The Renaissance Rediscovery of Intimacy
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Introduction: Rediscovering Style
Chapter One: A Rhetoric of Intimacy in Antiquity
Chapter Two: A Rhetoric and Hermeneutics of Intimacy in Petrarch’s Familiares
Chapter Three: Familiaritas in Erasmian Rhetoric and Hermeneutics
Chapter Four: Reading and Writing Intimately in Montaigne’s Essais
Conclusion: Rediscovering Individuality
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Index
“The Renaissance Rediscovery of Intimacy is very well written, lucid, and consistently engaging. Kathy Eden has very carefully woven together the warp and woof of her major concerns in each chapter, anticipating what will follow and looking back to what has preceded, offering signposts and summaries, forecasts and conclusions, all with authority and verve. There are many ‘eureka’ moments here, and Eden allows her reader to participate fully in discovering them. A wonderful achievement.”
“Presented with Kathy Eden’s customary concision, sustained focus, and meticulous scholarship, this new study of classical and early modern writing practices argues that the Renaissance remaking of the ‘intimate’ or ‘familiar’ style formed a key strand in the prehistory of modern individuality. Eden probes the social, legal, and hermeneutic implications of the cluster of classical terms used to characterize this style, which is understood not simply as an outgrowth of rhetoric, but crucially as an instrument of communication. What begins as a book about a rhetorical concept thus becomes in the end a cultural history with a remarkably rich anthropological resonance. The Renaissance Rediscovery of Intimacy is essential reading for anyone interested in the classical tradition, the history of rhetoric and style, and the cultural history of the individual.”—Terence Cave, St. John’s College, University of Oxford
Literature and Literary Criticism: Classical Languages | Romance Languages
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