What do we owe to the intellectual thought of the Renaissance? This question has pervaded the research of Intellectual Historians since the 19th century. In this lecture, the speaker will discuss Renaissance Humanism, the central intellectual and educational discipline of the Renaissance in Europe. In so doing, he will discuss how our historical interpretation has changed over time and what research there is yet to be done to understand this crucial period in our shared past with specific attention drawn to East Central Europe and its role in the European Renaissance at large.
Presenter: Michael LoPiano
Michael is a fifth-year combined PhD student in History and Renaissance Studies at Yale University from New Haven, Connecticut. His research focuses on Renaissance Humanists in the late 15th and early 16th centuries in Central Europe across church, state, and university boundaries while tracing the development of Humanist ideas between Italy and the region. Michael examines early print and manuscript books, epistolary correspondence, and archival records while exploring the relationship between text, authorship, and patronage in humanist historiography.
Michael graduated with a B.A. degree in History and Italian from Johns Hopkins University with general honors as well as honors from both his major departments in 2015. There he completed a joint History-Italian senior thesis (submitted in English and Italian) analyzing humanist historiographical techniques and Papal propaganda in Bartolomeo Sacchi il Platina’s Liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum (1474) on behalf of which he received a nomination for the 2015 Kouguell prize for best senior thesis. Michael is proficient in Italian, French, German, Latin, and Polish.