Vernacular Aristotelianism in Renaissance Italy, c. 1400-c. 1650

Over the past three decades, scholars have emphasized the centrality of Aristotle's writings to Western thought and culture during the Renaissance. Yet, despite significant advances in the study of Latin Aristotelianism, vernacular Aristotelianism has been largely neglected. There is not even a catalogue of the relevant works, which would provide the starting-point for historians of language, literature, philosophy, science and culture to explore how Aristotelianism increasingly reached a broad and non-Latinate public. By investigating vernacular Aristotelianism in Renaissance Italy (which flourished 1400-1650), this project will expand the boundaries of research in terms of the disciplines, languages, social groups and institutions considered. It will provide the first census of Aristotelian works in the Italian vernacular, laying the foundation for a detailed comparison between the Latin and the Italian traditions and a sustained, contextualized analysis of the significance of a range of works in different genres.

This project will consist of a 3-year research collaboration between Warwick's Centre for the Study of the Renaissance and the Warburg Institute (University of London), with added input from a project partner in Italy. A postdoctoral researcher, based at Warwick and supervised by David Lines and Simon Gilson of Warwick's Department of Italian, will produce an electronic census of all relevant manuscript and printed materials in Italian, followed by studies on selected fifteenth- and sixteenth-century commentaries on Aristotle, comparing them as appropriate with the Latin tradition. A PhD student, based at the Warburg and supervised by Professor Jill Kraye, will instead study the reception of a particular Aristotelian work (or set of works), analysing the range of genres (commentaries, translations, etc.) through which they circulated and social/cultural aspects of such diffusion. Our project partner in Italy, Professor Luca Bianchi, is a pioneer in vernacular Aristotelianism and will offer advice and support to the investigators as well as the postdoctoral fellow and research student. Bianchi's extensive contacts, especially in Paris and with medievalists, will be very helpful to the project's dissemination.

Expected outputs of this research include: an electronic census of Italian works on Aristotle, a website, seven articles on the part of the investigators and project partner, a PhD dissertation, three articles by the PhD student and postdoctoral fellow, two colloquia and related proceedings, and a book exhibition at the British Library.

The project will bring together specialists in Renaissance thought and literature to open up a new field of study, which will be of interest to scholars and students across the humanities as well as to librarians and specialists in print and manuscript culture.

The beneficiaries of this research include, in the first instance, members of the scholarly community across a number of different fields in the Arts and Humanities. However, the project will also have resonance with undergraduate students (particularly at Warwick), librarians, members of the general public with an interest in language(s), ideas, and books, and secondary-school students contemplating the move to university.

The academic community will benefit by the opening up a new field of study which simultaneously builds upon and harnesses advances in areas such as book history, the history of ideas, the study of language, and the study of the classical tradition. Undergraduates will receive instruction based on cutting-edge research of interdisciplinary nature and be encouraged to explore new research areas. Librarians will become more aware of the value of their vernacular collections vis-à-vis their Latin ones. Members of the general public will be challenged to reconsider the 'elitist' nature of the study of the Classics and the way in which texts and ideas are adapted and reinterpreted in different linguistic and cultural contexts.And secondary school students will be made aware of the value of studying foreign languages, not only for their practical/career aspects, but also for their intrinsic value as intellectual tools and disciplines.

The project's broad and articulated plans for dissemination will ensure the maximum possible opportunity for these various interest groups to benefit from the proposed research. These plans include a freely accessible electronic database, colloquia, publication of results in scholarly journals, and a book exhibition.