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The gradual secularization of European society and culture is often said to characterize the development of the modern world, and the early Italian humanists played a pioneering role in this process. Here Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, with Elizabeth B. Welles, have edited and translated seven primary texts that shed important light on the subject of "civic humanism" in the Renaissance.
Included is a treatise of Francesco Petrarca on government, two representative letters from Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni's panegyric to Florence, Francesco Barbaro's letter on "wifely" duty, Poggio Bracciolini's dialogue on avarice, and Angelo Poliziano's vivid history of the Pazzi conspiracy. Each translation is prefaced by an essay on the author and a short bibliography. The substantial introductory essay offers a concise, balanced summary of the historiographcal issues connected with the period.
Preface
Abbreviations
General Introduction
—Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt
Francesco Petrarca
Introduction
—Benjamin G. Kohl
How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State
—Translated by Benjamin G. Kohl
Coluccio Salutati
Introduction
—Ronald G. Witt
Letter to Peregrino Zambeccari
—Translated by Ronald G. Witt
Letter to Caterina di messer Vieri di Donatino d'Arezzo
—Translated by Ronald G. Witt
Leonardo Bruni
Introduction
—Ronald G. Witt
Panegyric to the City of Florence
—Translated by Benjamin G. Kohl