{"product_id":"wits-treasury-9780812253276","title":"Wits Treasury","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs England entered the Renaissance and as humanism, with its focus on classical literature and philosophy, informed the educational system, English intellectuals engaged in a concerted effort to remake the culture, language, mannersindeed, the whole national stylethrough adapting the classics. But how could English literature, art, and culture, become classical, not only in imitating the ancients, but in the sense subsequently applied to music: classical as opposed to popular, as formal, serious, and therefore as good?For several decades in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Stephen Orgel writes, the return to the classics held out the promise of refinement and civility. Poetry was to be modeled on Greek and Roman examples rather than on the great English medieval works, which though admirable, lacked correctness. More than poetry was at stake, however, and the transition would not be easy. Classical rules seemed the wave of the future, rescuing England from what was seen a\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReading a book by Stephen Orgel is always an intellectual pleasure. His clear, intelligent, and acute writing leads the reader through the reconstruction of a past literary and cultural tradition, by showing how seemingly small events can have a remarkable meaning when compared with, or set in relation to, a larger panorama...In Wit’s Treasury Orgel exquisitely show[s] the complexity of creating a cultural identity and of becoming 'classics.' * SKENÈ Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eStephen Orgel’s \u003ci\u003eWit’s Treasury\u003c\/i\u003e advances a concise and compelling exploration of how early modern writers, artists, and printers employed ancient exempla to self-authorize early English work products...Orgel does much to make 'the classics' accessible by demonumentalizing them, by exposing their essential malleability, and by reiterating that 'nothing in the past is safely in the past, and the dark side of how productive classical models were was how dangerously pertinent—how alive—they could\u003cbr\u003e also be.' Overall, \u003ci\u003eWit’s Treasury\u003c\/i\u003e convincingly demonstrates that they still can be.\u003c\/p\u003e * Renaissance and Reformation *\u003cbr\u003eSteven Orgel offers a unique, engaged exploration of classical influences on the written and visual arts in the early modern period...This study is brief, yet comprehensive, [and] offers well-chosen, detailed examples, and his book is a valuable contribution for scholars of early modern literature. * Choice *\u003cbr\u003eThere are many other books on aspects of sixteenth-century classicism in the arts, literature, education, and the sciences, but none with the combination of erudition, direct engagement with visual and textual material, brevity, and accessibility that Stephen Orgel brings to \u003ci\u003eWit's Treasury\u003c\/i\u003e. Orgel is a scholar of unique standing in his field. This is a book to be welcomed wherever Renaissance literature is taught and enjoyed. * Greg Walker, University of Edinburgh *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e A Note on Quotations\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Classicizing England\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. The Uses of Prosody\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. The Sound of Classical\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. What Classical Looks Like\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. From Black Letter to Roman\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Staging the Classical\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7. Looking Backward\u003cbr\u003e Coda\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405746643287,"sku":"9780812253276","price":24.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780812253276.jpg?v=1730493469","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/wits-treasury-9780812253276","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}