Atlas of Renaissance Antiquarianism

Overview & Synopsis

Renaissance antiquarianism can be defined as a cultural phenomenon that aims to interpret the past by cross-referencing heterogeneous sources accumulated and collected over time. This entailed the use of new investigative techniques which involved combining literary sources and material findings to provide a reliable foundation for the idea of history. Atlas of Renaissance Antiquarianism, moving along different lines of theoretical and practical conceptualisation, declines the matters according to a plethora of different disciplines: philology, iconology, numismatics, epigraphy, chronology, conviviality, art, and fashion. The purpose of this manyfold investigation is to demonstrate how the antiquarian approach – that based the growth of thought on documented sources and empirical evidence – represented a methodological perspective capable to influence the way the past was viewed through a critical analysis of sources.