Pythagoras and Renaissance Europe: Finding

In this book, Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier offers the first systematic study of Pythagoras and his influence on mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, religion, medicine, music, the occult, and social life - as well as on architecture and art - in the late medieval and early modern eras. Following the threads of admiration for this ancient Greek sage from the fourteenth century to Kepler and Galileo in the seventeenth, this book demonstrates that Pythagoras's influence in intellectual circles - Christian, Jewish, and Arab - was more widespread than has previously been acknowledged. Joost-Gaugier shows that during this period Pythagoras was respected by many intellectuals in different areas of Europe. She also shows how this admiration was reflected in ideas that were applied to the visual arts by a number of well known architects and artists who sought, through the use of a visual language inspired by the memory of Pythagoras, to obtain perfect harmony in their creations. Among these were Alberti, Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Thus, she suggests, did some of the greatest art works in the Western world owe their modernity to an inspirational force that, paradoxically, had been conceived in the distant past.

List of Illustrations	p. x
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. I
Pythagoras, Man for the Renaissance
Prologue: the Diffusion of Knowledge About Pythagoras in the Renaissance	p. 15
The Emergence of "Saint" Pythagoras in the Early Renaissance	p. 19
Early Fifteenth-Century Writers View Pythagoras	p. 19
Pletho, Bessarion, Cusanus, and Alberti: An International Generation Applauds Pythagoras	p. 24
Ficino's Pythagoras and His Significance as the Jewish "Grandfather" of Christianity	p. 27
Pico's Venerable Pythagoras: Fountainhead of Wisdom	p. 30
The Dissemination of Information about Pythagoras in the Late Fifteenth Century	p. 31
the apotheosis of pythagoras in the sixteenth century	p. 37
The Authority of Pythagoras in the Early Sixteenth Century	p. 38
Reuchlin Describes Pythagoras's "Luggage": The Hebrew Patrimony of Christianity	p. 42
Occultism, Virtue, and the "Jewish" Side of Pythagoras: The Heavenly Teacher of Wisdom	p. 45
Mathematics, Exorcisms, and the Inspiration of Painters	p. 51
Pythagoras: The "Prince of Italian Philosophy"	p. 55
The Many Faces of Renaissance Pythagoreanism
The Pythagorean Tradition in the Early Fifteenth Century	p. 63
The Resurgence of Pythagoreanism in Florence	p. 65
The Greek Factor: Pletho and Bessarion	p. 66
Intertwined Threads of Balance, Perfection, and Frugality: Germany, Florence, and Rome	p. 72
The Strengthening and Deepening of Pythagoreanism in the Later Fifteenth Century	p. 80
Ficino's Pythagoreanism and His Proselytizing	p. 80
Pico's Version of Pythagoreanism	p. 87
Other Late-Century Pythagoreans in Tuscany	p. 92
Urbino and the Mathematical Angle	p. 93
Other Mathematical Considerations	p. 98
Gaffurio and the Harmonia of Music	p. 102
The Roman Connection	p. 103
The Maturation and Vicissitudes of Pythagoreanism in the Sixteenth Century	p. 108
Pacioli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Their Friends	p. 109
Roman Perspectives	p. 120
Venice: The Harmonia mundi of Francesco Zorzi and Pythagorean Musical Traditions	p. 122
Esoteric Pythagoreanism: Reuchlin and His Contemporaries in Germany, Italy, England, and the Netherlands	p. 123
International Pythagoreanism and Magic: France, Germany, England, and Italy	p. 127
Finding Heaven: On the Brink of a New Science - From Copernicus to Kepler and Beyond	p. 133
Pythagoreanism in Architecture and Art
Renaissance Images of Pythagoras	p. 145
The Search for Harmony in Architecture and Art in the Fifteenth Century	p. 162
Early Beginnings in the Florence of Brunelleschi and Michelozzo	p. 162
Pythagorean Concepts Develop: Alberti in Florence and His Contemporaries in Pienza and Urbino	p. 176
Contemplating Harmony at Cortona, Prato, Milan, and Rome	p. 192
Finding Harmony: Form and Meaning in Architecture and Art of the Sixteenth Century	p. 202
Prelude: The Pythagorean Experiments of Leonardo, Early Michelangelo, and Young Raphael	p. 202
Bramante and the Perfect Church	p. 211
Harmonious Unities in the Maturation of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Fra Bartolomeo	p. 218
Venice and the Divinity of Proportion	p. 230
The Theology of Arithmetic in Spain	p. 233
Conclusions: The Prince of Philosophers and the Birth of Harmony as an Aesthetic Notion
Pythagorean Works in Six Renaissance Libraries	p. 245
English Translation of Filippo Beroaldo's Symbola Pythagorica (1503)	p. 248
Notes	p. 267
Select Bibliography	p. 301
Inde	p. 315
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Pythagoras and Renaissance Europe: Finding Heaven

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