Renaissance Anthropologies and the Conception of Man

Two sixteenth-century developments are credited with drastically altering the conception of man and his place in the universe. This chapter examines the Renaissance reception of Lucretius's and Manilius's anthropologies, that is, stories of the birth and development of man, in the works of two fifteenth-century humanist poets, Lorenzo Bonincontri and Giovanni Pontano. It traces how certain ideas that emerge from Renaissance anthropologies adumbrate later developments. The role of labor in man's initial condition and the role of knowledge in his development are two important points of contention on which the chapter is focused. The chapter sketches how these issues are addressed by the leading spokesmen in the debate about the nature of man, Innocent III and Giannozzo Manetti. It briefly sketches the extent to which Bonincontri and pontano drew from classical authors, particularly Lucretius and Manilius, whom they both had edited and commented on. Keywords:conception of man; Giannozzo Manetti; Giovanni Pontano; Lorenzo Bonincontri; Lucretius; Manilius; Renaissance anthropologies; role of knowledge; role of labor