This volume is an analysis of the development of cultural politics in Lancastrian England. It focusses on Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, brother of Henry V and Protector of England during Henry VI's minority. Humphrey's intellectual activity conformed itself to the Duke's own position in the kingdom: the book explores Humphrey's commission of biographies, translations of Latin texts, political pamphlets and poems, as well as his collection of manuscripts acquired both in England and from Italian humanists. Particular attention is dedicated to Humphrey's donations to the University of Oxford and to his relations with English poets and translators, such as John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve, highlighting his contribution towards the making of the nation's cultural autonomy.
Author(s): Alessandra Petrina
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 124
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 398
City: Leiden
Foreword
List of Illustrations
Introduction: A definition of humanism in early fifteenth-century England
Chapter One: Roberto Weiss's inheritance and the current state of studies
Early studies on English humanism
Roberto Weiss
After Weiss: reactions, refutations, continuations
Chapter Two: The beginning of humanism in England
'Divinae' and 'humanae litterae'
The establishment of English as the language of policy and administration
Chapter Three: A sense of history: Duke Humphrey living and writing his own times
Duke Humphrey's failure as a politician
Protector of England
The care and education of the future king
The 1430s and the beginning of Humphrey's activity as a patron
The 1440s: Duke Humphrey's downfall and death
Chapter Four: "Thair librair vniuersal": Collecting and donating books
Building a library: the shape of ideology
Book-collecting in the Lancastrian house: The Duke of Bedford and Henry V
The library of Duke Humphrey
The book donations to the University of Oxford
Chapter Five: Curiosity and erudite humanism: Duke Humphrey as a patron of letters
The translations and the new role of the vernacular
John Lydgate
Commissioning literary and non-literary works
English humanists around Duke Humphrey: squaring the circle
Bibliography
Primary sources
Studies
Index
