Book cover of The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities: An Intellectual History, 1400-1800

Book description

Christopher Celenza is one of the foremost contemporary scholars of the Renaissance. His ambitious new book focuses on the body of knowledge which we now call the humanities, charting its roots in the Italian Renaissance and exploring its development up to the Enlightenment. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the author…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Whether or not one wants to make a case for the modern humanities deriving from the studia humanitatis in Renaissance Italy, it is undeniable that Renaissance humanism has been a source of endless fascination for humanities scholars. I enjoyed this book partly because it shows how this fascination led seventeenth- and eighteenth-century scholars to “recapitulate practices and mentalities that Italian Renaissance humanists pioneered.” It is such borrowing and reapplying that explains how a “humanistic tradition” could take shape. Another intriguing point is Celenza’s argument that this tradition has historically revolved as much around wisdom as about knowledge. While we modern…

From Herman's list on the history of the humanities.

If you love The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities...

Ad

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Want books like The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities.

Browse books like The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities

Book cover of A New History of the Humanities: The Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the Present
Book cover of Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age
Book cover of Archaeology of Babel: The Colonial Foundation of the Humanities

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,278

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Italian Renaissance and the Origins of the Modern Humanities, you might also like...

Book cover of The Bridge: Connecting The Powers of Linear and Circular Thinking

The Bridge by Kim Hudson,

The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…

Book cover of And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown

And Then They Were Gone by Ron Cabral,

Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.

The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…

5 book lists we think you will like!