Ronald G Witt
| Title: | Professor Emeritus |
| Office Location: | 129 Carr Building |
| Office Phone: | (919) 684-3458 |
| Email Address: | rwitt@duke.edu |
Education
- PhD Harvard University, 1965
Research Interests
My interest is in the discontinuities and continuities between medieval and early European thought and especially in France and Italy. My most recent book, In the Footsteps of the Ancients. The Origins of Italian Humanism 1250-1420 interprets early Italian humanism in the light of earlier Italian intellectual traditions. A second book, still in the writing stage, entitled The Two Cultures of Medieval Italy 800-1250 traces the interrelationship between the documentary and book culture of medieval Italy.
Current Projects
My wife and I are very much interested in Renaissance Dance and have frequently taught the dances to interested students. In addition, we have three children.
Awards/Recognitions
I have been awarded the Alumni Teaching Award, Guggenheim Scholarship, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, Old Dominion Trust Award, Fulbright Research in Two Countries; and four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I am currently serving as the Vice-President of the Renaissance Society of America (2000-2002).
Recent Publications
Books- The Italian Difference: Two Cultures of Medieval Italy (800-1250) (2003). Manuscript in circulation
- Humanism and Reform collected essays in Variorum Series (Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, 2001).
- "Introduction." Petrarch's De otio religioso (2002): 3-23. trans. Susan Shearer
- "Ars dictaminis, Cambridge Literary History of the Middle Ages." (2002). to appear
- "Forthcoming: Introduction to Petrarch." De otio religioso (2001). trans. Susan Schearer