HELIKON - IRODALOMTUDOMÁNYI SZEMLE 55. ÉVFOLYAM (2009)

2009 / 1-2. sz.

Intellectual History and Literary Studies The foundation of the International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) in the middle of the '90s has proved to be a turning point of the recent history of intellectual history to such extent as its founders have tended to re-evaluate the international role of their fields of interest in order to draw attention to those underlying changes which had transformed the classical discipline of the history of ideas (histoire des idées, storia delle idee, Ideengeschichte etc.) into modern intellectual history. The lessons of the cultural, pictorial and linguistic turns have been acknowledged by these intellectual historians, at the very same time, however, intellectual history soberly turns towards the ephemeral nature of intellectual fashions and it is characterised by the common efforts of early modern and Renaissance scholars-the clear majority of the founders of the ISIH-to create harmony between phi­lology and philosophy. Due to the fact that one could be reminded by its new encyclopaedism to the heterogeneous territory defined by the pre-modern notions of literature, intellectual history proves to be particularly inspiring for the study of the literary history of pre-Enlightenment periods. Besides the article written by Donald R. Kelley, the first president of the ISIH and emeritus execu­tive editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas, in our collection of studies we gathered contribu­tions from the founding father of the Cambridge school of the history of political thought, Quentin Skinner; as well as from the current director of the Renaissance Society of America, one of the lead­ing sholars of renaissance studies in the world, John Monfasani; and from the distinct professor of early modern studies at Oxford, Howard Hotson, who prepared his paper precisely to our issue. We are truly grateful to the above professors and their publishers for transferring the copyrights of the translation of their papers. The Hungarian contributors of our issue are also eminent scholars of intellectual history, among them the internationally renowned Sándor Bene, László Kontler, Gábor Kecskeméti, Benedek Varga, György Endre Szőnyi. Péter Gulyás and Tamás Scheibner represent the most promising members of the younger generation, as well as the authors of our thematically conceived of book reviews, Ferenc Laczó and Csaba Maczelka. The contributions of the above authors provide a fairly eclectic perspec­tive of the current trends of modern intellectual history. The major aim of this collection of papers is to present this variegation. MÁRTON SZENTPÉTERI and MÁRTON ZÁSZKALICZKY are the editors of the present issue. THE EDITORIAL BOARD Intellectual history et la science littéraire Au milieu des années 90, la fondation de l'International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) a été un tournant dans les études de l'histoire des idées: l'objectif de ses fondateurs était de réévaluer le rôle international de leur spécialité et d'attirer l'attention sur les changements importants qui avaient remarquablement transformé la discipline plutôt traditionnelle de l'histoire des idées (history of ideas, Ideengeschicte, storia delle idee, etc). « La nouvelle histoire des idées » affronte les conclusions du « tournant linguistique », du « tournant visuel » et du « tournant culturel », mais, tout en se rendant compte de la nature éphémère de toute mode, elle souhaite toujours créer une certaine solidarité entre la philologie et la philosophie. Cette nouvelle approche peut être tout particulièrement fructueuse dans le domaine de l'histoire littéraire des époques précédant les Lumières, étant donné que son nouvel encyclopédisme affiche une parenté avec le monde des notions prémodernes, monde plus riche et plus varié que celui des notions modernes de nature très littéraire. Dans ce numéro, nous publions un texte de Donald R. Kelley, premier président de l'ISIH, ré­dacteur en chef émérite du Journal of the History of Ideas, mais aussi une étude de Quentin Skinner, fondateur de l'école de l'histoire des idées politiques de Cambridge, et un écrit de John Monfasani, président actuel de Renaissance Society of America, de réputation mondiale. Howard Hotson, illustre

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