Abstract
The dispute between the Platonists and the Aristotelians, which had been provoked by Gemistus Pletho and then settled, the philosophy and literary work of Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine Academy, the reconciliation of the antique philosophy with Christianity, these all are parts of that Platonism which formed the main trend of the philosophy of the Renaissance, apart from the continuation of medieval Scholasticism and philosophic natural science. It was connected with the Humanist interest in classic Antiquity and profoundly influenced religion, arts and the political theory of Renaissance times. It was not a simple revival of Platonism and Neo-Platonism, but mainly a new conception of the question of God, man and the world, which harmonised with previous medieval thought and was important for the further history of European culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Josef Kopal, Dějiny francouzské literatury (= The History of Frenrh Literature), Prague 1949, p. 74.
P. S. Allen describes in the book The Age of Erasmus (Oxford 1914, p. 252–275) the peculiarities of the Transalpine Renaissance.
Cf. p. 188.
Friedrich Ast intended to reprint Cornarius’ translation — in a revised form — in his edition of Plato (beginning 1819). But he tells us that after some initial attempts he found that the corrections would require a great amount of rather difficult work, and he decided to provide a new independent translation (tomus I, praef., p. VI.).
This for example in the Index libro um prohibitorum et expurgatorum novissimus of 1667 (Madrid). I dealt with this question in the essay De Platonis editione expurgata (Charisteria Thaddaeo Sinko ohlata, Varsaviae-Wratislawiae 1951, 221–227).
Foxius Morzillus (Basle 1554), Ludovicus Nogarola (Venice 1555).
Ch. Huit mentions it in Platon (Paris 1893, II., p. 469–471).
Walter Mönch (ibid., p. 301) quotes these words of the translator verbatim.
In the dedication to this dialogue upon love he found it necessary to warn the reader — rather un-platonically — that “respectable love is based upon matrimony”.
Walter Mönch quotes it in his book, (ibid.), p. 307.
Cf. p. 331.
Luther condemned Dionysius in his work De captivitate Babyl. with the words: “In Dionysio, qui scripsit de caelesti hierarchia, nihil ferme est solidae eruditionis: et omnia sunt illius meditata in praefato libro ac somniis prope simillima. In Theologia autem mystica perniciosissimus, pJatonizans magis quam christianizans. In ecclesiastica vero hierarchia ludit allegoriis, quod est otiosorum hominum studium”. The decree of the Faculty in Paris runs as follows: “Haec propoeitio est falsa, temerario et arroganter asserta, ac viro saneto, insigni eruditione claro, iniuria, quem Damaseenus divinum Areopagitam, Pauli diseipulum aeerrimum et Dei loquentissimum appellat”. This is quoted by D. Le Nourry in Migne Patr. Gr., 3, 16 seq.
D. le Nourry deals with the editions and translations of Dionysius the Areopagite in Patr. Gr. 3, 51–53, and J. F. Bern de Rübeis ibid. 57 seq.
Cf. W. Mönch, ibid., p. 189.
Marci Mureti Orationes et Epistulae nec non Praefationes. Tomus I orationes eiusdem continens (Venetiis 1751).
Cf. p. 353.
Cf. p. 377.
Reported by Knös in the quoted article, p. 165.
Cf. above, p. 385. seq.
Monograph: Walter Mönch, Die italienische Platonrenaissance und ihre Bedeutung für Frankreichs Literatur-und Geistesesschichte (1450–1550), (Berlin 1936).
W. Münch, ibid., p. 267 seq.
About this Pleiade cf. p. 443.
Monograph: Friedrich Dannenberg, Das Erbe Platons in England bis zur Bildung Lylys (Berlin 1932).
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Canterburské povídky, translated by F. Vrba, Prague 1953, p. 581).
Cf. p. 325–326.
Cf. p. 171 seq.
John Edwin SandYR, A History of Classical Scholarship II (Cambridge 1908), p. 221.
Friedrich Dannenberg, ibid., p. 4–9.
Quoted by J. E. Sandys, ibid., p. 232.
Friedrich Dannenberg, ibid., p. 218.
Quoted by J. E. Sandys, ibid., p. 234 seq.
Frederick J. Powicke, The Cambridge Platonists (London-Toronto 1926).
Bohdan Kieszkowski, Platonizm renesansowy (Warszawa 1935), p. 112.
Raymond Klibansky, The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages (London 1939), p. 29, believes that traces of these doctrines can be found in the marginal notes in Copernicus’ copy of Bevillus’ Liber de intellectu.
I. I. Toistoi deals with this translation in the article “Kopernik i ego latinski perevod ≫Pisem≪ Feofilakta Simokatty”, which is contained in the collective publication Nikolai Kopernik of the Academy of Science of the USSR on the occasion of his anniversary.
Plato, Republic 6,509 D uses about the functiqn of the sun the verb ßασιλεύειν == rule, and 7,517 C he says that it is the “lord”, χύριος of the light.
Already Plato calls the Sun the “visible god”.
This is the opinion of Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, Zarys dziejów filozofii w Polsce (Kraków 1948), p. 9.
Luther’s remarks on Plato were collected by. H. Stein, Sieben Bücher II, p. 384 seq.
H. Stein, Sieben Bücher III, p. 215 quotes evidence.
Ch. Sigwart, Ulrich Zwingli, Der Charakter seiner Theologie mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Picus von Mirandula (Stuttgart-Hamburg 1855). He is quoted by B. Kieszkowski in the aforesaid book, p. llO.
H. Stein, Sieben Bücher, p. 116.
It was brought out the second time by F. F. Procházka in Prague in 1789.
Konrad Burdach, Platonische, freireligiöse und persönliche Züge im Ackermann aus Böhmen (Berlin 1933). It is doubtful whether the Ackermann also contained a reminiscence of Plato’s metaphor about the poets and the bees, as Burdach believes.
J. Ludvíkovský, Václav Pisecký a náš národní humanismus ( = Václav of Pisek and our National Humanism). (Písek, 1948, sp. ed. p. 4.).
Z. Winter, O Životě na vysokých školách praŽských knihy dvoje (= Two books on the Life in Prague university), (Prague 1899). p. 52.
Cf. Z. Winter, ibid., p. 501–506.
See above p. 325–326.
About Plato in Erasmus see p. 416.
Thus jan (= lohn)of Rabštejn (1437–1473) in his Disputatio (ed. Ryba) repeats the old scandalous tale when he speaks of people “who like Plato have their home not there where they feel well, but where rich cooking steams”.
About him see Josef Truhhář, Humanismus a humanisté v Čechách za krále Vladislava II. (= Humanism and the Humanists in Bohemia under the Reign of King Vladislav II), (Prague 1894).
J. Truhhář, ibid., p. 99.
Printed in the correspondence of Václav Písecký, ed. Truhhář, No. XXXI.
Correspondence of Boh. Hasištejnský of Lobkowitz, ed. Truhhář. No. 78.
Correspondence of V. Písecký, ed. Truhhář, No. IX, p. 39 seq.
Augustini Olomucensis Episcoporum Olomucensium Series. ed. F. X. Richter (Olomúc 1831). p. 172. O. Králík drew my attention to this explicit.
According to Josef Truhhář. Humanismus a humanisté (= Humanism and Humanists). p. 136.
Correspondence of Písecký, ed. J. Truhhář, No. V, p. 35.
Correpondence of Písecký, ed. J. Truhhář, No. XIX, p. 63.
Correspondence of Bohuslav Hasištejnský, ed. Truhhář, No. 15, p. 16.
Correspondence of Bohuslav Hasištejnský, ed. Truhhář, No. 78, p. 120 seq.
Ibid. No. 166, p. 194 seq.
Charles Waddington wrote a monograph about Ramus, Ramus (Pierre de la Ramée), sa vie, ses écrits et ses opinions (Paris 1855).
In the aforesaid Comparatio, p. 94.
Platonis Epistolae a Petro Ramo latinae factae et dialecticis rerum summis breviter expositae (Parisiis 1549, 2nd ed. 1552).
It is printed in Waddington’s aforesaid book, p. 437.
Monograph: Dušan Nedeĺković, Filosofija Franje Petrića (Francisca Patricia) — Beograd 1929).
The edition of Venice has a long title telling about the content of the work: “Nova de universis philosophia libris quinquaginta comprehensa, in qua Aristotelica methodo non per motum, sed per lucem et lumina ad primam causam ascenditur; deinde nova quad am ac peculiari methodo tota in contemplationem venit divinitas, postremo methodo Platonica rerum universitas a conditore Deo deducitur, auctore Francisco Patritio, philosopho eminentissimo et in celeberrimo Romano Gymnasio summa cum laude eandem philosophiam publice interpretante, quibus postremo sunt adiecta: Zoroastris oracula CCCXX ex Platonicis collecta, Hermetis Trismegisti libelli et fragmenta quotcunque reperiuntur ordine scientifico disposita, Asclepii discipuli tres libelli, Mystica Aegyptiorum, a Platone dictata, ab Aristotele excepta et perscripta philosophia, Platonicorum dialogorum novus penitus a Francisco Patritio inventus ordo scientificus, Capita demum multa in quibus Plato concors, Aristoteles vero catholicae fidei adversarius ostenditur. Venetiis 1593.”.
This book was published in Venice in 1541, a second time — and I quote from this edition — in 1558, and then several times more. A Latin translation was also published there in 1564. It was also translated into Spanish and French (Lugduni 1551).
This is mentioned by Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de las ideas estéticas en España, III, 4th ed. Madrid 1930, p. 162 seq.
Émile Bréhier, Histoire de la philosophie I, 3 (Paris 1935), p. 780.
Published in Venice in 1584. I quote from the German translation of Ludwig Kuhlenbeck, Giordano Bruno, Von der Ursaeke (dem Anfangsgrund) und dem Einen (Jena 1906), p. 87. The original was not available.
See in the above-mentioned translation of Kuhlenbeck, p. 72.
See below, p. 422–423.
Which town Ficino has in mind, I do not know. F. M. Bartoš thinks as K. Hrdina told me in a letter of the 21st August 1947, that he means Prague. Marsilio Ficino read something about the community of property and women or adopted it second hand from Aeneas Silvius whose Chronicle was first published in 1475. It is possible that he had in mind the maiden’s war under Vlasta or the story about the adamites. But even with this conjecture the matter remains uncertain.
Pierre Mesnard, Le platonisme de Jean Bodin (Assoc. G. Budé, Congrès de Tours et Poitiers, Actes du Congrès, Paris 1954), p. 352–361.
See below p. 433.
Friedel Pick, Johannes Jessenius de Magna Jessen (1926), p. 13 seq.
Epistolae Platonis Graece et Latine: eruditissimis notis logicis, ethicis et politicis distinctae et illustratae et Macchiavellismo oppositae. Opera et studio Joannis Jacobi Beureri Saccingensis, in Archigymnasio Friburgensi Latinarum literarum Professoris. Basileae, per Sebastianum Henricpetri.
Cf. above p. 76, Suidas’ remark about Plato and Philo.
Ludwig Stein, Zur Sozialphilosophie der Staatsromane (Arch. für Gesch. der Phil. I, Abt. 9, 1896, 458–485).
This is stated in the biography of Münzer by Philip Melanchton, who is quoted by Karl Vorländer, Von Macchiavelli bis Lenin, Leipzig 1926, p. 17.
First edited in Lovani (Louvain) in 1516. It was translated into Czech with an introduction and commentary by Bohumil Ryba (Prague 1950). Monograph: Julius Glücklich, Utopia Tomáše Mora (= The Utopia of Thomas More), (Český časopis historický 4, 1898, p. 300–324); he deals particularly with the connection between the Utopia and the contemporary economical and social state of affairs in England. Émile Dermengheim, Thomas Morus et les utopistes de la renaissance (Paris 1927).
Ernest Barker, Greek Political Theory, Plato and his Predecessors (London 1918), p.385–386.
E. Barker in the aforesaid book, p. 388
Monograph: Kurt Schröder, Platonismus in der engiischen Renaissance vor und bei Thomas Eliot (Berlin 1920).
Fr. Dannenberg writes about him in the aforesaid book, p. 83–116.
Se e above p. 416.
Maxmilián Ryšánek translated Campanella’s work and his discourse about the ideal state into Czech from this Paris edition Slunečni stát (= The Sun State) (Prague 1934).
B. Ryba in the Listy filol. 75, 1951, 264.
He refers particulary to the opinions ascribed to Clement of Rome; cf. p. 309–310.
Bacon cites in his book Proficience and Advancement of Learning Plato’s opinion about the philosopher-king. He thinks that its author was partial to his profession — as in modern times Jacob Burckhardt wrote of this doctrine of Plato’s that it is “an aberration of philosophical selfconfidence” (Griech. Kulturgeschichte III, p. 393) — but nevertheless experience teaches that nations prospered most when they were governed by wise and educated princes.
Bacon’s passages on Plato are quoted by H. Stein, Sieben Bücher III, p. 190, n. 1.
Cf. Paul Shorey, Platonism Ancient and Modern (Berkeley 1938), p. 183.
Ernst Cassirer, Die Antike und die Entstehung der exakten Wissenschaft (Die Antike 8, 1932, 280).
Quoted by Gino Loria, Galileo Galilei (translated into Czech hy F. Topinka Prague 1943), p. 15.
Cf. Gino Loria in the aforesaid book, p.98.
Gino Loria, ibid., p. 22.
Plato placed motion among the ideas in the Sophist.
In the title of his work Prodromus pro Sole mobili et Terra stabili contra academicum florentinum Galilaeum a Galileis. (1651).
Ernst Cassirer in the aforesaid treatise, p. 293.
Emanuel Rádl, Útěcha ≈ filosofie (= Consolation of Philosophy) Prague 1946, p. 65.
It is quoted in Catalogue VII of E. P. Goldschmidt and Co. Ltd. London.
Cf. about St. Augustine above, p. 280.
Testimonies are cited by Franz H. Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher (Bonn 1883–1885) I, p. 537.
Émile Bréhier, Histoire de la philosophie I, 3, p. 757.
Ratio studiorum of the year 1599 requested the professor of philosophy: “In rebus alicuius momenti ab Aristotele non recedat, nisi quid incidat a doctrina, quam Academiae ubique probant, alienum; multo magis, si orthodoxae fidei repugnet: adversus quam, si quae sunt illius aliusve philosophi argumenta, strenue refellere studeat iuxta Lateranense Concilium..... de S. Thoma numquam non loquatur honorifice: libentibus illum animis, quoties oporteat, sequendo; aut reverenter et gravate, si quando minus placeat, deserendo” (Ratio studiorum et Institutiones scholasticae Societatis Jesu per Germaniam olim vigentes collectae... a G. M. Pachtler S. J. Tom. II. Mon. Germ. Paedagog. V, p. 328–330).
The aforesaid Ratio studiorum of 1599 orders the professor of rhétorics to deliver: “Graeca praelectio, sive oratorum sive historicorum sive poetarum, non nisi anti-quorum sit et classicorum: Demosthenis, Platonis, Thucydidis, Homeri, Hesiodi, Pindari et aliorum huiusmodi (modo sint expurgati), inter quos iure optimo SS. Nazianzenus, Basilius et Chrysostomus reponendi", (pachtler, ib. II., p. 410). The professor of Humanity is ordered: “Auctor vero primo semestri solutae orationis sumatur ex facilioribus, ut aliquae orationes Isocratis et SS. Chrysostomi et Basilii, ut ex epistolis Platonis et Synesii, ut aliquid selectum ex Plutarcho, altero semestri carmen aliquod explicabitur, ex gr. ex Phocylide, Theognide, S. Gregorio Nazianzeno, Synesio et horum similibus. Explicatio autem, ut huius scholae fert gradus, linguae potius cognitioni quam eruditioni serviat” (ib. p. 422).
Francesco di Vieri, Vere conclusioni di Platone conformi alla dourina Christiana et a quella d’Aristotile (Firenze 1590); this not very voluminous but compact book is well arranged in the form of theses which express 1) Plato’s accord with the Christian teaching, 2) with Aristotle, 3) important doctrines of Plato; in the appendix there is a vindication of Plato’s teaching against certain charges.
Sebastianus Foxius Morzillius Hispalensis, De naturae philosophia seu de Platonis et Aristotelis consensione libri V (Wittenbergae 1594). This Morzillius wrote also a commentary on the 10th book of Plato’s Republic (printed in Basle in 1550) and on the Phaedo (ibid. 1566).
To this literature belongs Gabriel Buratellus, Conciliatio praecipuarum controversiarum Aristotelis et Platonis (Venetiis 1573) and Jacobus Mazonius Caesenas, In universam Platonis et Aristotelis philosophiam praeludia (Venetiis 1597).
Bréhier in the aforesaid book I, 3, p. 775 seq.
On Bodin’s book about the state see above, p. 584.
Cf. above p. 374–375.
Cf. above p. 418.
J. Král in the article Jessenius filosof (= Jessenius, the philosopher), (Česká mysl 19, 1923), p. 217. A description and review of the Zoroaster is provided by K. Svoboda in the article Jana Jesenského Zoroaster (= The Zoroaster of Johannes Jessenius), (Listy filol. 49, 1922).
See above p. 235.
I. e. “men recently born from gods” (Seneca, Epist. 90, 44). There is a reminiscence of Montaigne’s description of the life of the Cannibals in Shakespeare’s Tempest II, I, v. 143–168, wherein Gonzalo describes how he would arrange matters, if he were the king of the island. About this cf. F. Chudoba, Kniha o Shakespearovi (= Book on Shakespeare) I, p. 770 seq.
Quoted by Nesca A. Robb, Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance (London 1935), p. 223.
Quoted by Nesca A. Robb, ibid., p. 214. n.l.
The verses are cited by A. della Torre in the aforesaid book, p. 700.
Se above p. 389.
Walter Mönch stressed the relation between the sonnet and Platonism in a lecture, a summary of which was printed in the publication of the Association G. Budé, Congrès de Tours et Poitiers, Actes du Congrès (Paris 1954), p. 376–380.
Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de las ideas estéticas en España, III, vol., 4 th ed. (Madrid 1930), p. 91, where this ode is printed.
Menéndez y Pelayo, ibid., p. 95.
The first of the many editions was published in Florence in 148l.
Josef Bukáček, The poet Michelangelo in the book Michelangelo titan a člověk (= Michelangelo the Titan and Man), (Prague 1941).
Ascanio Condivi, Vita di Michel-Angelo Buonarroti (Roma 1553).
Cited by Romain Rolland, Vie de Michel-Ange, 10 ed. (Paris), p. 124.
Josef Bukáček, ibid., p.163.
I quote from the edition of Lannau — Rolland (Paris 1863).
Cited according to the translation of J. A. Symonds (London 1878).
“L’arte e la morte non va bene insieme”, Michelangelo’s sentence, pronounced not long before his death.
Cf., above p. 389.
Walter Mönch deals with this poem, Die Italienische Platonrenaissance... (Berlin 1936), p. 234–332.
Walter Mönch deals extensively with both these poems in the a foresaid book, p.339–347.
Cf. above p. 389.
Walter Mönch in the aforesaid book, p. 353 seq. The monograph R. W. Merrill, The Platonism of Joachim du Bellay (dissert. univ. Chicago 1923) was for me not available.
Monograph for the 16th and 17th century: John Smith Harrison, Platonism in English Poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries (New York 1915). I adopt evidence about Spenser from this book.
Harrison, ibid., p. 109 seq.
Harrison, ibid., p. 122.
This translation made from the Latin version was brought out in 1592 by Cuthbert Burby in London, who named as its author Edw. Spenser. It was lost for a long time until it was discovered in modern times, ascribed to the poet Edmund Spenser and published with an introduction and notes by F. M. Padelford (Baltimore 1934).
Quoted by Paul Shorey, Platonism Ancient and Modern (Berkeley 1938), p. 143.
Friedrich Dannenberg, Das Erbe Piatons in England bis zur Bildung Lylys (Berlin 1932), p. 156 seq.
Ibid., p. 169.
Richard Simpson, Introduction to the Philosophy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (London 1868), saw in the Sonnets a statement of Shakespeare’s philosophy derived from Plato’s opinions, as Shakespeare had learned them from the contemporary Italian poets and essayists. I quote this from F. Chudoba, Kniha o Shakespearovi I (= Book about Shakespeare), (Prague 1941), p. 419.
F. Chudoba, ibid. II (Prague 1943). p.66.
They are quoted by Paul Shorey, ibid., p.177–182.
One can find the reproduction in the book Dürer, des Meisters Gemälde, Kupferstiche und Holzschnitte, mit einer biographischen Einleitung von Dr. Valentin Scherer, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart und Leipzig 1906), p. 192.
Giorgio Vasari, Le vite dei più celebri pittori, scultori e architetti, ed. Adriano Solani, Firenze, 4th ed., p. 556. Vasari does not name this picture “The Athenian School”.
This controversy is related by Kraus, ibid., p. 389–411.
Anton Springer, Raffael und Michelangelo (1877, 3rd ed. 1895).
In the commented translation of Vasari’s Raphael (1872) and in the short polemical writing Zur Abwehr gegen Herrn Prof. Springers Raphaelstudien (1873).
André Chastel, Le platonisme et les arts à la Renaissance (Association G. Budé, Congrès de Tours et Poitiers, Actes du congrès, Paris 1954), p. 401.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1977 František Novotný — Ludvík Svoboda
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Novotný, F. (1977). The Diffusion of Renaissance Platonism. In: Svoboda, L., Barton, J.L. (eds) The Posthumous Life of Plato. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9704-2_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9704-2_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-9706-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-9704-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive