James Hankins (born 1955) is an American intellectual historian specializing in the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

. He is the general editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library and the associate editor of the '' Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum''. He is a professor in the History Department of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In spring 2018, he was a visiting research fellow at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

Center for Ethics and Culture. In 2012 he was honored with the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award of the Renaissance Society of America.

Education and early career

Hankins was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania. He earned an A.B. in Classics from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

(1977) and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in history from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

(1985). At Columbia, he worked with Eugene F. Rice and the historian of philosophy Paul Oskar Kristeller, serving as the latter's research assistant for six years. In 1985 he joined the history faculty at

Work and recognition

Hankins' monographic work centers on the history of philosophy, theology, literature and political thought. Since 1998 he has been general editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library, which he founded together with Walter Kaiser, director of the Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Under Hankins' editorship the series has published over fifty volumes between 2001 and 2012 and sold close to 80,000 volumes. Since 2003 he has also been associate editor of the ''Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Translations and Commentaries, Annotated Lists and Guides'', a publication founded by his mentor Paul Oskar Kristeller in 1945. He is the author or editor of over twenty volumes and more than eighty articles, essays and book chapters. Many of his shorter writings are accessible online, via "Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard" (DASH). Hankins has been a Fulbright Scholar, a member of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at

, a fellow and visiting professor at the Villa I Tatti, a Guggenheim fellow, a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin, a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and a recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. In 2010 he was Carlyle Lecturer in the History of Political Thought at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. In 2014 he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Books

* ''The Humanism of Leonardo Bruni'', 1987 (ed. and tr.), with Gordan Griffiths * ''Supplementum Festivum: Studies in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller'', 1987 (ed.), with John Monfasani and Frederick Purnell * ''Plato in the Italian Renaissance'', 2 vols., 1990 * ''Repertorium Brunianum: A Critical Guide to the Writings of Leonardo Bruni'', vol. 1, 1997 * ''Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections'', 2000 (ed.) * ''The Lost Continent: Neo-Latin Literature and the Birth of European Vernacular Literatures'', 2001 (ed.) * ''Leonardo Bruni: History of the Florentine People'', 3 vols. 2001-7 (ed. and tr.) * ''Marsilio Ficino: Platonic Theology'', 6 vols., 2001-6 (ed.) * ''Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum'', vols. 8 (2003) and 9 (2011), associate editor * ''Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance'', 2 vols., 2003-4 * ''Maffeo Vegio: Short Epics'', 2004 (ed.), with Michael C. J. Putnam * ''The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy'', 2007 (ed.) * ''The Recovery of Ancient Philosophy in the Renaissance'', 2008, with Ada Palmer * ''Aurelio Lippo Brandolini: Republics and Kingdoms Compared'', 2009 (ed. and tr.) * ''Virtue Politics. Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy'', 2019 * ''Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy: The Virtuous Republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena'', 2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hankins, James 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Living people 1955 births Historians of the Renaissance Corresponding fellows of the British Academy American male non-fiction writers Duke University alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Columbia University faculty Harvard University Department of History faculty