I Toland di Eugenio Garin

This essay examines Eugenio Garin’s periodization of a ‘long’ Humanism, stretching from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, and, more in general, the heuristic value of periodization and of historiographical concepts. Firstly, Garin’s early studies on the British moralists are examined, taking into consideration his emphasis on the moral aspects of the British Enlightenment and its historiographical foundation in Ernst Cassirer’s and Delio Cantimori’s concept of a ‘long’ Humanism. Secondly, the essay addresses Garin’s writings on civic humanism, where the religious aspects of his thought are replaced by pedagogical and political concerns. Finally, Garin’s works from the 1970s, devoted to the relationship between hermeticism and scientific revolution, are considered; these show the disagreement between Garin and Franco Venturi on Cantimori’s periodization. In conclusion, the essay demonstrates how that the concept of a ‘long’ Humanism provided Garin with a flexible paradigm, refined through his dialogue with Cassirer, Cantimori and Venturi.