Paolo Sarpi: Between Renaissance and Enlightenment

by David Wootton

Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623) is remembered as the defender of Venice against the Papal Interdict of 1606 and as the first, and greatest, historian of the Counter-Reformation. The sources of his undoubted hostility to clerical authority have always been a matter of controversy; many contemporaries claimed that Sarpi was an 'atheist', while to others his anticlericalism suggested that he was in secret a Protestant. In the present book David Wootton argues that Sarpi's public opinions must be assessed in the light of the views expressed in his private papers. Starting from the Pensiere, in which Sarpi formulated a series of philosophical and historical arguments against Christianity, Mr Wootton seeks to reinterpret Sarpi's life work as being the expression, not of a love of intellectual liberty, nor of a commitment to Protestantism, but of a carefully thought out hostility to doctrinal religion. This interpretation of Sarpi serves to cast new light on the man and his work. But it also throws new light on the intellectual history of his age. Historians such as Lucien Febvre and R. H. Popkin have sought to deny the existence of systematic unbelief in Sarpi's day. Others, such as Christopher Hill and Carlo Ginzburg, have found evidence of a radical, popular tradition of unbelief. This book seeks, through its account of Sarpi's beliefs, to penetrate the hypocrisy which contemporaries agreed characterised the age, and to lay the foundations for a new understanding of the intellectual origins of unbelief.

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

MA, PhD (Cantab), FRHistS

David Wootton is Anniversary Professor of History. He works on the intellectual and cultural history of the English speaking countries, Italy, and France, 1500-1800. He is currently writing a book entitled Power, Pleasure and Profit based on his Carlyle Lectures at the University of Oxford in 2014. His most recent book is The Invention of Science, published by Allen Lane.

In 2016 he will give the annual Besterman Lecture at the University of Oxford.

He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, and has held positions in history and politics at four British and four Canadian universities, and visiting postions in the US, before coming to York.

Reviews

[Matt McCormick · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many important but hardly known personalities in history. I appreciated having had an opportunity to learn more about a figure who was, in some important ways, out-of-step with his times, while still playing an important role in the history of ideas and the history of the pre-Enlightenment.

Sarpi was brilliant, courageous, complicated and cynical. His personal journals make clear that he had little respect for organized religion and his opinions were based on rational thought rather than emotion. His intelligence and writing talents allowed him to represent Venice in it's fight with the papacy. His good sense allowed him to "mask" his deeply held thoughts wand avoid the stake.

Wooton's book is not so much a biography and an intellectual evaluation of Sarpi's role as a non-believer. It book makes a case that Sarpi, while unique, wasn't alone.