The I Tatti Renaissance Library

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) devoted his last decades to compiling encyclopedic works in Latin. Among them is Famous Women, the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted to women. This edition presents the first English translation based on the autograph manuscript of the Latin.

The first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted exclusively to women, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women affords a fascinating glimpse of a moment in history when medieval attitudes toward women were beginning to give way to more modern views of their potential.

Platonic Theology is the visionary and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This work, translated into English for the first time, is a key to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Bruni (1370–1444), the leading civic humanist of the Italian Renaissance, served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405–1414) and chancellor of Florence (1427–1444). His History of the Florentine People is generally considered the first modern work of history. This edition makes it available for the first time in English translation.

Platonic Theology is the visionary and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This work, translated into English for the first time, is a key to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Here are four of the most important theoretical statements that emerged from the nascent humanist movement during the Italian Renaissance: Vergerio, “The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth; Bruni, “The Study of Literature”; Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), “The Education of Boys”; and Guarino, “A Program of Teaching and Learning.”

The most popular work of the Italian humanist Polydore Vergil (1470–1555), On Discovery (De inventoribus rerum, 1499), was the first comprehensive account of discoveries and inventions written since antiquity. This is the first English translation of a critical edition based on the Latin texts published in Polydore Vergil’s lifetime.

Platonic Theology is the visionary and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This work, translated into English for the first time, is a key to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Momus is the most ambitious literary creation of Leon Battista Alberti, the humanist-scientist-artist and “universal man“ of the Italian Renaissance. In this dark comedy, written around 1450, Alberti charts the fortunes of his anti-hero Momus, god of criticism. This edition offers a new Latin text and the first full translation into English.

Manetti (1396–1459) was a leading humanist biographer of the Renaissance. This volume brings together his biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, which helped establish the canon of Italian literature, and his parallel lives of Socrates and Seneca—the standard biographical sources for those philosophers throughout the early modern period.

Cyriac of Ancona was among the first to study the physical remains of the ancient world in person and for that reason is sometimes regarded as the father of classical archaeology. Cyriac’s accounts of his travels, with their commentary reflecting his wide-ranging antiquarian, political, religious, and commercial interests, provide a fascinating record of the encounter of the Renaissance world with the legacy of classical antiquity. The Latin texts assembled for this edition have been newly edited and most of them appear here for the first time in English.

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), one of the greatest Italian poets, was also a leader in the Renaissance movement to revive ancient Roman language and literature. This new critical edition of the Invectives, intended to revive the eloquence of Cicero, are directed against scholastic philosophy and medicine and the dominance of French culture.

Francesco Petrarca, one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive ancient Roman language and literature. Petrarch’s four Invectives, written in Latin, were inspired by the eloquence of the great Roman orator Cicero. The new translations in this volume include the first English translation of three of the four invectives.

The Commentaries of Pius II (1405–1464), the only autobiography ever written by a pope, was composed in elegant humanistic Latin modeled on Caesar and Cicero. This edition contains a fresh Latin text based on the last manuscript written in Pius’s lifetime and an updated and corrected version of the 1937 translation.

Platonic Theology is the visionary and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This work, translated into English for the first time, is a key to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494) was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance and a leading figure in the circle of Lorenzo de’Medici, “il Magnifico,” in Florence. His “Silvae” are poetical introductions to his courses in literature at the University of Florence, written in Latin hexameters. They not only contain some of the finest Latin poetry of the Renaissance, but also afford unique insight into the poetical credo of a brilliant scholar as he considers the works of his Greek and Latin predecessors as well as of his contemporaries writing in Italian.

Maffeo Vegio (1407–1458) was the outstanding Latin poet of the first half of the 15th century. This volume includes Book XIII of Vergil’s Aeneid, the famous continuation of the Roman epic, which was popular in the later Renaissance, printed many times and translated into every major European language. It also contains three other epic works.

Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People in twelve books is generally considered the first modern work of history, and was widely imitated by humanist historians for two centuries after its official publication by the Florentine Signoria in 1442. This edition makes it available for the first time in English translation.

Platonic Theology is the visionary and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This work, translated into English for the first time, is a key to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), scholar and critic, was one of the most admired Latinists of his day. The poems in this volume come from all periods of his life and reflect both his erudition and his wide-ranging friendships. This volume also includes the prose dialogue Etna, an account of Bembo’s ascent of Mt. Etna in Sicily during his student days.

Collected here, Vergerio’s Paulus, Philodoxeos fabula by Alberti, Philogenia et Epiphebus by Pisani, Chrysis by Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II), and Medio’s Epirota span nearly the entire Quattrocento and are a valuable gauge of its changing literary tastes, tastes nourished by the ancient comic drama of Plautus and Terence.

Flavio, humanist and historian, was a pioneering figure in the Renaissance recovery of classical antiquity. His Italia Illustrata, here for the first time in English, is a topographical work describing Italy region by region. A quintessential work of Renaissance antiquarianism, its aim is to explore the Roman roots of the Renaissance world.

Poliziano was one of the great scholar-poets of the Italian Renaissance. This volume illuminates his close friendship with Pico della Mirandola and includes much of the correspondence about the composition and reception of his Miscellanies, a revolutionary work of philology. It also includes his famous letter on the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano was an important humanist and scholar of Renaissance Italy. He was also the most innovative and versatile Latin poet of Quattrocento Italy. His Two Books of Hendecasyllables, given the subtitle Baiae, are the elegant offspring of Pontano’s leisure, written to celebrate love, good wine, friendship, nature, and all the pleasures of life to be found at the seaside resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples.

Platonic Theology is the visionary and philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This work, translated into English for the first time, is a key to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457) was the most important theorist of the humanist movement. His most famous work is On the Donation of Constantine, an oration in which Valla uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy’s claims to temporal rule. It appears here in a new translation with introduction and notes by G. W. Bowersock, based on the critical text of Wolfram Setz.

Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457) was the leading theorist of the Renaissance humanist movement. In On the Donation of Constantine he uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy’s claims to temporal rule, in a brilliant analysis that is often seen as marking the beginning of modern textual criticism. This volume provides a new English translation with introduction and notes by G. W. Bowersock.

Teofilo Folengo (1491–1544) was a native of Mantua and a member of the Benedictine order, later to become a runaway monk and satirist. Blending Latin and various Italian dialects in a deliberately droll manner, Baldo follows a sort of French royal juvenile delinquent through imprisonment, fantastical adventures, and a journey to the underworld. This edition provides the first English translation of this hilarious send-up of the ancient epic and Renaissance chivalric romance traditions.

The main literary dispute of the Renaissance pitted those Neo-Latin writers favoring Cicero alone as the apotheosis of Latin prose against those following an eclectic array of literary models. This Ciceronian controversy pervades the texts and letters collected for the first time in this volume.

Leonardo Bruni (1370–1444) was the best-selling author of the fifteenth century. His History of the Florentine People is generally considered the first modern work of history. This third volume concludes the edition, the first to make the work available in English translation. It includes Bruni’s Memoirs, an autobiographical account of the events of his lifetime, and cumulative indexes to the complete work.

Pietro Bembo (1470–1547), a Venetian nobleman, later a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was the most celebrated Latin stylist of his day and was widely admired for his writings in Italian as well. The History of Venice was published after Bembo’s death, in Latin and in his own Italian version. This edition, in three volumes, makes it available for the first time in English translation.

The Renaissance popes were among the most enlightened and generous patrons of arts and letters in the Europe of their day. Commentaries, the only autobiography ever written by a pope, was composed in elegant humanistic Latin modeled on Caesar and Cicero. This edition contains a fresh Latin text and an updated translation.

Imprisoned for conspiring against Pope Paul II, Bartolomeo Platina (1421–1481) returned to favor under Pope Sixtus IV, and composed his most famous work, a biographical compendium of the Roman popes from St. Peter down to his own time. The work critically synthesized a wide range of sources and became the standard reference work on papal history for early modern Europe. This edition contains the first complete translation into English and an improved Latin text.

Scala (1430–1497) trained in the law and rose to prominence serving as secretary and treasurer to the Medicis and chancellor of the Guelf party before becoming first chancellor of Florence. This volume collects works from throughout his career that show the influence of fellow humanists such as Ficino, Pope Pius II, and Pico della Mirandola.

Bembo (1470–1547), a Venetian nobleman, later a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was the most celebrated Latin stylist of his day and was widely admired for his writings in Italian. Named official historian of Venice in 1529, Bembo began to compose in Latin his continuation of the city’s history in 12 books, covering the years from 1487–1513.

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), a student of canon law who became a Catholic cardinal, was widely considered the most important original philosopher of the Renaissance. He wrote principally on theology, philosophy, and church politics. This volume makes most of Nicholas’s other writings on Church and reform available in English for the first time.

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus, was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This volume contains Ficino’s extended analysis and commentary on the Phaedrus.

Cristoforo Landino (1424–1498) was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance. His most substantial work of poetry was his Three Books on Xandra. Also included in this volume is the “Carmina Varia,” a collection whose centerpiece is a group of elegies directed to the Venetian humanist Bernardo Bembo.

Folengo (1491–1544) was born in Mantua and joined the Benedictine order, but became a runaway monk and satirist of monasticism. In 1517 he published—as “Merlin Cocaio”—the first version of his macaronic narrative poem Baldo. This edition provides the first English translation of this send-up of ancient epic and Renaissance chivalric romance.

Much of Pietro Bembo’s work is devoted to the external affairs of Venice, principally conflicts with other European states and with the Turks in the East. The History of Venice was published after his death, in Latin and in his own Italian version. This edition, completed by this third volume, makes it available for the first time in English translation.

Sannazaro (1456–1530) is most famous for having written the first pastoral romance in European literature, the Arcadia (1504). But after this work, he devoted himself entirely to Latin poetry modeled on his beloved Virgil. In addition to his epic The Virgin Birth (1526), he also composed Piscatory Eclogues, an adaption of the eclogue form.

Marco Girolamo Vida (1485–1566), humanist and bishop, came to prominence as a Latin poet in the Rome of Leo X and Clement VII. Leo commissioned this famous epic, a retelling of the life of Christ in the style of Vergil, which was published in 1535. This translation, accompanied by extensive notes, is based on a new edition of the Latin text.

A Socratic dialogue set in the court of King Mattias Corvinus of Hungary (ca. 1490), Republics and Kingdoms Compared depicts a debate between the king and a Florentine merchant at his court on the relative merits of republics and kingdoms. This is the first critical edition and the first translation into any language.

Filelfo (1398–1481), one of the great scholar-poets of the Italian Renaissance, was the principal humanist working in Lombardy in the middle of the Quattrocento and served as court poet to the Visconti and Sforza dukes of Milan. His Odes constitute the first complete cycle of Horatian odes since classical antiquity.

The Hermaphrodite’s open celebration of vice, particularly sodomy, earned it public burnings, threats of excommunication, banishment to the closed sections of libraries, and a devoted following. Antonio Beccadelli combined the comic realism of Italian popular verse with the language of Martial to explore the underside of the early Renaissance.

Edited here for the first time is Florentius de Faxolis’s music treatise for Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. The richly illuminated small parchment codex bears witness to the musical interests of the cardinal, himself an avid singer. The author’s unusual insights into the musical thinking of his day are discussed in the ample commentary.

Federico Borromeo founded the Ambrosiana library, art collection, and academy in Milan. Sacred Painting (1624) laid out the rules that artists should follow when creating religious art. Museum (1625) walked the reader through the Ambrosiana’s collection, offering some of the earliest critiques to survive on works by Leonardo, Titian, and Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Humanist Tragedies offers a sampling of Latin drama from the Tre- and Quattrocento. These five tragedies—Ecerinis, Achilleis, Progne, Hyempsal, and Fernandus Servatus—were nourished by a potent amalgam of classical, medieval, and pre-humanist sources. Humanist tragedy testifies to momentous changes in literary conventions during the Renaissance.

The goal of Boccaccio’s Genealogy of the Pagan Gods is to plunder ancient and medieval literary sources to create a massive synthesis of Greek and Roman mythology. This is volume 1 of a three-volume set of Boccaccio’s complete 15-book work. It contains a famous defense of the value of studying ancient pagan poetry in a Christian world.

The letters of Bartolomeo Fonzio—a leading literary figure in Florence of the time of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Machiavelli—are a window into the world of Renaissance humanism and classical scholarship. This first English translation includes the famous letter about the discovery on the Via Appia of the perfectly preserved body of a Roman girl.

Lilio Gregorio Giraldi authored many works on literary history, mythology, and antiquities. Among the most famous are his dialogues, modeled on Cicero’s Brutus, translated here into English for the first time. The work gives a panoramic view of European poetry in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, concentrating above all on Italy.

The Dialectical Disputations, translated here for the first time into any modern language, is Lorenzo Valla’s principal contribution to the philosophy of language and logic. Valla sought to replace the scholastic tradition of Aristotelian logic with a new logic based on the historical usage of classical Latin and on a commonsense approach.

The Dialectical Disputations, translated here for the first time into any modern language, is Lorenzo Valla’s principal contribution to the philosophy of language and logic. Valla sought to replace the scholastic tradition of Aristotelian logic with a new logic based on the historical usage of classical Latin and on a commonsense approach.

Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus, was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. His commentaries remained the standard guide to the philosopher’s works for centuries. Maude Vanhaelen’s new translation of Parmenides makes this monument of metaphysics accessible to the modern student.

Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus, was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. His commentaries remained the standard guide to the philosopher’s works for centuries. Maude Vanhaelen’s new translation of Parmenides makes this monument of metaphysics accessible to the modern student.

Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), whose academic name was Gioviano, was the most important Latin poet of the fifteenth century as well as a leading statesman who served as prime minister to the Aragonese kings of Naples. His Dialogues are our best source for the humanist academy of Naples which Pontano led for several decades.

Michael Marullus (c. 1453/4–1500), born in Greece, began life as a mercenary soldier but became a prominent Neo-Latin poet and scholar in Italy. Later poets imitated him in vernacular love poetry, especially Ronsard. This edition contains Marullus’s complete Latin poetry. All of these works appear in English translation for the first time.

Francesco Filelfo’s On Exile depicts noblemen and humanists, driven from Florence by Cosimo de’ Medici, discussing the sufferings of exile—poverty and loss of reputation—and the best way to endure and profit from them. This volume contains the first complete edition of the Latin text and the first complete translation into any modern language.

Paolo Giovio’s dialogue provides an informed perspective on the sack of Rome in 1527, from a friend of Pope Clement VII. The work discusses literary style and whether the vernacular could surpass Latin as a vehicle for literary expression. This volume includes a fresh edition of the Latin text and the first translation into English.

A medical authority, Girolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553) was also a prominent Neo-Latin poet. This volume includes his didactic poem Syphilis, which gave the name to the disease and contains the first poetical description of Columbus’s discovery of America; a short Biblical epic, the Joseph; and the Carmina, a collection of shorter poetry.

Jacopo Zabarella’s two treatises On Methods and On Regressus (1578) are among the most important Renaissance discussions of how scientific knowledge should be acquired, arranged, and transmitted. They belong to a lively debate about the order in which sciences should be taught and the method to be followed in demonstrations.

Jacopo Zabarella’s two treatises On Methods and On Regressus (1578) are among the most important Renaissance discussions of how scientific knowledge should be acquired, arranged, and transmitted. They belong to a lively debate about the order in which sciences should be taught and the method to be followed in demonstrations.

Lorenzo Valla (1406–1457) was the leading philologist of the first half of the fifteenth century, as well as a philosopher, theologian, and translator. His extant Latin letters, though few, afford a direct and unguarded window into the working life of the most passionate, difficult, and interesting of the Italian humanists.

The defeat of the Ottomans by the Holy League fleet at Lepanto (1571) was among the most celebrated international events of the sixteenth century. The Battle of Lepanto anthologizes the work of twenty-two poets who composed Latin poetry in response to the news of the battle, the largest Mediterranean naval encounter since antiquity.

Salutati’s first surviving treatise was written for a lawyer who entered a Florentine monastery and requested a piece encouraging him to persevere in religious life. On the World and Religious Life is a wide-ranging reflection on humanity’s misuse of God’s creation and the need to orient human life with a proper hierarchy of values.

Giovanni Pontano, the dominant literary figure of quattrocento Naples, wrote two brilliantly original poetical cycles. On Married Love is the first sustained exploration of married love in first-person poetry. Eridanus combines familiar motifs of courtly love with an allusive matrix of classical elegy and Pontano’s distinctive vision.

Coluccio Salutati was chancellor of the Florentine Republic and leader of the humanist movement in Italy in the generation after Petrarch and Boccaccio. He was among the first to apply his classical learning to political theory and his rhetorical skills to the defense of liberty. This volume contains a new English version of his political writings.

Cyriac of Ancona (1391–1452) was among the first to study the physical remains of the ancient world in person and is sometimes regarded as the father of classical archaeology. This volume contains a life of Cyriac to the year 1435 by his friend Francesco Scalamonti, along with several letters and other texts illustrating his early life.

In 1490/92 the Florentine Platonist Marsilio Ficino made new translations of two treatises he believed were the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. They are presented here in new critical editions accompanied by English translations, the first into any modern language.

In 1490/92 the Florentine Platonist Marsilio Ficino made new translations of two treatises he believed were the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. They are presented here in new critical editions accompanied by English translations, the first into any modern language.

Brought to Florence by Lorenzo de’ Medici as a celebrity preacher, Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), a Dominican friar, would play a major role in the convulsive events that led to the overthrow of the Medici themselves. The Latin writings in this volume, all composed in the year before he was hanged, are translated into English for the first time.

Ugolino Verino was a principal Latin poet in the Florence of Lorenzo de’Medici and a leading figure in the revival of ancient Latin elegy. He forged a distinctive voice in a three-book cycle of poems in honor of his lady-love, Fiametta. His Paradise is a vision-poem in which he tours Heaven and the afterlife.

Aldus Manutius was the most innovative scholarly publisher of the Renaissance. This ITRL edition contains all of his prefaces to his editions of the Greek classics, translated for the first time into English. They provide unique insight into the world of scholarly publishing in Renaissance Venice.

Giannozzo Manetti’s Apologeticus was a defense of the study of Hebrew and of the need for a new translation. It constituted the most extensive treatise on the art of translation of the Renaissance. This ITRL edition contains the first complete translation of the work into English.

Petrarch was the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive literary Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, and Greco-Roman culture in general. My Secret Book reveals a remarkable self-awareness as he probes and evaluates the springs of his own morally dubious addictions to fame and love.

Giovanni Marrasio was esteemed in the Renaissance as the first to revive the ancient Latin elegy, and his Angelinetum, or “Angelina’s Garden,” and other poems explores that genre in all its variety, from love poetry, to a description of a court masque, to political panegyric, to poetic exchanges with famous humanists of the day.

Biondo Flavio was a pioneering figure in the Renaissance discovery of antiquity and popularized the term Middle Age to describe the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of antiquity in his own time. Rome in Triumph is the capstone of his research program, addressing the question: What made Rome great?

Biondo Flavio was a pioneering figure in the Renaissance discovery of antiquity and popularized the term Middle Age to describe the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of antiquity in his own time. Italy Illuminated is a topographical work exploring the Roman roots of Italy.

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive the cultural and moral excellence of ancient Greece and Rome. This two-volume set contains an ample, representative sample from his enormous and fascinating correspondence with all the leading figures of his day.

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive the cultural and moral excellence of ancient Greece and Rome. This two-volume set contains an ample, representative sample from his enormous and fascinating correspondence with all the leading figures of his day.

Aldus Manutius (c. 1451–1515) was the most important scholarly publisher of the Renaissance. His Aldine Press was responsible for more first editions of classical literature, philosophy, and science than any other publisher before or since. This volume presents Aldus’s prefaces to Latin classics and modern humanist writers, translated into English.

Giannozzo Manetti’s apologia for Christianity—Against the Jews and the Gentiles—redefines religion as true piety and relates the historical development of the pagan and Jewish religions to the life of Jesus. This volume includes the first critical edition of Books I–IV and the first translation of those books into any modern language.

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) was the leading Platonic philosopher of the Renaissance and is generally recognized as the greatest authority on ancient Platonism before modern times. The I Tatti edition of his commentary on Plotinus, in six volumes, contains the first modern edition of the Latin text and the first translation into any modern language.

Much more than a mere compilation of pagan myths, Boccaccio’s Genealogy of the Pagan Gods incorporates hundreds of excerpts from and comments on ancient poetry. It is both the most ambitious work of literary scholarship of the early Renaissance and a demonstration to contemporaries of the moral and cultural value of studying ancient poetry.

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) was the leading Platonic philosopher of the Renaissance and is generally recognized as the greatest authority on ancient Platonism before modern times. The I Tatti edition of his commentary on Plotinus, in 6 volumes, contains the first modern edition of the Latin text and the first translation into any modern language.

Commentaries by Pius II (1405–1464)—the only autobiography ever written by a pope—was composed in elegant humanistic Latin modeled on Caesar and Cicero. This edition contains a fresh Latin text based on the last manuscript written in Pius’s lifetime and an updated and corrected version of the 1937 translation by Florence Alden Gragg.

In Latin Poetry, the erudite and playful works of one of Italy’s greatest poets, Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), are translated into English for the first time. This I Tatti edition provides a newly collated Latin text and offers unique insight into the formation of one of the Renaissance’s foremost vernacular writers.

In On Human Worth and Excellence, celebrated diplomat, historian, philosopher, and scholar Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459) asks: what are the moral, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities of the unique amalgam of body and soul that constitutes human nature? This I Tatti edition contains the first complete translation into English.

Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494) was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance and a leading figure in the Florence during the Age of the Medici. This I Tatti edition contains all of his Greek and Latin poetry (with the exception of the Silvae in ITRL 14) translated into English for the first time.

Giovanni Pontano, best known today as a Latin poet, also composed popular prose dialogues and essays. The De sermone, translated into English here for the first time as The Virtues and Vices of Speech, provides a moral anatomy of aspects of speech such as truthfulness, deception, flattery, gossip, bargaining, irony, wit, and ridicule.

Lives of the Milanese Tyrants includes biographies of two dukes of Milan—the powerful Filippo Maria Visconti and the mercenary captain Francesco Sforza—written by the most important Milanese humanist of the early fifteenth century, Pier Candido Decembrio. Both works are translated into English here for the first time from new Latin texts.

In the Miscellanies, the great Italian Renaissance scholar-poet Angelo Poliziano penned two sets of mini-essays focused on lexical or textual problems. He solves these with his characteristic deep learning and brash criticism. The two volumes presented here are the first translation of both collections into any modern language.

In the Miscellanies, the great Italian Renaissance scholar-poet Angelo Poliziano penned two sets of mini-essays focused on lexical or textual problems. He solves these with his characteristic deep learning and brash criticism. The two volumes presented here are the first translation of both collections into any modern language.

Dialogues, Volume 2 by Giovanni Gioviano Pontano contains both a perceptive treatment of poetic rhythm, the first full treatment of the Latin hexameter in the history of philology, and a discussion of style and method in history writing. This is a new critical edition of the Actius and the first translation into English.

Dialogues, Volume 3 completes the I Tatti edition of Pontano’s five surviving dialogues. It includes Aegidius—which covers topics such as creation, free will, and the immortality of the soul—and Asinus, a fantastical comedy about Pontano going mad and falling in love with an ass. This is the first translation of these dialogues into English.

The Oration by philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), to which later editors added the subtitle On the Dignity of Man, is the most famous text written in Italy at the height of the Renaissance. The Life of Giovanni by Gianfrancesco Pico, his nephew, is the only contemporary account of the philosopher’s brief and astonishing career.

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance as well as a leading statesman. Eclogues and Garden of the Hesperides, both broadly inspired by Virgil, might be considered Pontano’s love songs to the landscapes of Naples. This volume features the first published translations of both works into English.

Paolo Giovio’s Portraits of Learned Men provides brief biographies of 146 men from Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio to Erasmus, Thomas More, and Juan Luis Vives that were meant to accompany portraits in a museum of great figures in modern history. This volume contains a fresh edition of the Latin text and a new, more complete English translation.

Leon Battista Alberti was among the most famous figures of the Italian Renaissance. Biographical and Autobiographical Writings includes On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literature, The Life of St. Potitus, My Dog, My Life, and The Fly. It presents the first collected English translations of these works and an authoritative Latin text.

A collection of stories meant to be read while dining and drinking, the Dinner Pieces, or Intercenales, are among Alberti’s most innovative works. They constitute an important monument in the history of comic writing and cover topics from politics to the arts to love. This edition presents a new translation and an authoritative Latin text.

A collection of stories meant to be read while dining and drinking, the Dinner Pieces, or Intercenales, are among Alberti’s most innovative works. They constitute an important monument in the history of comic writing and cover topics from politics to the arts to love. This edition presents a new translation and an authoritative Latin text.