HoP 354 - Greed is Good - Economics in the Italian Renaissance

July 26th, 2020

Leon Battista Alberti, Benedetto Cotrugli, and Poggio Bracciolini grapple with the moral and conceptual problems raised by the prospect of people getting filthy rich.

HoP 352 - The Teacher of Our Actions - Renaissance Historiography

June 28th, 2020

Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.

HoP 351 - Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli

June 14th, 2020

Leading Machiavelli scholar Quentin Skinner joins Peter to discuss morality, history, and religion in the Prince and the Discourses.

HoP 349 - No More Mr Nice Guy - Machiavelli

May 17th, 2020

Machiavelli’s seminal work of political advice, "The Prince," tells the ruler how to be strong like a lion and cunning like a fox.

HoP 346 - Cecilia Muratori on Animals in the Renaissance

April 5th, 2020

An interview with Cecilia Muratori, an expert on the surprisingly modern ideas about non-human animals that emerged in the Renaissance.

HoP 342 - Denis Robichaud on Plato in the Renaissance

February 9th, 2020

An interview with Denis Robichaud on how, and why, Plato was read in the Italian Renaissance.

HoP 338 - All About Eve - the Defense of Women

December 15th, 2019

Refutation of misogyny in Moderate Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella.

HoP 336 - We Built This City - Christine de Pizan

November 17th, 2019

Christine de Pizan's political philosophy, epistemology, and the refutation of misogyny in her "City of Ladies".

HoP 335 - Sabrina Ebbersmeyer on Emotions in Renaissance Philosophy

November 3rd, 2019

An interview with Sabrina Ebbersmeyer about the relation of emotion to reason and the body, and panpsychism, in the Renaissance.

HoP 334 - Chance Encounters - Reviving Hellenistic philosophy

October 20th, 2019

The rediscovery of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus spreads challenging ideas about chance, atomism, and skepticism.

HoP 333 - Difficult to Be Good - Humanist Ethics

October 6th, 2019

Humanists from Bruni and Valla to Pontano and Castiglione ask whether ancient ethical teachings can still help us learn how to live.

HoP 332 - Jill Kraye on Humanism

September 22nd, 2019

Jill Kraye returns to the podcast to discuss the nature of humanism, its relation to scholasticism, and its legacy.

HoP 331 - Literary Criticism - Lorenzo Valla

September 8th, 2019

Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.

HoP 330 - Republic of Letters - Italian Humanism

July 28th, 2019

Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni combine eloquence with philosophy, taking as their model the refined language and republican ideals found in Cicero.