ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a clear outline of Florentine Neoplatonism, and then to consider its influence on art and literature during a period that extends roughly from the age of Lorenzo de’ Medici to the middle of the sixteenth century and the beginnings of the Counter-Reformation. It focuses on Ficino some aspects of his thought, such as the theory of love and the conception of the dignity of man, have been discussed at length, while others which had fewer literary echoes have been much more summarily treated. The book describes the transmission of the Platonic heritage through the Middle Ages. The book provides an analysis of the latter’s Neoplatonism and of such variations of it as were introduced by Pico della Mirandola, and seeks to present a coherent view of such of their ideas as passed into common usage.
