TRADIZIONE E ILLUMINISMO IN URIEL DA COSTA

Records from the National Convention of 29th-30th September 2015, Macerata

The essays collected in this book develop the contributions presented during the international convention which the Deparment of Humanities of the University of Macerata dedicated to Uriel Da Costa’s life and works (Porto, 1583?- Amsterdam 1640?). The convention, held 29-30th September 2015, was designed to foster reflection on many historical issues and problems concerning Exame das tradiçoes phariseas. Da Costa’s work was discovered by Herman Prins Salomon in 1990, and eum published a critical edition in 2014, thus offering to the Italian reader the work with all the complexity of its multiple sources. The book deals with Da Costan issues of culture as a complex interweaving of different worlds and cultures. It follows Da Costa’s themes through the medieval Averroistic, Jewish and Latin tradition (Gersonide, lsaac Albalag, Moshè Narboni, Jean de Jandun), through the Renaissance and modern thought (Elia del Medigo, Pietro Pomponazzi, Baruch Spinoza), through the heterodox literature of the 16th and 17th centuries (Michele Serveto, Martin Seidel, Ernst Soner, Fausto Sozzini, Adam Boreel), and, eventually, through the theological-philosophical works of some famous authors belonging to the German Enlightenment, such as Reimarus or Lessing. The book attempts to unite Da Costa’s past with his legacy, which means his tradition and his “enlightened” thought.