Scholars of philosophy, literature, and history of Antiquity and the Renaissance highlight the Renaissance humanist use of the classical past as transformation rather than passive reception, as the humanists themselves believed and as do most modern scholars. Among their topics are transformation: a concept for the study of cultural change, the transformation of attitudes towards ancient Latin authors and the legacy of Lorenzo Valla, how Renaissance rhetoric transformed the classical tradition, Petrarch and the humanist transformation of the ancient triumph, and Renaissance humanism and the transformations of ancient philosophy. The 10 papers are highly revised from presentations at a March 2015 conference in Berlin. Annotation ©2019 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Beyond Reception applies a new concept for analyzing cultural change, known as transformation', the study of Renaissance humanism. Traditional scholarship takes the Renaissance humanists at their word, that they were simply viewing the ancient world as it actually was and recreating its key features within their own culture. Initially modern studies in the classical tradition accepted this claim and saw this process as largely passive. 'Transformation theory' emphasizes the active role played by the receiving culture both in constructing a vision of the past and in transforming that vision into something that was a meaningful part of the later culture. A chapter than explains the terminology and workings of 'transformation theory' is followed by essays by nine established experts that suggest how the key disciplines of grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and philosophy in the Renaissance represent transformations of what went on in these fields in ancient Greece and Rome. The picture that emerges suggests that Renaissance humanism as it was actually practiced both received and transformed the classical past, at the same time as it constructed a vision of that past that still resonates today.
