1st Edition
Humanist Biography in Renaissance Italy and Reformation Germany Friendship and Rhetoric
By James M. Weiss
Copyright 2010
326 Pages
by
Routledge
As new kinds of persons arose during the Renaissance and Reformation, writers of biography created new ways to depict them. Foremost among biographers were lay humanists who strategically blended personal memoirs and recently recaptured classical models to produce flexible new forms of biography. After an important new introduction, surveying the practice of biographical writing in Renasaince... Read more
Contents: Friendship and rhetoric: an introduction to biography in Renaissance Italy and Reformation Germany; Varieties of biography during the Italian Renaissance: individuality and beyond; Hagiography by German humanists, 1483-1516; Luther and his colleagues on the lives of the saints; Johannes Fichardus and the uses of humanistic biography; The six lives of Rudolph Agricola: forms and functions of humanist biography; Erasmus at Luther's funeral: Melanchthon's commemorations of Luther in 1546; Melanchthon and the legacy of Erasmus: Oratio de Puritate Doctrinae (1536) and the Oratio de Erasmio Roterodamo (1557); The technique of faint praise: Johann Sturm's Life of Beatus Rhenanus; The rhetoric of friendship: Joannes Hagius's Life of Petrus Lotchius Secundus; The harvest of German humanism: Melchior Adams's collective biographies as cultural history; Kennst Du das Land wo die Humanisten blühen? References to Italy in the biographies of German humanists; Ecclesiastes and Erasmus: the mirror and the image; Hand lists of biographies cited; Index.
Biography
James M. Weiss is Director, Capstone Vocational Discernment Seminar Program, and Associate Professor, Department of Theology, at Boston College, USA
'... an essential primer for students of early modern humanist biography, as well as a detailed study of the German humanist identity. ... While there is no question that over the past three decades Weiss's work has expanded our perpective of early modern Germany, this 'collected works' format creates a further impact and allows a broader perspective on a detailed and important subject.' Sixteenth Century Journal
