Paul Oskar Kristeller
Encyclopedia
Paul Oskar Kristeller was an important scholar of Renaissance humanism
. He was awarded the Haskins Medal
in 1992. He was last active as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University
in New York
, where he mentored both Irving Louis Horowitz
and A. James Gregor
.
During his university years he studied with Werner Jaeger
, Heinrich Rickert
, Richard Kroner
, Karl Hampe
, Freidrich Baethgen, Eduard Norden, and Ulrich von Wilamowitz. He also attended lectures by noted philosophers such as Ernst Cassirer
, Edmund Husserl
, and Karl Jaspers
. In 1928, he earned his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg under Ernst Hoffmann with a dissertation on Plotinus. He did postdoctoral work at the universities of Berlin and Freiburg
. At Freiburg, Kristeller studied under the philosopher Martin Heidegger
from 1931 to 1933. The Nazi victory in 1933 forced Kristeller to move to Italy. At his arrival, Giovanni Gentile
secured for him a position as lecturer in German at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. It was at the Scuola Normale that Kristeller completed his first great works in the Renaissance: the Supplementum Ficinianum (1937) and The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino (1943). In 1939, he fled Italy, due to the enactment of Mussolini's August 1938 racial laws, to live in the USA. Thanks to the help of Yale University historian Roland Bainton
, he sailed from Genoa in February 1939 and by March was teaching a graduate seminar at Yale on Plotinus. He taught only for a short time at Yale University
until moving to Columbia University
, where he taught until his retirement in 1973 as Frederick J. E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy. He continued to be an active researcher after he retired. He received the Serena Medal of the British Academy
in 1958, the Premio Internazionale Galileo Galilei in 1968 and the Commendatore nell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1971.
The emphasis of his research was on the philosophy
of Renaissance humanism
. He is the author of important studies on Marsilio Ficino
, Pietro Pomponazzi
and Giambattista Vico
.
An especially important achievement is his Iter Italicum (the title recalls Iter Alemannicum and other works of Martin Gerbert
), a large work describing numerous uncatalogued manuscripts. After decades of neglect, Kristeller's long essay of the early 1950s, "The modern system of the arts", in Journal of the History of Ideas
, proved to be a much reprinted classic reading in Philosophy of Art.
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
. He was awarded the Haskins Medal
Haskins Medal
The Haskins Medal is an annual medal awarded by the Medieval Academy of America. It is awarded for the production of a distinguished book in the field of medieval studies.-Award:...
in 1992. He was last active as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he mentored both Irving Louis Horowitz
Irving Louis Horowitz
Irving Louis Horowitz is an American sociologist, author and college professor who has written and lectured extensively in his field.-Personal Life:Horowitz was born in New York City on September 25, 1929, to Louis and Esther Tepper Horowitz...
and A. James Gregor
A. James Gregor
A. James Gregor is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley who is well known for his research on fascism, Marxism, and national security...
.
During his university years he studied with Werner Jaeger
Werner Jaeger
Werner Wilhelm Jaeger was a classicist of the 20th century.Jaeger was born in Lobberich, Rhenish Prussia. He attended school at Lobberich and at the Gymnasium Thomaeum in Kempen Jaeger studied at the University of Marburg and University of Berlin. He received a Ph.D...
, Heinrich Rickert
Heinrich Rickert
Heinrich John Rickert was a German philosopher, one of the leading Neo-Kantians.-Life:He was born in Danzig, Prussia and died in Heidelberg, Germany.-Thought:...
, Richard Kroner
Richard Kroner
Richard Kroner was a German neo-Hegelian philosopher, known for his Von Kant bis Hegel , a classic history of German idealism written from the neo-Hegelian point of view. He was a Christian, from a Jewish background...
, Karl Hampe
Karl Hampe
Karl Hampe was a German historian of the Middle Ages, particularly the history of the Empire in the High Middle Ages. Hampe was born in Bremen and graduated from Berlin in 1902, when he was appointed to a professorship in Heidelberg...
, Freidrich Baethgen, Eduard Norden, and Ulrich von Wilamowitz. He also attended lectures by noted philosophers such as Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer was a German philosopher. He was one of the major figures in the development of philosophical idealism in the first half of the 20th century...
, Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...
, and Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...
. In 1928, he earned his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg under Ernst Hoffmann with a dissertation on Plotinus. He did postdoctoral work at the universities of Berlin and Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
. At Freiburg, Kristeller studied under the philosopher Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
from 1931 to 1933. The Nazi victory in 1933 forced Kristeller to move to Italy. At his arrival, Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile was an Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce. He described himself as 'the philosopher of Fascism', and ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism for Benito Mussolini. He also devised his own system of philosophy, Actual Idealism.- Life and thought :Giovanni...
secured for him a position as lecturer in German at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. It was at the Scuola Normale that Kristeller completed his first great works in the Renaissance: the Supplementum Ficinianum (1937) and The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino (1943). In 1939, he fled Italy, due to the enactment of Mussolini's August 1938 racial laws, to live in the USA. Thanks to the help of Yale University historian Roland Bainton
Roland Bainton
Roland Herbert Bainton was a British born American Protestant church historian.-Life:He was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England and came to the United States in 1902. He received an A.B. degree from Whitman College, and B.D. and Ph.D.. degrees from Yale University. He also received a number of...
, he sailed from Genoa in February 1939 and by March was teaching a graduate seminar at Yale on Plotinus. He taught only for a short time at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
until moving to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he taught until his retirement in 1973 as Frederick J. E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy. He continued to be an active researcher after he retired. He received the Serena Medal of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
in 1958, the Premio Internazionale Galileo Galilei in 1968 and the Commendatore nell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1971.
The emphasis of his research was on the philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
of Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
. He is the author of important studies on Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin...
, Pietro Pomponazzi
Pietro Pomponazzi
Pietro Pomponazzi was an Italian philosopher. He is sometimes known by his Latin name, Petrus Pomponatius.-Biography:...
and Giambattista Vico
Giambattista Vico
Giovanni Battista ' Vico or Vigo was an Italian political philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist....
.
An especially important achievement is his Iter Italicum (the title recalls Iter Alemannicum and other works of Martin Gerbert
Martin Gerbert
Martin Gerbert , German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb am Neckar, Württemberg, on the 12th of August 1720....
), a large work describing numerous uncatalogued manuscripts. After decades of neglect, Kristeller's long essay of the early 1950s, "The modern system of the arts", in Journal of the History of Ideas
Journal of the History of Ideas
The Journal of the History of Ideas is a peer-reviewed academic journal which publishes research in intellectual history. The journal "defines intellectual history expansively and ecumenically," and includes the histories of philosophy, literature and the arts, natural and social sciences,...
, proved to be a much reprinted classic reading in Philosophy of Art.
Works
- Der Begriff der Seele in der Ethik des Plotin. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1929.
- The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1950.
- The modern system of the arts, in Journal of the History of Ideas, 12, 1951, p. 496-527 and 13, 17-46 ; repr. 1965 and 1980 ; new. ed. 1990. (Web version)
- The Classics and Renaissance Thought. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955.
- Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964.
- Die Philosophie des Marsilio Ficino. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1972.
- Humanismus und Renaissance. 2 vol., Munich: Fink, 1974–1976
- Die Ideen als Gedanken der menschlichen und göttlichen Vernunft. Heidelberg: Winter, 1989.
- Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, vol. I-IV, Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1956-1996.
- Iter Italicum. A finding list of uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued humanistic manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other libraries, 7 vol., London: The Warburg Inst. 1963-1997.
Further reading
- Thomas Gilbhard: Bibliographia Kristelleriana. A Bibliography of the Publications of Paul Oskar Kristeller. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2006 (Sussidi eruditi 72).
- Kristeller, Paul Oskar. "A Life of Learning," Charles Homer Haskins Lecture for 1990. American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper No. 12 (date not shown).http://www.acls.org/op12.htm