Alex Wright

Rereading the Renaissance

February 23, 2006

My long-ago cohorts at Harvard Magazine have published an interesting think piece by Adam Kirsch on I Tatti Renaissance Library, an ambitious effort to resurrect the faded reputations of a few humanist authors from the Renaissance:

If Petrarch, Pius, Alberti, and the other major writers in the ITRL could look down on the world today, they would surely be shocked at how badly their plans for posthumous fame had gone awry. Their guarantee of immortality, Latin, has itself become a dead language. More, the Western world is currently in the midst of questioning all their cherished assumptions about the value of literature, education, and the studia humanitatis. No longer can we so ardently embrace Vergerio’s prescription for human flourishing: “What way of life, then, can be more delightful, or indeed more beneficial, than to read and write all the time?” But the spirits of the humanists would certainly rejoice to see that, in the I Tatti Renaissance Library, their Latin masterpieces are being given the chance to reach a new audience, and to make their names live again. I confess I have never heard of a single one of the books listed in their catalog - which, I suppose, is pretty much the point.

(via 3quarks)

File under: Books

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