In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundations of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy by Ronald G. Witt
  • Charles G. Nauert
The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundations of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy. By Ronald G. Witt (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012) 604 pp. $120.00

This massive and learned book is essentially an intellectual history of Italy from the conquest of the kingdom of Lombardy by Charlemagne in 774 to roughly 1300, but it deals with many diverse fields, such as the recovery of ancient Roman law; the origins of the earliest Italian universities; the translation of ancient Greek and medieval Arabic writings on medicine, natural science, and philosophy into Latin; the rise of self-governing communal republics in the cities of northern Italy after collapse of imperial power south of the Alps; the powerful movement of church reform that led directly to the Investiture Controversy; and (ever in the background) the remarkable economic development that made Italy, especially the former Lombard lands of the north, the wealthiest part of Europe and the driver of economic growth in every other part of Christendom between the tenth and thirteenth centuries.

This complex story is hardly an easy read. But more clearly than any predecessor, Witt demonstrates something important about Italy at the end of the Middle Ages—that it had not only become the center of legal studies (one of the "two cultures" in the title) but had also begun to see in the literary remains of ancient Rome (the other culture in the title) the image of a more stable society, and a higher degree of individual liberty, than had existed since the disintegration of the idealized Roman republic. The book is not about all of Italy but mainly about the former Lombard kingdom (hence, excluding Rome, southern Italy, and Venetia) that were central to the economic, social, and cultural hegemony of Italy over the European world in what used to be called the Italian Renaissance (though Witt also notes the parallel rise of transalpine Europe during this same period and shows many instances of influence by Francia—roughly equivalent to modern France—in the Italian North).

His choice of Italy for primary emphasis is easy to justify. Renaissance Italy produced the first and most famous university, the University of Bologna, and the University of Padua quickly became the greatest center for study of law and paralegal subjects (notarial art, for instance) in Europe—the place where the most ambitious students of law wanted to study if they could afford it. Italy also was the first country to assimilate the Greek and Arabic texts relevant to medicine and natural science. Padua eventually outstripped even Bologna as an international center for the study of these subjects, retaining its leadership until the seventeenth century.

Witt's most important point is that whereas literacy and learning (especially in Latin)—and also public administration—north of the Alps remained in the hands of clergymen until the Reformation or even later, legal and documentary learning, and the widespread Latin literacy that it produced among citizens of the major cities, occurred earlier in Italy than anywhere else in Europe. By the twelfth century, Italy was dominated [End Page 126] by laymen (not by priests); it was literate, urban (at least more so than any other region), and largely secular (but not antireligious) in its moral values.

This large and complex book makes a powerful case for Italy as the precursor of the modern, educated Western world. To facilitate navigation, Witt provides lengthy footnotes (!), a vast bibliography, and a detailed and useful index.

Charles G. Nauert
University of Missouri
...

pdf

Share