 | The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy Subjects: Humanities Social Sciences; Area Studies History Literature; European History after 1450 European Literature European Studies; This book traces the intellectual life of the Kingdom of Italy, the area in which humanism began in the mid thirteenth century, a century or more before exerting its influence on the rest of Europe. Covering a period of over four and a half centuries, this study offers the first integrated analysis of Latin writings produced in the area, examining not only religious, literary, and legal texts. Ronald G. Witt characterizes the changes reflected in these Latin writings as products of the interaction of thought with economic, political, and religious tendencies in Italian society as well as with intellectual influences coming from abroad. His research ultimately traces the early emergence of humanism in northern Italy in the mid thirteenth century to the precocious development of a lay intelligentsia in the region, whose participation in the culture of Latin writing fostered the beginnings of the intellectual movement which would eventually revolutionize all of Europe. Ronald Gene Witt was born in Wayne, Michigan on December 23, 1932. He received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1954. He studied history and teaching for two years in France on a Fulbright scholarship. He received a master's degree in history in 1958 and a doctorate in 1965 from Harvard University. He taught at Harvard from 1964 until he joined the history department at Duke University in 1971. He taught medieval and Renaissance history until his retirement in 2004. He wrote several books including Coluccio Salutati and His Public Letters, Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works and Thought of Coluccio Salutati, and The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy. In the Footsteps of the Ancients': The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni received the Renaissance Society of America's Gordan Prize and shared the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History. He also co-edited several books including The Humanities: Cultural Roots and Continuities and Life and Death in 15th Century Florence. He died from heart failure on March 15, 2017 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) |
