TY - BOOK ID - 3261029 TI - Possible lives : authors and saints in Renaissance Italy AU - Knowles Frazier, Alison AU - Columbia University Press PY - 2005 SN - 0231129769 9780231129763 9786613792587 1281905232 0231503393 PB - New York Columbia University Press DB - UniCat KW - Christian hagiography KW - Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern) KW - Renaissance KW - Hagiographie chrétienne KW - Littérature chrétienne latine médiévale et moderne KW - History KW - History and criticism. KW - Histoire KW - Histoire et critique KW - History and criticism KW - -Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern) KW - -Renaissance KW - -235.3 <45> KW - Revival of letters KW - Civilization KW - History, Modern KW - Civilization, Medieval KW - Civilization, Modern KW - Humanism KW - Middle Ages KW - Latin Christian literature, Medieval and modern KW - Latin literature, Medieval and modern KW - Hagiography, Christian KW - Hagiography KW - -History and criticism KW - Hagiografie--Italië KW - Hagiographie chrétienne KW - Littérature chrétienne latine médiévale et moderne KW - 235.3 <45> KW - Christian hagiography - History - To 1500 KW - Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern) - Italy - History and criticism KW - Renaissance - Italy KW - Italie KW - Saints KW - Humanistes UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:3261029 AB - Possible Lives uses the saints'lives written by humanists of the Italian Renaissance to explore the intertwining of classical and religious cultures on the eve of the European Reformation. The lives of saints were among the most reproduced and widely distributed literatures of medieval and early modern Europe. During the century before the Reformation, these narratives of impossible goodness fell into the hands of classicizing intellectuals known as humanists. This study examines how the humanist authors received, criticized, and rewrote the traditional stories of exemplary virtue for patrons and audiences who were surprisingly open to their textual experiments. Drawn from a newly constructed catalog of primary sources in manuscript and print, the cases in this book range from the lure of martyrdom as the West confronted Islam to the use of saints'lives in local politics and the rhetorician's classroom. Frazier discusses the writers'perceptions of historical sanctity, the commanding place of the mendicant friars, and one unique account of a contemporary holy woman.Possible Lives shows that the classical Renaissance was also a saintly Renaissance, as humanists deployed their rhetorical and philological skills to "renew the persuasive force of Christian virtue" and "save the cult of the saints." Combining quantitative and anecdotal approaches in a highly readable series of case studies, Frazier reveals the contextual richness of this little-known and unexpectedly large body of Latin hagiography. ER -