Abacus and Humanism

Abstract

Renaissance humanism was not, and probably could never have been, permanently confined to the restricted company that had once created it. Even its most esoteric branches — Neoplatonism, magic, cabala, alchemy—had their practical side, for they had been conceived and continued to operate in a world of practical needs. By the first two decades of the early sixteenth century, fundamental concepts of Neoplatonism, though they may have retained their esoteric charm for self-conscious cognoscenti, had also become common coin, the imagery in which merchants, professionals, and technicians couched their own philosophical yearnings. At the same time, humanistic patterns of thought had come to govern actions in the political and financial sphere no less than they governed the progress of letters and art.