Introduction

Abstract

The Renaissance was a many-faceted occurrence. All attempts to reach a definitive characterization of it seem to have fallen short in some way. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that there does not seem to be an identifiable unity which runs throughout the period. Certain styles may characterize Renaissance painting, architecture, or literature, but usually the unifying themes actually found there are limited to the output of a small portion of the whole spatial-temporal limits of the age. While the artistic and literary products of the Renaissance have received a good deal of attention from various scholars and interpreters, philosophy has not been so fortunate, having been studied only in a limited way and mostly during the past thirty years. Consequently, we are not yet in a position to evaluate the philosophical contributions of the Renaissance period as a whole, although several attempts, based on the evidence now available, have been made to state some of the various dominant trends. We are now at the point when we should devote ourselves to discovering and printing unpublished texts, to establishing critical editions of the important philosophical writings of the age, and to writing monographs on individual thinkers and on specific philosophical problems and traditions which mark the epoch.