15th/16th Century Philosophy

These nineteen original studies deal with Wessel Gansfort (1419-1489), the Modern Devotion and its influence, subjects and personalities of early humanism and ...

This book uncovers the lost history of Christianity's encounters with Pythagorean ideas before the Renaissance. David Albertson skillfully examines ancient and medieval theologians, particularly Thierry of Chartres and Nicholas of Cusa, who successfully reconceived the Trinity and the Incarnation within the framework of Greek number theory. David Albertson challenges modern assumptions about the complex relationship between religion and science.

The discovery of an anonymous manuscript that parallels several chapters of Nicholas of Cusa’s De docta ignorantia raises anew the charge of plagiarism against the German cardinal. This article evaluates Hoenen’s proposal that the anonymous treatise be viewed as a model used in the composition of the Cusan work. After reviewing possible responses to the Vorlage theory, new textual evidence in support of Hoenen’s arguments is presented, but oversights and unanswered questions are also noted. Finally, a careful reading of an (...) important passage of Apologia doctae ignorantiae reveals not only that Cusanus did name his source, however belatedly, but also how he perceived the author in relation to other sources stemming from the twelfthcentury master, Thierry of Chartres. (shrink)

This volume consists of 21 essays on Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus-priest who was the architect of Renaissance Platonism.

This review-article examines Daniel Novotny’s new book on entia rationis in Baroque-Age scholasticism. Novotný’s presentation of Francisco Suárez’, Pedro Hurtado’s, Bartolomeo Mastri’s and Bonaventura Belluto’s as well as Juan Caramuel’s theories of beings of reason is discussed. Beyond Novotný’s results, it is pointed out 1) that Suárez’ theory of the causation of beings of reason is anticipated by his explanation of the relationship between formal and objective concepts, and 2) that the traditional division of distinctions of reason lies in the (...) background of some scholastic authors’ differentiation between entia rationis ratiocinatae and entia rationis ratiocinantis; this latter motif is echoed in German Enlightenment metaphysics. (shrink)

The text aims to examine the concept of Fortune in Machiavelli. The analysis will be carried out from the poems Di Fortuna and Dell´Occasione, the letter to Giovan Battista Soderini, the Canto VII of Hell, by Dante, and passages that make references to the concept of Fortune in The Prince. The poem Di Fortuna will be divided into eight parts in order to exam and present the Fortune’s concept.