Italian Renaissance Education: Changing Perspectives and Continuing Controversies

Abstract

Over the past hundred years studies in the history of Italian Renaissance education have tended to develop in the wake of wider intellectual and philosophical movements. The great age of Italian posivitism at the turn of the century encouraged widespread research in local archives and led to the publication of numerous fundamental documentary studies, including Bellemo on Chioggia, Cecchetti, Bertanza and Della Santa, and Segarizzi on Venice, Barsanti on Lucca, Debenedetti on Florence, Gabotto on Piedmont, Massa on Genoa, Zanelli on Pistoia, and Battistini on Volterra.1 Archival work was complemented by the study of manuscripts and early printed editions, particularly focusing on the contribution of prominent teachers, including for example Rossi on Travesi, but most notable here was of course Sabadini with his work on Giovanni da Ravenna, Barzizza, and especially Guarino.2 Such studies formed the basis of Manacorda's