Science and Humanism in the Italian Renaissance Author(s): Eric Cochrane Source: The American Historical Review , Dec., 1976, Vol. 81, No. 5 (Dec., 1976), pp. 1039- 1057 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1852869 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review This content downloaded from 130.56.64.101 on Mon, 15 Feb 2021 10:45:35 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Science and Humanism in the Italian Renaissance ERIC COCHRANE SOME FIVE DECADES AGO, in the heat of the revolt against the Burckhardtian view of the Renaissance, science and humanism were generally regarded as antithetical, or at least as completely unrelated historical phenomena. In chapter 66, Volume IV, of his monumental History of Magic and Experimental Science1 a chapter appropriately entitled "Humanism in Relation to Natural and Occult Science" Lynn Thorndike noted that, except for occasional references to astrology, only a few of the well-known representatives of quat- trocento humanism ever wrote anything on subjects that might be considered scientific.