{"title":"Pomponio Leto’s Lucretius, the Quest for a Classical Technical Lexicon, and the Negative Space of Humanist Latin Knowledge","authors":"A. Palmer","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08030004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08030004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Annotations in Pomponio Leto’s manuscript of Lucretius (now in Naples) reveal patterns in his engagement with the text, especially a focus on rare grammatical forms, participles, adverbs, time, and technical vocabulary usable for scientific, medical, and ontological discussion. Leto and fellow scholars of the studia humanitatis undertook an ambitious linguistic intervention, attempting to create a new classicizing Latin, which rejected simplified Medieval forms and adhered strictly to classical models. This led humanists to seek out everything rare, irregular, and absent from Medieval texts, and often to overshoot their ancient models in complexity, composing hyper-ornamented Latin no native speaker would produce. Thus negative space – all that was unknown, rare, and obscure in rediscovered classics – stands alongside Cicero and Virgil as a major shaper of Renaissance Latin style. The determination of humanists to reject scholastic Latin also meant rejecting the corpus of useful technical vocabulary developed in preceding centuries for discussions of such topics as cognition, perception, ontology, and cosmology. To rival the scholastics, humanists like Leto needed to develop a classical technical lexicon capable of discussing such topics with rigor. Leto’s annotations show how, while searching this newly rediscovered text, he was striving to (re)construct a classical Latin technical lexicon which we might say never existed.","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46025216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Robert Hooke’s Science of ‘Petrifaction’, the Trattato del Legno Fossile, and the Republic of Letters","authors":"Alexandru Liciu","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08030003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08030003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper is part of a larger project of investigating the reception of the Accademia dei Lincei at the Royal Society. Perhaps due to the Lincei’s hesitancy to make more use of print, they constituted somewhat of a mystery for the subsequent generations of scientific communities. This is to say that the members of Royal Society were open to or perhaps even actively searching for knowledge related to the Lynxes. In this work, I trace this through a particular case-study in the transmission of knowledge: the arrival at the Royal Society of Federico Cesi and Francesto Stelluti’s Trattato del Legno Fossile Minerale Nuovamente Scoperto [Treatise on the Newly Discovered Mineral Fossil Wood] (1637) and its accompanying lignum fossile specimen. I aim to show how Robert Hooke, early keeper of the Society’s repository, diverged significantly from the initial sense of Cesi and Stelluti: if for the latter the specimen attested for a Renaissance-type continuous chain of being, the former appropriated it in his own theory of geomorphological change and ‘petrifaction’. Throughout this article, I also reflect more broadly on other two related issues: 1. The status of the discipline of petrification during the early modern times; 2. The availability of Lincean sources in England and Europe – while pointing out that much more work needs to be done in order to properly chart the dissemination of the Lynxes’s works. I conclude by indicating that the Lynxes played a key role in Hooke’s genealogical argument on the right use of microscopy.","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49563208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"E. Natalie Rothman, The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism","authors":"Alexander Bevilacqua","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08020003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08020003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47997652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Natalie Zemon Davis, Leo Africanus Discovers Comedy: Theatre and Poetry Across the Mediterranean","authors":"Russ Leo","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08020005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08020005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":"206 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41287241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Football-Meister Say ‘Feel the Hype’: The Aesthetics of Asceticism","authors":"Christian Flow","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08020004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08020004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44879526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Paul Choart de Buzanval: A Learned French Ambassador and the Republic of Letters","authors":"Ingrid A. R. De Smet","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08020001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08020001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Although he enjoys some renown as a friend of Joseph Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon, Henri iv’s ambassador to the United Provinces, Paul Choart de Buzanval (1551–1607) has rarely been studied in his own right since the 1960s. Yet Choart was a significant champion of the protestant cause, who built a network of contacts spread across Europe, from Venice over Germany to England. This article assesses, first, how Buzanval’s network grew as his career evolved during the final decades of the French Wars of Religion and their immediate aftermath. Secondly, it takes stock of Buzanval’s role as an early modern emissary abroad: it demonstrates how, over and above his diplomatic agency for Henri de Navarre/Henri iv, Buzanval also emerged as a patron and cultural intermediary with the – mostly protestant – Republic of Letters. Thus, from relatively modest beginnings, Buzanval became a notable player in a network that encompassed political as well as intellectual and merchant spheres.","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43765469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bart Jaski, Christian Lange, Anna Pytlowany and Henk J. van Rinsum, eds, The Orient in Utrecht: Adriaan Reland (1676–1718), Arabist, Cartographer, Antiquarian and Scholar of Comparative Religion","authors":"Simon Mills","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08020006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08020006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135325326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learning the Art of Memory by Doing: Diagrams as Material Objects and Embodied Teaching Tools in Early Modern Mnemonics","authors":"Clément Poupard","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08020002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08020002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article aims to highlight the significance of embodied interaction between readers and early modern diagrams, with a specific focus on the art of memory. The Rhetorica ad Herennium and Renaissance rhetoric and mnemonic manuals describe this technique as a visualization of images that symbolize information and are placed into imaginary loci, typically real or fictitious buildings. Diagrams were often used to convey the spatial order of these buildings, thus playing a crucial role in the transmission of mnemonic knowledge. Consequently, the materiality of these diagrams was instrumental in the success or failure of mnemonics manuals, as evidenced in Jacobus Publicius and Girolamo Marafioto’s manuals. The strategic importance of diagrams also explains why teachers like Johannes Henricus Döbel strove to accurately represent three-dimensional diagrams in two-dimensional printed sheets. These different case-studies underline the importance to consider diagrams not only as intellectual tools but also as material objects implying physical actions.","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42079016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Efraim Podoksik, ed., Doing Humanities in Nineteenth-Century Germany","authors":"P. Kurtz","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08010007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08010007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43227814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nicola Gardini, Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language","authors":"John K. Hale","doi":"10.1163/24055069-08010006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24055069-08010006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37173,"journal":{"name":"Erudition and the Republic of Letters","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44439902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}