rival governing classes in the late 14th-early 15th centuries in Perugia prompted Salutati to respond, so that he composed a treatise between 1396 and 1399 on fatalism, chance, and the responsibility that the city had to take for its own outcomes (p.646).

A digital copy of this compendium is recommended, if you are trying to look up occurences of individuals, schools, places, because you can do an effective term search, obviating the need for flipping back and forth between an index (which my copy did not provide) and the content pages where an individual's name, etc., occurs in various places throughout the volume. Delving into this tome via search term, or only reading the chapters that seem relevant to you, seems a perfectly legitimate way to approach it and make use of it, as it may not really be meant to be read from front cover to back.

* "Humanist among machines: As the dreams of Silicon Valley fill our world, could the dowdy historian Arnold Toynbee help prevent a nightmare?" by Ian Beacock (Stanford University); edited by Sam Haselby, for Aeon (magazine/website/blog) 25 June 2015 [date accessed July 2024]

[Ckk527 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential go-to text during my graduate studies.

[Steph]

A broad study of Renaissance philosophy covering many important areas. An excellent guide for both beginners and academics in the field.