The Renaissance Image of Man and the World (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 173 Southern France and Gerona is that of "adhering" or "cleaving" to God. The goal of cleaving to God is recommended by different genres of Jewish religious literature, each using the expression in its own way. In his analysis of this notion in the cabala, Scholem insists that no union with God was envisioned, but only a "communion." What emotional content was present in the cabalistic doctrines of intention in prayer and "communion" with God seems difficult and perhaps impossible to determine, but Scholem, who is our authority on the matter, provides no examples of a doctrine of ecstatic religious experience in the material that he deals with here. Is it possible that the expression "Jewish mysticism" is, after all, a misnomer, at least for the period covered in the present volume? Scholem clearly does not believe so (cf. p. 1, et passim), although there is something quite suggestive in his occasional use of the term "theosophy" rather than "mysticism" for the cabalists' doctrine of God. It would be hybris to intend these remarks as any form of detraction from the monumental character of the book. Scholem has placed this difficult segment of Jewish intellectual history on a far firmer base than ever before. Large portions of the book are devoted to the delicate task of unraveling the symbolism which, for the cabalists, represents the aspects of God and the relations between them. Here Scholem brings to bear his incomparable knowledge of all the relevant texts, both published and unpublished, together with the keenest possible eye for discovering connections. A mine of material and suggestions is presented with his customary care and confidence, but we could hardly do justice to that detailed analysis in the present context. HERBERTA, DAVIDSON University o/Cali/ornia, Los Angeles The Renaissance Image of Man and the World. Edited by Bernard O'Kelly. (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1966. Pp. x+186. $6.00.) This volume represents the fruits of the "Fourth Annual Conference on the Humanities sponsored by the Graduate School of Ohio State University under the same title as the volume, October 27 and 28, 1961," as the Editor's Foreword tells us (p. v). The contributions include: "Philosophy and Humanism in Renaissance Perspective" by Paul Oskar Kristeller, "The Renaissance: The Literary Climate" by Douglas Bush, "The Image of Man in Renaissance Art: From Donatello to Michelangelo" by H. W. Janson, "Paolo Toscanelli and His Friends" by Georgio de Santillana, and "Music of the Renaissance as Viewed by Renaissance Musicians" by Edward E. Lowinsky. The editor adds an Introduction, which attempts vainly to make all of these disparate elements fit together in some sort of coherent pattern which approximates the general title of the volume. In view of the very distinguished array of scholars who have contributed and the interesting title given the volume, one might legitimately be led to expect a highly significant result . However, the serious student of "the Renaissance image of man and the world" can only be disappointed. With the exception of Prof. Janson's paper, none of the other contributions have anything but the vaguest of connections with this topic and several are merely pedestrian reiterations of what the authors have said elsewhere in greater detail and with more ample documentation. Apparently the meeting was meant to appeal to a general audience--and this is all to the good--but was it necessary to publish the result? There are many symposia on the Renaissance in print and one hardly sees the point of adding yet another to the list, especially when it has as little to say as this one. At any rate, now we have it; it is equipped with "endnotes" [that disservice to scholarship which American University Presses seem intent upon propagating], it has a somewhat erratic index, and it is grossly overpriced. CHARLESB. SCH~ITT Fordham University ...