Lutheran humanists and Greek antiquity: Melanchthonian scholarship between universal history and pedagogy

249 Pages·2009·1.01 MB·English

by  Asaph Ben-Tov

Lutheran Humanists and Greek Antiquity
Brill’s Studies in
Intellectual History
General Editor
A.J. Vanderjagt, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
C.S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
M. Colish, Oberlin College
J.I. Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
M. Mugnai, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
W. Otten, University of Chicago
VOLUME 183
Lutheran Humanists and
Greek Antiquity
Melanchthonian Scholarship
Between Universal History and Pedagogy
By
Asaph Ben-Tov
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
Cover illustration: imprint of the Basel printer and philologist Johannes Oporinus
(1507–1568) depicting Arion. Reproduced by kind permission of the Herzog August
Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel [Gf 2o 13].
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ben-Tov, Asaph.
Lutheran humanists and Greek antiquity : Melanchthonian scholarship between
universal history and pedagogy / by Asaph Ben-Tov.
p. cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history ; v. 183)
Based on the author’s thesis—Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17965-3 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Melanchthon, Philipp, 1497–1560. I. Title. II. Series.
BR339.B46 2009
938.0072’02—dc22
2009032492
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 978 90 04 17965 3
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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printed in the netherlands
für Frauke
.הנושל לע דסח תרותו ,המכחב החתפ היפ
.לכאת אל תולצע םחלו ,התיב תוכילה היפוצ
.הללהיו הלעב ,הורשאיו הינב ומק

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ ix
Note on names and abbreviations .................................................. xi
Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
Chapter One Greek Antiquity in Lutheran Universal
History ............................................................................................. 35
Chapter Two Lutheran Humanists and Byzantium:
The Scope of Greek Antiquity ..................................................... 83
Chapter Three Lutheran Humanists on Greek: The History
of Greek and Greek in History ................................................... 133
Chapter Four Some Lutheran Readings of Greek Texts .......... 159
Chapter Five Graecia transvolavit Alpes ..................................... 187
Conclusion .......................................................................................... 213
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 221
Index .................................................................................................... 231

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The preset study is based on a dissertation written at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. I had the exceptionally good fortune of
writing it under the supervision of Prof. Michael Heyd. No standard
acknowledgement can do justice to my debt of gratitude for his
patient guidance, curiosity, and constant encouragement which have
guided my work since embarking on my MA thesis in the last months
of the previous millennium. In 2000–2003 I was greatly assisted by
a scholarship of the Richard Koebner Minerva Centre for German
History at the Hebrew University. The Centre’s Colloquium for Ger-
man History was a fine opportunity to consider broader aspects of
German history and historiography. I am especially grateful to Prof.
Moshe Zimmermann and Dr. Matthias Schmidt for their constant
encouragement and support. A six month sojourn in Munich in 2002,
enabled by a scholarship from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and
the city of Munich, proved an ideal setting for starting work on my
doctoral dissertation. I am grateful to my host in Munich, Prof. Rudolf
Kuhn for his troubles and gracious hospitality. In Munich I had the
pleasure of attending Prof. Jill Kraye’s guest lectures and seminar on
Renaissance philosophy, and had the good fortune of discussing with
her my then still vague plans for a dissertation. Two summer courses
at the Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation at the University of Geneva
in 2002 and 2003 offered a stimulating opportunity to study broader
aspects of the Reformation and the classical tradition. A short-term
Frances Yates Fellowship at the Warburg Institute in 2005 was highly
rewarding and helped mould the study into its present form. During
2005–2007 I was a junior member of the research group ‘Religion and
Education’ at the Scholion interdisciplinary Centre in Jewish Studies
at the Hebrew University. Apart from the generous scholarship which
allowed me to devote my time to my dissertation, I am grateful to the
staff and research fellows of the Scholion Centre for an intellectually
challenging and congenial atmosphere. Presenting sections of my own
work to an audience not necessarily conversant with scholarship on
Renaissance humanism, but well versed in the historical and conceptual
conundrums presented by ancient texts in pre-modern educational
contexts, was a stimulating challenge. Though rabbinic attitudes to