ABSTRACT
The career of Paolo Beni is typical of that of many intellectuals living in a period of transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. For this reason, it can offer a useful case study of the milieu in which he wrote and worked. He embodied a particular combination of humanism and religious belief in the form of Christian humanism, and was both a Jesuit and a professor of the humanities at Padua University. In addition, he had very strong links with two academies of this city, which were of great importance for Italian cultural history. Through tracing Beni’s career and some aspects of his thought, this essay will try to underline some aspects of the circulation of men, books and ideas in Italy at the turn of the seventeenth century; the relations between Church and State in the Republic of Venice; and the contribution which a professor of humanities, and former Jesuit, could make to the intellectual network represented by the academies.
