In Cristoforo Landino: His Works and Thought Bruce McNair examines the writings, lectures and orations of Landino (1424-98), Renaissance Florenceâs famous teacher of poetry and rhetoric. McNair studies Landinoâs lecture notes, public orations, poetry, philosophical works and most popular commentaries to show how Landinoâs allegorical interpretations of Virgil and Dante grew in complexity as he studied philosophy and theology and how he understood Danteâs Commedia as completing and surpassing Virgilâs Aeneid. McNair also shows how Landino draws upon a wide range of thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas, Ficino, Argyropoulos and Bessarion, and how he incorporates his increasing knowledge of Plato into a scholastic framework and is better considered as a Dantean than a Neoplatonist.
Bruce G. McNair, Ph.D. (1991) in History, Duke University, is Associate Professor of History at Campbell University. He has published on Cristoforo Landino, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great and Martin Luther.
''Cristoforo Landino (1424-1498), the subject of this book, is a Florentine humanist whose importance has been recognized for several generations but not fully explored. [...] Now that individual issues have been researched, what has been needed is a more synthetic effort that incorporates what has been learned into a broader discussion of the development of Landinoâs thought. This is precisely what McNairâs book is designed to provide. [...] All in all this is a solid contribution to Neo-Latin studies, one that fills a noticeable gap in scholarship and that will serve as the âgo toâ source on its subject for years to come''. - Craig Kallendorf, in: Neo-Latin News, 67 (2019)
Acknowledgements
1 Landino and his Works
2 The Xandra
â1âMain Themes
â2âFuror
â3âEarthly LoveâHeavenly Love
â4âCivis poeta
â5âConclusion
3 Three Studio Courses of the 1450s and 1460s
â1âLandinoâs Praefatio in Tusculanis Ciceronis (1458)
â2âLandinoâs Prolusione to His Course on Petrarchâs Canzoniere (1467)
â3âLandinoâs Praefatio in Virgilio and 1462â63 Lectures on the Aeneid Books IâVII
4 Landinoâs De anima
â1âThe Date of the Dialogue
â2âSummary of the Dialogue
â3âTerminology Used in the De anima
â4âThe Mind
â5âThe Virtues
â6âThe Appetite and Will
â7âAristotle, Albert, and Argyropoulos
â8âPlato, Bessarion, and Albert
â9âConclusion
5 The Disputationes Camaldulenses Books I and II
â1âTitle and Overview
â2âOtium and negotium
â3âLandino and Thomas Aquinas
â4âWhether otium or negotium is Superior
â5âThomas, Ficino, and the Will
â6âThe Highest Good
â7âConclusion
6 The Disputationes Camaldulenses Books III and IV
â1âTerminology
â2âThe Powers of the Rational Soul
â3âThe Reason, the Appetite, and Divine Illumination
â4âPoetry
â5âVirtue
â6âThe Virtues and Modes of Life
â7âConclusion
7 The 1488 Virgil Commentary
â1âOverview
â2âComparing the Commentary with His Lectures
â3âPoetry and Interpretation
â4âThe Aeneid Books VIIâXII
8 The Commentary on Danteâs Comedy
â1âThe Homer-Virgil-Dante Line of Epic Poets
â2âInfluence of Ancient and Christian Thinkers
â3âModes of Life
â4âThe Powers of the Soul
â5âVirtue
â6âDivine Grace and Divine Illumination
â7âConclusion
9 Conclusion Bibliography Index
All interested in the history of the Italian Renaissance, especially 15th-century Florence, the history of the interpretation of Dante and Virgil, and in Renaissance philosophy, Platonism and scholasticism.