Review by Choice Review
For those who assume that the Renaissance was purely an Italian and western European phenomenon, this book will come as a stunning revelation. It is an important contribution from the pen of an acknowledged expert, and it joins a slowly growing body of scholarship in English devoted to the Renaissance in east central Europe. The most recent previous example of this trend is The Polish Renaissance in its European Context, ed. by Samuel Fiszman (1988). Segel's study of neo-Latin literature is devoted to a series of individuals, in one way or another all members of the humanist movement, who dominated Polish culture and letters from the middle of the 15th century to the deaths, in the 1540s, of Jan Dantyszek (Ioannes Dantiscus), Klemens Janicki (Clemens Ianicius), and Nicholas Copernicus. Although most of the individuals treated were Poles, special attention is paid to the Italian Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, and the German Konrad Celtis, both of whose contributions to the tone and content of Polish Renaissance culture were substantial. Clearly written, with extensive translations from works that deserve to be better known in the West, this valuable book effectively reveals the position that Poland occupied in the mainstream of contemporary European culture. College, university, and public libraries. -P. W. Knoll, University of Southern California
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
