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The Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the Influence of Lorenzo Valla's on Pleasure

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The Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the Influence of Lorenzo Valla's on Pleasure The Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the influence of Lorenzo Valla's On pleasure a thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of History, University of Toronto by Brendan Cook 2009 ©Copyright by Brendan Cook, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre ref6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-81226-6 Our file Notre rife'nance ISBN: 978-0-494-81226-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, pr§ter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciaies ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extra its substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+l Canada ii Abstract The Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the influence of Lorenzo Valla's On Pleasure Brendan Cook Ph.D. Department of History University of Toronto, 2009 The subject of this dissertation is the influence of the fifteenth-century Italian humanist, Lorenzo Valla, upon the sixteenth-century English humanist, Sir Thomas More. Specifically, it explores how a single work of Valla's, the dialogue on ethics, On pleasure, influenced More's classic satire Utopia. Through a close reading of the relevant texts, it is established for the first time that More read On pleasure and that he made it one of the chief models for Utopia. The likelihood that More studied and imitated Valla's book is demonstrated through an examination of crucial Latin terms such asprudentia, delectatio, and voluptas, as well as the critique of Aristotelian ethics common to both authors. Utopia and On pleasure are each studied carefully, as are other relevant works: More's Latin poetry and his History of Richard III, Valla's New foundation of dialectic and philosophy and his correspondence, translated in English for the first time. The dissertation places the original argument for the relationship between Utopia and On pleasure within the familiar context of English intellectual culture in the age of the first Tudors. Valla's influence upon More's writing is an illustrative example of a time and place in which Italian literature and scholarship were exercising unprecedented influence both in England and across Europe generally. The fate of Valla's books in Tudor England is also explored in broader terms, notably in a presentation of the legacy of Valla's classical scholarship. Valla and More are also contrasted with other Italian and English authors of the period, notably John Colet and Marsilio Ficino. The use of On pleasure in the pages of Utopia demonstrates how material developed in Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries became an essential part of the literary culture of England in the first decades of the sixteenth century. in Acknowledgments This dissertation could not have been completely without the insight, patience, goodwill, and unstinting moral support of my dissertation committee. Professor Olga Pugliese deserves thanks for her outstanding familiarity with the works of Lorenzo Valla, and also for her attention to detail and her genuine concern for my improvement as a scholar. I have benefited enormously from both her practical advice and from the encouragement which she has provided since joining my committee. I would like to thank Professor Paul Cohen for his extremely helpful suggestions concerning the place of my dissertation within the larger subject of European humanism. His insights will continue to bear fruit long after this dissertation is finished. And of course great thanks are due to Professor Ken Bartlett for having spent longer than anyone in discussing this thesis with me in the various stages of its development. From my first conceptions of the topic through the introduction of every new line of argument, he found time from an incredibly busy schedule to help me in too many ways to enumerate. In terms of the valuable advice and direction he has afforded me, he has proved as much a collaborator as a supervisor. And I would also be remiss if I did not thank Professor Donald Kelley and Professor Will Robins for reading such a lengthy dissertation with the care and attention necessary to evaluate it properly. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, Lois Cook. Apart from providing me with the only formal education that I received before entering university, she has spent many hours on the present dissertation, helping me to lend some degree of beauty and clarity to nearly three hundred pages of academic prose. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE i. ABSTRACT ii. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS iv. DATES AND TRANSLATIONS v. INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 10 CHAPTER TWO 59 CHAPTER THREE 115 CHAPTER FOUR 150 CHAPTER FIVE 202 CHAPTER SIX 232 CONCLUSIONS 279 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY 300 V CONCERNING TRANSLATIONS The many translations from Latin in this dissertation are, almost entirely, mine. There are a few exceptions where I have relied entirely or in part upon the translations of others, and they have been noted as such in the accompanying footnotes. The translations from the correspondence of Lorenzo Valla are drawn from an edition which I am preparing for the / Tatti Renaissance Library and which is projected to be published by Harvard University Press in the fall of 2011. The much smaller number of translations from Italian and the single instance of translation from the French are also mine. CONCERNING DATES To whatever extent they can be ascertained, dates of birth and death are supplied at the first mention of any individual born after the year 1000. Where no precise dates exist, the approximate period in which an individual was alive and active will be indicated by means of the notation 'fl.'. Dates of birth and death are not provided for individuals who died before the year 1000. All dates provided are from the Common Era (CE). 1 INTRODUCTION The subject of this dissertation is an intellectual tradition: not only a particular tradition but the nature of intellectual tradition as such. It is about how ideas change as they pass from one set of hands to another and from one mind to the next. It is about how an earlier writer can influence a later writer and how a book that is written at one time can leave its mark on a book that is written afterwards. More specifically, this dissertation deals with the historical dimensions of a literary tradition. It sets out to explain how two very different men who lived at different times and in different places could participate in a common discussion of shared ideas. It is a story of how the intellectual tradition known as humanism expanded and diversified as it developed from a relatively localized Italian movement into something truly European. This study describes a specific part of that larger story, an important episode in the expansion of Italian humanism during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It illustrates a specific example of what happened as humanist books written in Italy were read and imitated in other parts of Europe, and as words and ideas conceived in one historical situation were adapted to fit other needs. In the simplest terms, this is a study of continuity and change in the culture of Renaissance Europe. The subjects of this dissertation have long been accounted two of the most influential representatives of humanist traditions in Italy and in Northern Europe respectively. The first is the Roman philologist Lorenzo Valla (1407-57). Valla has been studied as often as any other writer in a time and place which have received a disproportionate share of scholarly attention. A glance at the number of publications on 2 Valla's life, work, and influence during the last half-century is enough to dispel any doubt that Valla has been underappreciated by recent scholarship. Not only has Valla's place among his contemporaries been well documented, but his lasting impact upon later generations of Italian and European humanists has been a perennial subject of academic interest as well. By this measure, Valla has long been recognized as an important figure in the intellectual history both of Italy and of Europe as a whole.1 But if Valla has been over-analyzed in the past fifty years, what about the second subject of this book? It is hard to think of any historical figure less neglected than the English humanist, statesman, Catholic polemicist, martyr, and as of the twentieth century even saint, Sir Thomas More (1478-1531).
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