Summus Mathematicus et Omnis Humanitatis Pater: The Vitae of Vittorino da Feltre and the Spirit of Humanism

This book revises the picture of the teacher and educator of princes, Vittorino Rambaldoni da Feltre (c. 1378, Feltre -- 1446, Mantua), taking a completely new approach to show his work and life from the individual perspectives created by his students and contemporaries. From 1423 to 1446, Vittorino da Feltre was in charge of a school in Mantua, where his students included not only the offspring of Italy’s princes, but also the first generation of authors dealing with books in print. Among his students were historians like Bartolomeo Sacchi (named Platina), who wrote an extensive history of the popes, and mathematicians like Jacopo Cassiano (Cremonensis), who translated the work of Archimedes from Greek into Latin. Vittorino is still regarded as the educationalist of Italian Renaissance humanism per sé. This work not only contributes to the study of the history of Italian humanist institutions, it also uses available sources to demonstrate the development of a new attitude to education in Italy.