08 Plato and the Ancient Wisdom
Plato and related writings: our example of ancient texts (and more) recovered and built upon
define, trace history of “Platonic thought” in west through the Renaissance
“ancient theology”
Pico, Ficino
“Platonic tradition”
Plato’s followers vs Plato
“modern” scholarship (after 1800)
Plato ca 420-347 BCE (Socrates 469-399)
Some tools and terms
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- interpretation of texts: authorial intent; hermeneutics
2. survival (or not) of texts and how: fortuna
3. Who read them and how: reception
4. Who used this text (and contents) to produce something new: appropriation
- interpretation of texts: authorial intent; hermeneutics
Plato’s own works: unique in written preservation
forms
rebirth and learning
“The Academy” after Plato
ca 1 CE: “Middle Platonism” ex: Cicero
Neopythagoreans
Hermetics: Alexandria “Hermes Trismegistus”
Bible and the Greeks
Neoplatonists: 3rd c C.E.+
Plotinus; Proclus (Athens); Pseudo-Dionysius; Augustine (Christians)
post-classical traditions: Byzantines
Greek (Byzantine) scholars
Michael Psellus (11th c): Chaldaic Oracles (attrib. Zoroaster), Hermetic writings
Michael Psellos with his student Emperor Michael VII
Gemistus Pletho (1355-1452) revival based on Proclus, Psellus
Greek gods as allegories
prisca theologia
Council of Florence 1438-39 with Emperor John VIII
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Basilios Cardinal Bessarion (1403-72) Justus van Gent and Pedro Berruguete |
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Latin West
Cicero, Seneca
Chalcidius: commentary on Timaeus. Timaeus, Vatican manuscript
Boethius
Augustine
Medieval and Renaissance Traditions in the Latin West
Medieval thought, including universities: Platonic influence
religious writing
Quadrivium: Boethius
Petrarch’s influence: read Plato!
Humanists after Petrarch: editing, translating Plato’s works
Republic, Laws, Gorgias, part of Phaedrus
Leonardo Bruni
Ficino and Florence’s Platonic Academy
Ficino, portrait bust by Andrea Ferrucci. Florence, Duomo
Medicean patronage
Council of Florence
Marsilio Ficino 1433-1499
Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1486-1490: Zachariah in the Temple [detail]: Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, Angelo Poliziano and Demetrios Chalkondyles. Santa Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel
1456: began study of Greek
1462: Cosimo de’ Medici: house at Careggi: translations
1463 translation of Hermetic corpus
1468 finished trans of Plato (ms only; pub 1484)
1473 ordained priest
1482 published Platonic Theology (begun 1469)
Academy
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94)
canon law at Bologna, philosophy at Ferrara, Padua
Florence 1484
Paris 1485: Back to Florence 1486
900 Conclusiones; Oration is the introduction. Pub. Rome, 1486
Florence, writing, Ficino’s circle, Savonarola
syncretic