Greeks and Latins in Renaissance Italy

The twelve essays in this new collection by John Monfasani examine how, in particular cases, Greek émigrés, Italian humanists, and Latin scholastics reacted with each other in surprising and important ways. After an opening assessment of Greek migration to Renaissance Italy, the essays range from the Averroism of John Argyropoulos and the capacity of Nicholas of Cusa to translate Greek, to Marsilio Ficino's position in the Plato-Aristotle controversy and the absence of Ockhamists in Renaissance Italy. Theodore Gaza receives special attention in his roles as translator, teacher, and philosopher, as does Lorenzo Valla for his philosophy, theology, and historical ideas. Finally, the life and writings of a protégé of Cardinal Bessarion, the Dominican friar Giovanni Gatti, come in for their first extensive study.

John Monfasani is Professor in the Department of History, at the State University of New York at Albany, USA.

Contents: Preface; Greek Renaissance migrations; The Averroism of John Argyropoulos and his Quaestio utrum intellectus humanus sit perpetuus; L'insegnamento di Teodoro Gaza a Ferrara; Theodore Gaza as a philosopher; Greek and Latin learning in Theodore Gaza's Antirrheticon; The pseudo-Aristotelian Problemata and Aristotle's De Animalibus in the Renaissance; Giovanni Gatti of Messina: a profile and an unedited text; Nicholas of Cusa, the Byzantines, and the Greek language; Marsilio Ficino and the Plato-Aristotle controversy; Aristotelians, Platonists, and the missing Ockhamists: philosophical liberty in pre-Reformation Italy; The theology of Lorenzo Valla; Disputationes Vallianae; Indexes.