Paul Oskar Kristeller
Berlin 1905 - New York 1999
After completing his university studies in Heidelberg in 1928, he undertook postgraduate studies in Berlin and Freiburg, and then was the German language lecturer at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. He was forced to leave this position in 1939 with the passage of the anti-Semitic racial laws in 1939. He took refuge in the United States, where he taught at the University of Yale and Columbia University in New York until 1973. His contributions to research on Humanism and the Renaissance are fundamental.
Main works: Studies in Renaissance thought and letters (Roma 1956-1996); Iter italicum (London 1963-1997); Die Philosophie des Marsilio Ficino (Frankfurt a.M. 1972); Humanismus und Renaissance (München 1980); The Renaissance philosophy of man. Petrarca, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Vives (Chicago 1996).
Bibliography: J. Monfasani, Biographical memoirs: Paul Oskar Kristeller, Philadelphia 2001; Gli studi umanistici e l'opera di Paul Oskar Kristeller, Milano, Ist. Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere 2003; C. Villa, Ritratti critici di contemporanei: Paul Oskar Kristeller, Firenze, Olschki 2002; Th. Gilbhard, Bibliographia Kristellerian: a bibliography of the publications of Paul Oskar Kristeller, 1929-1999, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura 2006.