Centres and Peripheries in the History of Philosophical Thought = Centri e periferie nella storia del pensiero filosofico : Essays in Honour of Loris Sturlese

This volume is an homage to the great intellectual contribution made by Loris Sturlese in the field of the history of medieval philosophy. Its topic has been inspired by Sturlese’s methodological intuition, according to which in a historical and conceptual reconstruction of medieval philosophical thought the focus should not only be devoted to the classical, most famous centers for the transmission and elaboration of knowledge, but also to the so-called peripheries, where texts and ideas circulated as well. In this volume, the notions of ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ are not understood in a merely geographical sense, but also in conceptual, linguistic, historical and literary terms. The richness of this approach is demonstrated by the broad spectrum of the contributions present in the volume, which range from Islamic philosophy to Italian Renaissance, including the reception of ancient philosophy as well as of Arabic scientifical works in the Latin world, and eighteenth-century French geography. A special attention is devoted to the philosophical thought developed the German area. This fruitful perspective is applied to important medieval figures, such as Dante, as well as to central philosophical notions, such as the concept of rationality. The volume explores connections, ruptures, relations and affinities through the analysis of paradigmatic figures, places and topics within the micro- and macro-histories of philosophy.