Lucas Holstenius: un intellettuale europeo della prima età moderna, studioso di Altertumswissenschaft fra Umanesimo e Controriforma. Note introduttive alla Dissertatio de vita et scriptis Porphyrii philosophi (1630)

Abstract

The paper reflects an interest in the famous German scholar Lukas Holste (Lucas Holstenius), introducing, and explaining synthetically, his Dissertatio de vita et scriptis Porphyrii philosophi (DVSP;1630), the first modern monograph about the ancient thinker Porphyry of Tirus in the context of the whole historically-reconstructed neo-platonic movement. It intends not to concentrate on biographical aspects, but rather to focus on Holstenius’ involvement with the science of antiquity, especially as applied to the study of the Greek philosophy. On this score Holstenius forms part of the intellectual inheritance from the humanist Renaissance that he embraced and developed during the age of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, adapting it accordingly for the new conditions, that is being conscious of the insuperable distance between antiquity and Christianity and without the Renaissance demand for the assimilation of paganism in the Respublica christiana. On the contrary, he elaborates his DVSP as being representative of theRépublique des Lettres by means of a rigorous historiographical method that draws on polyhistoric inspiration while leaving apologetic or confessional worries out of consideration