Reinventing the Renaissance
a day ago
- #Ada Palmer
- #Historiography
- #Renaissance
- Ada Palmer's book "Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age" is a personal, non-academic history that challenges traditional scholarly approaches.
- Palmer argues the Renaissance is an invented concept that has evolved over time, often used by later eras to legitimize their own periods.
- The book emphasizes historiography, examining influential historians like Burckhardt and Baron, and highlights how historians' personal biases shape their work.
- It features numerous biographies of Renaissance figures, centered on Florence, and uses Machiavelli as a recurring theme to explore political and intellectual history.
- Palmer distinguishes Renaissance Umanisti from modern humanists, noting they were not atheists and warning against projecting contemporary mentalities onto the past.
- The writing style is accessible and explanatory, aimed at general readers, with detailed anecdotes to illuminate historical thought processes.