Theory and Practice in Renaissance Textual Criticism: Beatus Rhenanus Between Conjecture and History

Recent Renaissance research has placed great stress on the importance of textual criticism and attitudes toward classical texts as a basis for understanding the ideas of the Renaissance humanists. John D'Amico turns to the German humanist, Beatus Rhenanus, and forms exciting new opinions about his work. Beatus was a close associate of Erasmus and learned much from the celebrated Dutch scholar, yet his critical method marked a break with Erasmus because he articulated a strict manuscript-based procedure for extracting new readings of ancient texts. His attempt to be faithful to the classical manuscripts he edited was not always successful, but he assuredly understood the use of textual criticism for historical studies and was, D'Amico claims, the most accomplished historian of the German Renaissance.

Not only Renaissance historians but also literary critics, students of historiography and of German history and literature, and classicists will find this book illuminating.