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This week, Jonathan and Ryan discuss two early medieval selections from Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition, one taken from Gregory the Great, perhaps the most significant pope in the history of Christendom, and another from Alcuin of York, adviser to Charlemagne and architect of the Carolingian Renaissance. Both Gregory and Alcuin were churchmen, statesmen, scholars, and are linked closely to the Christianization of Britain. Jonathan and Ryan discuss the relation between rational thought and proper grammar, the Great Books according to Medievals, and whether education properly belongs to the contemplative life or the active life.

Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnO

Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140445657

New Humanists episode with Tim Griffith on Latin Teaching: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/14692390-the-art-of-language-teaching-feat-tim-griffith-episode-lxiv

Andrew Beck interview in Align: https://www.theblaze.com/align/interview-beck-stone-co-founder-andrew-beck

New Humanists episode with John Peterson: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/12698279-education-that-makes-aquinas-look-modern-feat-john-peterson-episode-xlvi

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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He who teaches the truth finds himself locked in battle against all those who teach falsehood. With what tools will you equip him? That is the question motivating "Education of the Clergy," a 9th century treatise written by one of the great students of Alcuin: Rhabanus Maurus. The stereotype of the "dark ages" - the narrowness of mind and dogmatic intolerance of the early medieval period - is shown up to be mere mythmaking by the broad, even humanistic cast of mind Rhabanus Maurus brings to the question of education.

Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnO

Jonathan Roberts's Classical Schools Are Not Really Classical: https://ancientlanguage.com/classical-schools-not-classical/

Rhabanus Maurus' De inventione litterarum: https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0788-0856__Rabanus_Maurus__De_Inventione_Linguarum__MLT.pdf.html

Vegetius' De re militari: https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2014rosen0061/

Derrick Peterson's Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781532653339

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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What if the true heir of the Roman Empire was not Rome, but Florence? Over the course of his life and career as a scholar and politician, the great humanist Leonardo Bruni made this argument multiple times, and in a variety of ways. In doing so, he gave novel accounts of liberty and virtue, and eventually moved away from an appeal to Florence's Roman roots and appealed instead to her Etruscan roots. In doing so, he laid the groundwork for the preeminent Italian political thinker commonly associated with the birth of modernity: Niccolò Machiavelli.

New Humanists episode on Leonardo Bruni's letter to Battista Malatesta: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/14460440-mediocrity-versus-glory-in-the-renaissance-episode-lxii

James Hankins's Virtue Politics: https://amzn.to/3UiQpp3

Leonardo Bruni's History of the Florentine People: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674005068

C.S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060653200

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781107612235

Donatello's Saint George: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_(Donatello)

Roberto Valturio's De re militari: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=315

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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The Iliad was more popular than the Odyssey beginning in ancient times, and continued to be all the way up to World War One. Then, something changed. Now the Odyssey leaves the Iliad in the dust in terms of which poem gets assigned more frequently in school, in book sales, and simply in the stated preference of readers. What happened? Ryan and Jonathan read Edward Luttwak's essay, Homer Inc., about the thriving industry of Homer translations, the ancient redactors of Homer, the historicity of the Trojan War, and one of the perennial questions any humanist must answer - and to which Luttwak gives his own idiosyncratic response: Why does Homer matter?

Edward Luttwak's Homer Inc.: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n04/edward-luttwak/homer-inc

NH episode on Melanchthon and Homer: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/13181921-return-of-the-old-gods-in-germany-episode-lii

NH episode on Weil and Homer: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/10429309-the-iliad-or-the-poem-of-force-episode-xxi

NH episode on Nietzsche and Homer: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/13949908-nietzsche-homer-and-cruelty-episode-lvi

Stephen Mitchell's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781439163382

Robert Fagles's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140275360

Emily Wilson's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781324001805

Richmond Lattimore's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226470498

Peter Green's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780520281431

Robert Fitzgerald's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780374529055

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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For the first time, a collection of Irving Babbitt's and Paul Elmer More's correspondence has been published. Eric Adler, the editor of the collection (titled "Humanistic Letters") joins the show to discuss the collection, New Humanism, and the question that caused more controversy between Babbitt and More than anything else: Do humanists need to believe in God? 

Eric Adler's Humanistic Letters: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780826222909

Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780197680810

Irving Babbitt's Literature and the American College: https://amzn.to/3YIP0Ml

New Humanists episode Can Humanism Replace Christianity? https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/12494774-can-humanism-replace-christianity-episode-xliv

Justin Garrison and Ryan Holston's The Historical Mind: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781438478432

Ryan Holston's Irving Babbitt and Christianity: A Response to T.S. Eliot: https://www.academia.edu/43227260/Irving_Babbitt_and_Christianity_A_Response_to_T_S_Eliot

C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060652944

Norman Foerster's Humanism and America: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.88302/page/n5/mode/2up

Luke Sheahan's The Intellectual Kinship of Irving Babbitt and C.S.Lewis: https://www.pdcnet.org/humanitas/content/humanitas_2016_0029_0001_0005_0042

C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060652920

Paul Elmer More's The Greek Tradition: https://amzn.to/4dxbXGQ

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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Love for Cicero, attention to rhetorical form, use of pagan wisdom for political thought - these are all hallmarks of the Renaissance humanists. But not their invention. In fact, you find the same things among some medieval thinkers. Jonathan and Ryan read and discuss selections from the Policraticus and the Metalogicon, two works by the 12th century bishop of Chartres, John of Salisbury, who was an exemplar of this medieval brand of humanism.

Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnO

Homer's Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780374529055

Homer's Odyssey: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780374525743

Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674991743

New Humanists episode on Leonardo Bruni: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/14460440-mediocrity-versus-glory-in-the-renaissance-episode-lxii

S.A. Dance's Authentic Grammar in Classical Schools: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/05/authentic-grammar-in-classical-schools

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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Thomas Aquinas is also known as the "Angelic Doctor," but he was quite capable of coming down from the heavens and getting practical. In two selections from his work included in Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition, we find some of Thomas' advice and outlook for students and teachers, including a discussion of whether teaching is an inherently contemplative or active pursuit.

Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnO

New Humanists episode Education that Makes Aquinas Look Modern, feat. John Peterson: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/12698279-education-that-makes-aquinas-look-modern-feat-john-peterson-episode-xlvi

Pope Leo XIII's Aeterni Patris: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_04081879_aeterni-patris.html

Augustine's De Magistro (The Teacher): https://amzn.to/4cUbVZ4

A.G. Sertillanges's The Intellectual Life: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780813206462

Homer Camp: https://ancientlanguage.com/homer-camp/

Bible Camp: https://ancientlanguage.com/bible-camp/

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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The things of God belong to a heavenly kingdom. But politics is taken up with what is earthly. Surely, therefore, Christians should keep politics at a distance as much as possible. Right? Even while defending the life of contemplation and retreat from the earthly, Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Bocaccio laud Christian involvement in public life. Petrarch goes so far as to dream of a Julius Caesar reborn in medieval Europe and baptized a Christian, who goes on to conquer Egypt from the Muslims and present her as a gift - this time not to Cleopatra - but to Christ.

James Hankins's Virtue Politics: https://amzn.to/3UiQpp3

Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199535699

C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780062565396

Calvert Watkins's How to Kill a Dragon: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780195144130

New Humanists episode on Leonardo Bruni: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/14460440-mediocrity-versus-glory-in-the-renaissance-episode-lxii

Sallust's Catilinarian Conspiracy: https://amzn.to/4chKY1C

Henry David Thoreau's Walden: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780460876353

Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780385486804

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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Imagine that you are the leading figure in a movement to renew the study and appreciation of classical literature, but you have come to the end of your life and not only has the educational and political situation not improved - it has gotten worse. Such was the vista spread out before Petrarch in his twilight. Jonathan and Ryan read and discuss some of Petrarch's correspondence, recording the meditations of the great humanist as he wrestled with civilizational decline, the possibility of rebirth, and the awareness of how little time he had left.

Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnO

Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674991743

Tim Griffith's The Case for Classical Languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UquUv7wzAgQ

Ryan Hammill's Saints Versus Statesmen: https://americanreformer.org/2024/04/saints-versus-statesmen/

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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Are the liberal arts for everyone? We tend to think that the liberal arts can be helpful and edifying for anyone. But even amidst the humanist enthusiasm for the study of letters, the Renaissance writer Pier Paolo Vergerio denied that the liberal arts could improve a corrupt soul. In his mind, the liberal arts are proper only for those born free from the demands of moneymaking and furthermore, possessing a liberal temper. What is a liberal temper? And what are the liberal arts anyways? Jonathan and Ryan discuss Vergerio's treatise "The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth" which, even before the printing press, was a sensation in Europe, and was copied and re-copied many times.

Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnO

I Tatti Renaissance Library's Humanist Educational Treatises (containing Pier Paolo Vergerio's entire treatise, The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth, in Latin and English): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674007598

Sallust's Catilinarian Conspiracy: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674996847

Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674991743

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.

Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Support the show