Charles B. Schmitt

Charles Bernard Schmitt (* 1933 , † 15. April 1986 in Padua ) was an American and British science and philosophy historian and specialist in the Renaissance .

Schmitt first studied chemistry before moving to the history of philosophy with Paul Oskar Kristeller , a specialist in the Renaissance at Columbia University , New York . With him he wrote his dissertation on Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola , with which he received his doctorate in 1963. After a few years as an associate professor at Fordham University , he went to Europe in 1967, first as a professor in Leeds and soon afterwards as a lecturer in the History of Philosophy and the History of Science at the Warburg Institute in London . He often traveled to Italy and to libraries in France and Germany.

His main research focus was Aristotelianism in the 16th century. In addition, he devoted studies to skepticism in the early modern period .

Fonts (selection)

• Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533) and his critique of Aristotle. M. Nijhoff, The Hague 1967.
• Cicero skepticus. A study of the influence of the Academica in the Renaissance. M. Nijhoff, The Hague 1972.
• Studies in Renaissance philosophy and science. Variorum Reprints, London 1981. (Collection of articles).
• Pseudo-Aristotle, the Secret of Secrets. Sources and influences. Warburg Institute, London 1982.
• Aristotle and the Renaissance. Harvard University Press (Oberlin College), Cambridge, Mass. / London 1983. - French translation: PUF, 1992; Italian translation: Bibliopolis, 1985.
• John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England. McGill-Queen's University Press, Kingston 1983.
• The Aristotelian tradition and Renaissance universities. Variorum Reprints, London 1984.
• Pseudo-Aristotle Latinus. A guide to Latin works falsely attributed to Aristotle before 1500. Warburg Institute, University of London, London 1985.
• Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages. The theology and other texts. Warburg Institute, London 1986.
• Skepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. O. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987.
• (Ed., With Eckhard Keßler and Quentin Skinner ): The Cambridge history of Renaissance philosophy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988.
• Reappraisals in Renaissance thought. Variorum Reprints, London 1989. - (Collection of articles)
• with Brian P. Copenhaver: Renaissance philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York 1992.

literature

• Letizia Panizza: Charles B. Schmitt (1933-1986). In: Renaissance Studies Vol. 1, No. 2 (October 1987), pp. 317-319.
• Luce Giard: Charles Schmitt et l'histoire de la Renaissance savante. In: Charles B. Schmitt, Aristote et la Renaissance. PUF, París 1992, pp. v – xxxv (with a rich bibliography).

Web links

• Schmitt, Charles B.  Publications in the bibliographic database of the Regesta Imperii .