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Project

Illuminator atque defensor. The Reception of Augustine's De civitate Dei in the Oeuvre of Coluccio Salutati

The project offers an in-depth study that addresses a major lacuna in our understanding of the legacy of the De civitate Dei in the Early Italian Renaissance – namely, the reception of Augustine’s work in the oeuvre of Coluccio Salutati. First, with regard to the context, the investigation provides a triptych of (1) an inquiry into the text-external circumstances in which Salutati operated; (2) an overview of the latter’s personal manuscript collection and his use of intertextual references; and – having established the crucial presence of Augustine, and his DCD specifically, in both – (3) a comprehensive, first-hand analysis of his most notable surviving Augustine manuscript, a heavily annotated copy of DCD preserved in the Biblioteca Vaticana. These contextual indicators subsequently serve as the foundation for a close reading of Salutati’s oeuvre, which allows us to chronologically study his evolving views as notary and chancellor and compare the results with the ways in which these topics are presented in DCD itself. Central topics include the chastity of Lucretia; the vita activa and contemplativa; the balance between divine providence and free will; the nature of the ideal form of government; and the importance of classical poetry, with each revealing a particular facet of their author’s “Augustinianism”. In thus zooming in on the essential importance of the DCD in Salutati’s literary production, particular attention is also given to modern theories of “intertextuality” and their applicability in the Renaissance context; as well as to reconsidering Salutati’s thought in se, which has often been characterised in a reductive manner, even in more recent scholarship.

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  21 Sep 2022
Keywords:Humanism, Coluccio Salutati, Augustine
Disciplines:Language studies, Literary studies
Project type:PhD project