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Freedom and Determinism in Renaissance Historians*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Myron P. Gilmore
Myron P. Gilmore*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

In 1499 the Neapolitan humanist Giovanni Pontano renewed an ancient debate on the subject of the relation between poetry and history. The circumstances in which he composed the dialogue Actius were sombre. After the French invasion of 1495 Pontano had lost his official position at court. Although he still composed some correspondence for the government he was no longer charged with important responsibilities and indeed his behavior during the crisis of the invasion had been such that Guicciardini could later accuse him of having shown ingratitude to the dynasty that had for so long furnished him with protection and patronage. At the same time he had been stricken with a series of private misfortunes the chief of which was the loss of his son Lucio.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 3 , 1956 , pp. 49 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1956

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Footnotes

*

Read at the Central Renaissance Conference at Columbia, Mo., 13 May 1955.

References

1 For the events of the last years of Pontano's life and the circumstances of the composition of the dialogues see Percopo, E., Vita di Giovanni Pontano (Naples, 1938), 92–106, 221-243.Google Scholar See also Enciclopedia Italiana, art. “Pontano”.

2 I Dialoghi di Giovanni Pontano, ed. C. Previtera (Florence, 1943), 192-194. The best edition of the Actius is that contained in this work, 123-239. It will hereafter be cited as Actius with reference to page and line.

3 Actius, 218, lines 4-36.

4 Actius, 220, lines 9-17.

5 Actius, 218, lines 28-30.

6 de Commines, Philippe, Memoirs, ed. de Mandrot, B. (Paris, 1901), vii, 1.Google Scholar My translation.

7 Commines, viii, 3 and viii, 6.

8 Guicciardini, Francesco, Opere, ed. de Caprariis, V. (Milan, 1953), 373.Google Scholar

9 Guicciardini, , op. cit., 393–401.Google Scholar

10 Guicciardini, , op. cit., 431.Google Scholar My translation.

11 Michelet, , Histoire de France (Paris, 1879), ix, 136–141.Google Scholar

12 Bodin, J., Œuvres Philosophiques, ed. Mesnard, P. (Paris, 1951), i, 114–115.Google Scholar

13 Microfilm of the 1596 edition of the Theatrum Universe Naturæ in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. This microfilm was kindly furnished me by Dr. Kenneth McCrae of Nuffield College, Oxford.

14 Historical Inevitability (Oxford, 1954).