In 'Cristoforo Landino: His Works and Thought' Bruce McNair examines the writings, lectures and orations of Landino (1424-98), Renaissance Florence’s famous teacher of poetry and rhetoric. McNair studies Landino’s lecture notes, public orations, poetry, philosophical works and most popular commentaries to show how Landino’s allegorical interpretations of Virgil and Dante grew in complexity as he studied philosophy and theology and how he understood Dante’s 'Commedia' as completing and surpassing Virgil’s '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.
Author(s): Bruce McNair
Series: Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts, 21
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 236
City: Leiden
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Landino and His Works
Chapter 2. The 'Xandra'
1. Main Themes
2. 'Furor'
3. Earthly Love — Heavenly Love
4. 'Civis poeta'
5. Conclusion
Chapter 3. Three 'Studio' Courses of the 1450s and 1460s
1. Landino’s 'Praefatio in Tusculanis Ciceronis' (1458)
2. Landino’s 'Prolusione' to His Course on Petrarch’s 'Canzoniere' (1467)
3. Landino’s 'Praefatio' in Virgilio and 1462–63 Lectures on the 'Aeneid' Books I–VII
3.1. The 'Praefatio'
3.2. 'The Lectures'
3.2.1. Overview
3.2.2. The Three Modes of Life
3.2.3. The Virtues
3.2.4. The Powers of the Soul
3.2.5. Conclusion
Chapter 4. Landino’s 'De anima'
1. The Date of the Dialogue
2. Summary of the Dialogue
3. Terminology Used in the 'De anima'
4. The Mind
5. The Virtues
6. The Appetite and Will
7. Aristotle, Albert, and Argyropoulos
8. Plato, Bessarion, and Albert
9. Conclusion
Chapter 5. The 'Disputationes Camaldulenses' Books I and II
1. Title and Overview
2. 'Otium' and 'negotium'
3. Landino and Thomas Aquinas
4. Whether 'otium' or 'negotium' Is Superior
5. Thomas, Ficino, and the Will
6. The Highest Good
7. Conclusion
Chapter 6. The 'Disputationes Camaldulenses' Books III and IV
1. Terminology
2. The Powers of the Rational Soul
3. The Reason, the Appetite, and Divine Illumination
4. Poetry
5. Virtue
6. The Virtues and Modes of Life
7. Conclusion
Chapter 7. The 1488 Virgil Commentary
1. Overview
2. Comparing the Commentary with His Lectures
3. Poetry and Interpretation
4. The 'Aeneid' Books VII–XII
Chapter 8. The Commentary on Dante’s 'Comedy'
1. The Homer-Virgil-Dante Line of Epic Poets
2. Influence of Ancient and Christian Thinkers
3. Modes of Life
4. The Powers of the Soul
5. Virtue
6. Divine Grace and Divine Illumination
7. Conclusion
Chapter 9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
