1st Edition

Reading and Writing History from Bruni to Windschuttle Essays in Honour of Gary Ianziti

Edited By Christian Thorsten Callisen Copyright 2014

    Featuring work by researchers in the fields of early modern studies, Italian studies, ecclesiastical history and historiography, this volume of essays adds to a rich corpus of literature on Renaissance and early modern historiography, bringing a unique approach to several of the problems currently facing the field. Essays fall into three categories: the tensions and challenges of writing history in Renaissance Italy; the importance of intellectual, philosophical and political contexts for the reading and writing of history in renaissance and early modern Europe; and the implications of genre for the reading and writing of history. By collecting essays that cut across a broad cross-section of the disciplines of history and historiography, the book is able to offer solutions, encourage discussion, and engage in ongoing debates that bear direct relevance for our understanding of the origins of modern historical practices. This approach also allows the contributors to engage with critical questions concerning the continued relevance of history for political and social life in the past and in the present.

    Contents: Introduction, Christian Thorsten Callisen and John Gagné. Part I Tensions and Challenges in Renaissance Historiography: The choices of quattrocento translators, Andrea Rizzi; After the Sforza: making history in Milan during the Italian Wars, John Gagné; The Duchy of Milan in contemporary historical writing, ca 1400-1540, Jane Black. Part II Reading and Writing History Through Individuals: Leonardo Bruni on the legitimacy of constitutions (Oratio in funere Johannis Strozze 19-23), James Hankins; Machiavelli and humanist historiography, Robert Black; ’To the great aid of our memory’: Georg Calixtus on the study of history, Christian Thorsten Callisen; The uses of natural law in early modern Germany: Christian Thomasius’s reshaping of the legal persona, Ian Hunter. Part III Questions of Genre: Some reflections on sacred biography, Chris Hanlon; Letters to the editor: the ’awkward truths’ in Australia’s Italian migration history, 1900-1915, Catherine Dewhirst; Robert Graves, I, Claudius and its sequel Claudius the God: history disguised as fiction or vice versa?, Sue Keays; The West in its search for a universal human community: 330 BCE to 2000 CE, John M. Headley. Appendix; Other references; Index.

    Biography

    Christian Thorsten Callisen is based in Brisbane, Australia. His research focuses on interdisciplinary scholarship and the dissemination of ideas in early modern Europe. His work has appeared in the Journal of the History of Ideas and he is co-author (with Barbara Adkins) of ’Pre-digital Virtuality: Early Modern Scholars and the Republic of Letters’, in Park, Jankowski and Jones, The Long History of New Media (New York, 2011).

    ’A well-edited and highly stimulating work on historiography in the West, this volume forms a moving tribute to the life and works of Gary Ianziti.’ Parergon