Humanist Historiography Research Articles

Medievalism and Political Rhetoric in Humanist Historiography from the Low Countries (1515–1609) by Coen Maas

Reviewed by: Medievalism and Political Rhetoric in Humanist Historiography from the Low Countries (1515–1609) by Coen Maas Christian Thorsten Callisen Maas, Coen, Medievalism and Political Rhetoric in Humanist Historiography from the Low Countries (1515–1609) (Proteus: Studies in Early Modern Identity Formation, 7), Turnhout, Brepols, 2018; hard cover; pp. xix, 541; 25 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €125.00; ISBN 9782503557113. In this book, Coen Maas takes 'the apparent contradiction between the humanist aversion to the Middle Ages on the one hand, and the meticulous study of the period by humanist historians on the other' (p. 4) as his starting point, and undertakes a critical review of medievalism among sixteenth-century humanists in the Low Countries. Maas focuses his analysis on the political context in which these authors worked, exploring how medieval practices and ideas were [End Page 239] redeployed in the service of contemporary political objectives. In so doing, Maas provides valuable insights into early modern humanist practice, and challenges the commonplace view that early modern humanists saw the Middle Ages almost exclusively as an unproductive, 'dark' period of history, and their role as 'the saviours of the classical heritage' (p. 32). Maas undertakes his analysis through several case studies. To each of these he brings a comprehensive arsenal of analytical tools, variously deploying rhetorical, comparative, and intertextual analyses to interpret the texts at hand. He carefully avoids anachronistic readings of his subjects, taking into account early modern genre conventions; reading and writing practice; and political, educational, and scholarly contexts. Maas establishes the groundwork for this work in Chapters 1 and 2, which introduce the concepts and tools of textual analysis used in the rest of the book, and provide a useful overview of early modern humanist historical practice. Maas's writing is clear and unambiguous, with signposts that support his reader on the journey. Through his case studies, Maas argues that, far from the Middle Ages being an unproductive, barren wasteland for early modern humanists, this period in history served as a rich and adaptable source that could be drawn on and put into service for a contemporary audience. Of course, the classical topoi that are so recognizable in early modern humanist writings continue to be found, and ancient Roman and Greek authors maintain a definitive influence over these texts, yet Maas shows us convincingly that medieval authors also had a significant part to play in shaping his subjects' rhetorical and historiographical practice. Chapters 3 to 7 present Maas's case studies: Reynier Snoy's Historia Hollandie (c. 1516–17); Adrianus Barlandus's Cronica Brabantiae ducum (1526); Petrus Divaeus's manuscript writings on the history of Brabant (c. 1563); Janus Dousa Sr's verse history of Holland (1599); and the Dousas' (Sr and Jr) prose history of Holland (1601). In each of these, Maas demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the contexts in which these men were writing, as well as the contemporaneous practices that shaped their work. He explores each of their political environments, taking into account their professional backgrounds, work, and patronage relationships. Maas also demonstrates how these authors redeployed medieval tropes and ideas in service of their own political objectives. Traversing the better part of the sixteenth century, these case studies illustrate, on a micro scale, the evolution of historiographical practice in the Low Countries during this time. As one progresses from one case study to the next, one sees clear links between the various texts under consideration, and Maas effectively demonstrates how Snoy, Barlandus, Divaeus, and the Dousas deployed different textual and rhetorical techniques to present their preferred view of history. Unsurprisingly, this view evolved in line with the circumstances of the authors and the changing political landscape in the Low Countries. Chapter 8 complements this implicit chronological comparison with an excursus on the evolution of Latin and vernacular languages during this time. [End Page 240] The texts that Maas has analysed in this book used Latin to communicate with their audiences, and Maas is interested in understanding the specific affordances that Latin provided compared to vernacular languages. He is careful to avoid reductionist ideas about the relationship between Latin and the vernacular, using this chapter to explore broader questions around the audience...

:Medievalism and Political Rhetoric in Humanist Historiography from the Low Countries, 1515–1609

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“Look No More”: Jonson's Catiline and the Politics of Enargeia

In his play Catiline His Conspiracy, Ben Jonson allegorizes Cicero's fight to save the Roman Republic as a battle against the kind of spectacular drama that, Jonson claimed, his audiences so enjoyed. This metatheatrical polemic hinges on the rhetorical technique of enargeia: the power of language to conjure an image. For the early moderns, enargeia resolved the “paradox of representation”—the contradiction between “making present” and “standing for”—by subordinating visual presence to verbal illusionism. Jonson, aligning neoclassical poetics with humanist historiography, dramatizes this hierarchy of representation. In Catiline, Cicero's rhetoric puts visions of violence before his audience's eyes only to prevent their realization onstage. The play thus seeks to exorcise the specter of political violence that haunted early modern England and the Roman Republic alike. Yet the rhetoric of Jonson's Cicero proves just as coercive as the spectacular violence that it has replaced. From Jonson's time to ours, separating rhetoric from violence has remained the challenge of republicanism.

Humanistic Ideas about History and Foundations of the New Chronology by Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540—1609)

The question of the development of humanistic historiography in the Renaissance and early Modern era is considered. Special attention is paid to the contribution of Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609) to the creation of a new chronology. The novelty of the research is that Scaliger’s achievements in the field of chronology are considered as an important component of the process of formation of a new historical narrative and the development of scientific principles of historical research. It is emphasized that earlier works written by Italian humanist historians used outdated calendar systems, which developed in the late Antique era and were characterized by a lack of understanding of the true significance of the change of historical epochs. The authors show that Scaliger’s achievements in the field of chronology allowed historians of the early Modern era, especially the French historians, to make significant progress in the understanding of the relevant for the history of Europe period of transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The article concludes that due to the achievements of Scaliger the time scale of the Roman Empire and barbarian kingdoms was able to line up in a meaningful sequence. The history of the Frankish Kingdom as the initial period of the Middle Ages was able to take its place of honor in the writings of historians.

Joseph ha-Kohen, humanist historiography and military history

Humanist historiography remains one of the most exceptional intellectual monuments of the Italian Renaissance. The extent of the effect that humanist historiography had on Jewish perception of history and historiography in Italy remains debatable. One of the most prominent attempts to create a historical work that seemed to display several of the main characteristics of humanist historiography was doubtlessly Joseph ha-Kohen’s Sefer Divrey ha-yamim le-malkhey Tsarefat u-bet Ottoman ha-Togar . In this article I would like to demonstrate that at least from the stand point of military history ha-Kohen consciously incorporated the basic elements that were considered appropriate and instructive by sixteenth-century humanist historians. By comparing several of ha-Kohen’s battle descriptions to those of other contemporary historical narratives I aim to show that ha-Kohen’s traditional narrative, language and religious undertones did not prevent him from displaying some of the fundamental ideals of humanist historiography.

Book Review: Aullón de Haro, P. (ed.) (2015). Historiografía y Teoría de la Historia del Pensamiento, la Literatura y el Arte. Madrid: Dykinson.

Book Review: Aullón de Haro, P. (ed.) (2015). Historiografía y Teoría de la Historia del Pensamiento, la Literatura y el Arte. Madrid: Dykinson.

‘De origine civitatis’. The building of civic Identity in Italian communal Chronicles (12th-14th century) Lorenzo Tanzini

One of the most striking expressions of political identity of the Italian medieval cities is the early creation of municipal myths of origin. Most communal cities could relate themselves to ancient heroes, saints or emperors who were claimed to be their first founders in past centuries. Such a legendary creation of the origin was obviously an ideological tool to improve the municipal sense of identity. This paper aims to study the changing attitudes of municipal elites towards the ancient history of the city, starting from the first municipal chronicles in 12th century, through the great universal narratives of the 13th, until the dawn of humanistic historiography in late 14th.

Translating time: chronicle, prognostication, prophecy

The early modern period knew two kinds of writing about time: writing the past, and writing the future. Chronicles, as exemplified by the Nuremburg Chronicle of Hartmann Schedel and his associates printed in 1493, might entail mobilizing the intellectual talents of a city's patrician elite in order to import Italian humanist historiography north of the Alps, and then from Latin into the vernacular. Astrological prognostications, of which thirty or more editions might be published in a given year, represent the meeting of scientific and popular discourse, while prophetic pamphlets belonged firmly to the popular realm. In this article, I demonstrate how, in each of these genres, translation was a creative rather than a derivative activity, one that drove development in the genre and brought forth printed works of new kinds. For the chronicle, translation created a history writing that was aware of its own print media context; for prognostications, translation created the characteristic form of the printed booklet still known as the Practica teüsch long after Latin prognostications were all but unknown; and for prophecies in print, translation was a constitutive part of their origin and transmission as texts: to become a prophecy, a text had to be translated from one medium, one era, one context, or one language into another.

The 2013 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture: Machiavelli and History*

AbstractHistory is the foundation of Machiavelli’s political thought. Dismissing the celebratory traditions of humanist historiography and never fully sharing humanism’s idealization of antiquity, Machiavelli sought in history the causes of political failure. He acknowledged the fragmentary and fleeting character of historical knowledge and exposed fashionable philosophies of history (cyclical recurrence, unchanging human passions, celestial influences, laws of nature, fortune) as seductive fictions purveying false consolations for history’s adversities and afflictions. Machiavelli proposed instead a critical history focused on how social conflicts shape power and its abuses. His analysis of ancient Roman and more recent Florentine conflicts turns on a crucial distinction between conflicts contained within institutional frameworks and public law and those fought with instruments of private power (political patronage, wealth, and factions) that undermine public authority. Useful history, Machiavelli insists, must show how the constant pursuit, particularly by elites, of privatized power caused both the collapse of the Roman Republic and the failures of modern Italy’s ruling classes.

Francesco Patrizi e a crítica à concepção historiográfica do “burlesco” Luciano

The series of norms and considerations about the historiographic work established by Lucian in his How to Write History exercised a great influence on the genre of the ars historica in Renaissance. If Cicero’s De oratore is the main literary source for the recovery of the exemplum, Lucian’s work is often called into question in regard to issues related to the writing of the historical account, such as diction and style, brevity, syntax, as well as the qualities of a good historian. The crisis of this model of humanist historiography will be criticized by Francesco Patrizi da Cherso, in his “Della historia diece dialoghi”, published in 1560 in Venice. In the opening dialogues, Patrizi condemns the early humanists’ diligent affiliation to the auctoritates, in an endeavor to bring down the basis from which the whole preceding historiography was built. Thus, this article aims at: evincing the presence of Lucian’s work in humanist historiography; and 2) examining the sense of Patrizi’s criticism of the principles given by the “beffardo” Luciano.

Luces y sombras: Boscán en las «Anotaciones» de Herrera

Lights and Shadows: Boscan in the Annotations of Herrera This article examines the reception of Boscan in Herrera’s Anotaciones, paying special attention to the process of belatedness Boscan is subjected to in Herrera’s discourse on the sonnet. This process, I argue, shows Herrera’s indebtedness to the vocabulary and methods of periodization employed by humanist historiography. The article also explores a few important aspects related to genre and intertextuality in the two sonnets in morte that Boscan wrote in memory of Garcilaso at the end of his petrarchan collection and discusses the reasons why Herrera praised these two poems in his Anotaciones.

The Meaning of History: A Dedicatory Letter from Giovanni Ferrerio to Abbot Robert Reid in his Historia abbatum de Kynloss

This is the first critical edition and translation of a 1537 letter from the Italian Humanist, Giovanni Ferrerio, to the Scottish Cistercian Abbot, Robert Reid of Kinloss. Together with the ad lectorem, it prefaces Ferrerio's Historia abbatum de Kynlos. The edition is based on two autograph manuscripts of the text, now in Rome and Edinburgh, which have not previously been collated. An introduction and notes set the texts in the context of Humanist historiography and Scottish history. They show that a flourishing ‘northern Renaissance’ spread even to the shores of the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, and that ties of friendship and common culture united scholars from Scotland and the Continent. It has been said that Humanist historiography hardly influenced the writing of ecclesiastical history until after the Council of Trent, but the letter reveals that Ferrerio's Historia is in a Scottish tradition of writing church history which unites Humanism and the chronicle tradition in the same manner as post-Tridentine sacred history.

A Roman History: The Ephemerides Historicae of Cornelius de Fine (ca.1494-1570)

The paper presents an analysis of Cornelius de Fine’s Ephemerides Historicae, an almost unknown source about Rome in the first half of the sixteenth century, also called Diarium Historicum. Written as an historical diary, De Fine describes the events in Rome and Italy in the period going from 1511 to 1548 and his experience of humanist Rome. During his stay in Rome he entered the service of Cardinal Francesco Conti, and after the Cardinal’s death in 1521, he worked for bishop Mario Maffei di Volterra and Jacopo Sadoleto. Thus, De Fine is not only important as an original source about Roman history in the early sixteenth century, but also as an example of successful integration into Roman society. Though we cannot define him as a humanist and his chronicle stands mostly in the medieval tradition, we can discover many humanist influences in his career and works. How can De Fine and his Ephemerides Historicae be situated in the context of humanist historiography? Which reminiscences of humanism can we find in them? These are some of the questions the author tries to answer.

National Martyrdom in Northern Humanist Historiography

National Martyrdom in Northern Humanist Historiography

Royalty Unlearned, Honor Untaught: British Savages and Historiographical Change in Cymbeline

Royalty Unlearned, Honor Untaught: British Savages and Historiographical Change in Cymbeline John E. Curran, Jr. Brittons, thinke not that your glories fall, Deriued from a meane originall. —William Browne, Britannia s Pastorals Critics have tended to approach Cymbeline, Shakespeare's strange hybrid play, from one of two directions: some, following the lead of G. Wilson Knight, look to the historical dimension of the play in search of allegory or topical significance;1 while others, following J. M. Nosworthy, view the play as pure romance.2 In my own reading of Cymbeline I am aiming at something of a reconciliation between these two camps. As we shall see, in the case of Cymbeline a theme typically associated with romance becomes more than a mere convention of that genre; it becomes a reflection of pressing issues within the intellectual context of Shakespeare's day—issues concerning the nation's past, and how Englishmen were supposed to interpret it. In Cymbeline, as many critics have held,3 a major element of romance is the "Cinderella" topos—the idea that true worth is to be distinguished from outward shows such as looks, birth, and social status, and that we must work hard to recognize this distinction . However, in Cymbeline this theme goes beyond romance: it enacts a complex response to the English revolution in historiography wherein the truth about the primitive condition of the ancient Britons was discovered and the traditional British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth was discredited.4 Shakespeare in Cymbeline joins his learned contemporaries in their effort to reimagine their nation's ancient past according to the new humanist historiography but simultaneously to continue to view the ancient Britons as a positive reflection of themselves. Faced with 277 278Comparative Drama a newly conceived barbaric heritage and yet unwilling to detach themselves from the island's most ancient inhabitants, Englishmen were learning to reevaluate standards for judging the past— to locate virtue in savage forebears and obscure origins. My reading thus builds upon the work of such critics as Meredith Skura, D. E. Landry, Brook Thomas, and Brian Gibbons, who hold that Cymbeline has much to do with the process of reconstructing the past.5 In my view, Cymbeline both critiques the excesses of the self-flattering Galfridian tradition and argues that, in spite of their new and strange appearance, the ancient Britons are still worthy of regard. Though drastically reimagined, the past should continue to dignify the present. To reinforce this reading of the play, I begin by reading in a similar way the other Roman Britain plays of the time around which Cymbeline was written. This moment in time, falling c. 1608-15, came more than twenty years after the first publication of William Camden's Britannia (1586), and so by then Englishmen were becoming used to the British History being heavily scrutinized. The time in question saw three Roman Britain plays other than Cymbeline: Rowley's A Shoomaker, A Gentleman; Caradoc, or The Valiant Welshman, by "R. A."; and Fletcher's Bonduca. Although a study by Jodi Mikalachki has recently compared them,6 the Roman Britain plays have seldom been studied as a unit. By reading these plays together, we shall see that they can all be related to the historiographical situation which produced them. With this foundation we shall follow the argument of inherent British virtue through the three plots of Cymbeline itself: the two lost princes represent a primitive Britain which is inherently noble despite its savagery; the confrontation of Cymbeline , Cloten, and the Queen with the Romans represents an inordinate and foolish attachment to the antiquated Galfridian tradition; and, finally, the Posthumus-Imogen branch of the play represents the mistake of being overwhelmed by the new history and of losing faith in the inherent virtue of the British people. I In the first decade and a half of the seventeenth century, many important writers emerged who helped consolidate the revolutionary scholarship of Camden's Britannia; the first English translation of the Britannia itself, by Philemon Holland, appeared in 1610. As Arthur B. Ferguson has pointed out, Camden was the first scholar in England "to demonstrate with a newly visual John E. Curran, Jr.279 clarity the...

:Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writings of the Age

Works written and published in Latin by Elizabethan and Jacobean writers covered a vast range, from brief poetic trifles to massive scholarly, humanist and scientific treatises. Among its authors were some of the greatest intellects of the day; and study of Latin dedications and commendatory verses makes clear the importance of Latinate culture in the Court as well as in the universities and learned professions. English renaissance Latin culture was the shared intellectual background for all educated people, England's bridge to the scientific, literary, political, philosophical and religious life of continental Europe. J.W. Binns has examined almost all the numerous books written in Latin and printed in England during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Intellectual Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (ICEJE)is the result of over 25 years labour - the first comprehensive overview of the Latinate culture of England, which was the counterpart, on a higher intellectual level, of the better-known contemporary achievements in the English vernacular. It discusses various aspects of the Latin poetry of Renaissance England (seven chapters); Latin drama, and its attackers and defenders; translations into Latin from Greek and from European vernaculars; treatises on such disparate subjects as translation theory, the soul, swimming, and humanist historiography and biography; writings on theology; legal studies; and the physical sciences. Treatments vary, from the close study of significant individuals (such as Case and Rainolds) to broader surveys, for example, of Latin style. Latin quoted in the main text is accompanied by English translation. The extensive reference section contains a tripartite Bibliography, of manuscripts, books printed before 1751, and books and articles printed after 1750; a Biographical Register of around 1000 entries; and an Index of Modern Authors, followed by a detailed General Index. ICEJE is a treasure-house of ideas and material for all researchers into Elizabethan and Jacobean literary culture. It is an essential handbook for students of English literature, renaissance scholars, cultural historians, latinists, librarians and bibliographers.

Gassendi the Atomist: Advocate of History in an Age of Science.

Preface List of illustrations Introduction 1. Other atomists, other skeptics, and other Epicureans: the problem of determining the context of Gassendi's career Part I. Humanist Historiography: 2. Refuting Aristotle is not enough: how to acquire the skills of a French humanist 3. Gassendi's Life of Peiresc: the humanist's unattainable goal of writing a universal history 4. The growth of Gassendi's Epicurean project: from biography and commentary to a history of philosophy Part II. Physics and the History of Philosophy: 5. Unrecognized cultural baggage: the incoherence of contemporary debates about atoms 6. Uncertainties of observation and explanation: the role of optical anomalies in astronomy 7. Skepticism is based on bad history: Gassendi interprets Epicurus' arguments concerning the existence and qualities of atoms 8. Epicurus' conception of proof and Gassendi's historical justification of an atomist metaphysics and physics 9. Between culture and nature: was Gassendi a historian, a scientist, an empiricist? List of abbreviations used in the notes Notes Index of names.

Humanistic historiography under the Sforzas: politics and propaganda in fifteenth-century Milan (review)

Humanistic historiography under the Sforzas: politics and propaganda in fifteenth-century Milan (review)

Humanistic historiography under the Sforzas: politics and propaganda in fifteenth-century Milan

Humanistic historiography under the Sforzas: politics and propaganda in fifteenth-century Milan

The reception of humanist historiography in northern Europe: M. A. Sabellico and John Jewel

The reception of humanist historiography in northern Europe: M. A. Sabellico and John Jewel