{"id":155334,"date":"2024-06-06T16:01:19","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=155334"},"modified":"2024-06-06T16:01:19","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T00:01:19","slug":"nyrb-in-the-renaissance-reading-became-both-a-passion-and-a-pose-of-detachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=155334","title":{"rendered":"NYRB: In the Renaissance, reading became both a passion and a pose of detachment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Nicholson writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In A Marvelous Solitude, her new book on Renaissance humanists\u2019 romance with reading, the Italian scholar Lina Bolzoni channels the allure, for Petrarch and those who came after him, of a life in books, its pleasures \u201cmore intimate and more intense than the satisfaction afforded by other worldly goods.\u201d But such intimacy came at a cost: \u201cA sense of being unsuited to one\u2019s times, a feeling, almost, of extraneousness and alienation.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is often a whiff of misanthropy about Petrarch\u2019s passion for books. In the fourteenth century, before the invention of movable type, books were artisanal objects, and even the simplest were inscribed and bound by hand. But once acquired, Petrarch observes, they asked little of their possessors; with books, unlike houseguests, \u201cthere is no tedium, no expense, no complaints, no murmurs, no envy, no deceit\u2026. They are satisfied with the smallest room in your house and a modest robe, they require no drink or food.\u201d<\/p>\n

…Occasionally, one senses some strain in the narrative\u2014a hint of how the self-flattering mythology of reading might compensate, or fail to compensate, for the inability to find other sources of purpose and fulfillment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Nicholson writes: In A Marvelous Solitude, her new book on Renaissance humanists\u2019 romance with reading, the Italian scholar Lina Bolzoni channels the allure, for Petrarch and those who came after him, of a life in books, its pleasures \u201cmore … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14564],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t