Building Knowledge in the Renaissance: Humanist Constructs and Conversations

Time: April 25, 2018, 12:45 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Location: Hillyer Room, 606 Bird Library

This public lecture features a pop-up exhibit of selected Italian manuscripts and rare materials preserved in the Ranke Collection at SU Special Collections Research Center. (Display open until 3 p.m.)

Professor Kircher's talk examines how fifteenth- and sixteenth-century humanists explored various pathways to knowledge. To what extent did Renaissance thinkers establish new methods of learning in the studia humanitatis? Kircher sheds light on the current debate over the relation between the humanities and the sciences, in addition to revealing new features of Renaissance civilization (Kultur) since its formulation by Jacob Burckhardt, the foremost student of Leopold von Ranke.

BIOGRAPHY: Tim Kircher is Professor of History at Guilford College. In a number of books and articles, he investigates the work of Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Leon Battista Alberti in relation to that of their contemporaries, and has been past President of the American Boccaccio Association. He is currently writing a book on humanist philosophical thought entitled Before Enlightenment: Play and Illusion in Renaissance Humanism. He also explores the relation of the humanities disciplines to the sciences and other fields through a website at humanitieswatch.org. His article on humanist letter-writing will appear the fall issue of Renaissance Quarterly.

Stefano Selenu, Languages, Literature, and Linguistics