This thesis focusses on three compilations, extant in three manuscripts ―Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 92; Milan, Venerabile Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS F 19 sup.; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Borgianus graecus 22― These three manuscripts were produced by one of the most important representatives of the Italian Renaissance: Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). The Florentine scholar was largely responsible for the revival of Platonism in Western Europe during the Renaissance and beyond. MS Ricc. 92 contains an anthology of Greek and Latin texts on the theme of love, which Ficino presumably compiled with a view to writing his commentary on Plato’s Symposium. MS Ambr. F 19 sup. is a collection of excerpts from Plato, Plotinus and Proclus on the theme of the soul, which Ficino produced before starting writing his major philosophical work: the Platonic Theology. Finally, MS Borg. Gr. 22 was likely used by Ficino as a textual basis for his translation of Dionysius the Areopagite’s De divinis nominibus. These three notebooks have been hitherto largely ignored or only partially studied by modern scholars. Through a contextualized analysis of these manuscripts, this work aims to give insight into Ficino’s reading practices and methodology, and show that they are crucial to reconstruct his scholarly activity. By using an interdisciplinary approach, it will provide a more nuanced view and more exhaustive reconstruction of the ways in which Ficino actually read, selected and used ancient and medieval authors and also of the ways in which he quoted, codified their doctrines and appropriated them in his own work. More broadly, it will offer insight into Renaissance reading practices and some important aspects of Early Modern culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:682947 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Dio, Rocco di |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77723/ |
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