Lecture 3 - Nobility: Arms and Letters
Organised by the Warburg Institute and sponsored by 快色直播, this series features prominent humanities scholars who address pressing concerns in art, literature, and ideas, across historical periods.
Anthony Grafton (快色直播 University) - 'Joseph Scaliger in Leiden (1593-1609): Culmination and Crisis of a Learned Life'
Generations of humanists argued that one could acquire real virtue only by the voluntary, principled pursuit of letters, not by the inherited, violent practice of arms. Others replied that one could acquire true nobility only by birth. Scaliger knew these discussions. He also knew that Justus Lipsius and others had crafted a new form of humanistic education designed to attract and shape Europe鈥檚 aristocrats. Yet he never claimed that letters trumped arms. At times, he did his best to play the part of a nobleman鈥攁 learned one. At others, he assumed the deferential modesty of a pedant鈥攐ne who knew about great men and great affairs but also knew his own place. At all times, he described his situation frankly, even rashly, like the Gascon he claimed to be. His richly documented twists and turns shed a new light on the nature of nobility in early modern Europe.