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WORK TITLE: Know Thyself
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 6/18/1952
WEBSITE:
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born June 18, 1952, in Rome, Italy; daughter of Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman; married; children: two.
EDUCATION:Received B.A., master’s degree, and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and educator; taught Italian literature and film at Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Princeton University, and elsewhere.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ingrid Rossellini, the daughter of actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini, is an academic specializing in Italian literature and the development of Italian film. Her survey of Western civilization is Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance, in which she “forefronts philosophy, literature, representational art, and architecture,” stated Booklist reviewer Roy Olson, “and how those disciplines express conceptions of human nature.” Know Thyself traces the history of the Western concept of the self over a period of about two thousand years, beginning with philosophers like Plato and Aristotle and concluding with the works of Francesca Petrarcha (Petrarch) and the arrival of the Protestant Reformation.
Rossellini’s title reflects one of the key ideas that characterizes Western civilization: the conflict between the individual and the world. The phrase “‘Know Thyself’ was etched on Apollo’s temple at Delphi,” explained Roger Bishop in BookPage, “but it has meant different things to people throughout the ages. In Greece it was understood as knowing one’s role within society.” In modern society, Rossellini explained in the introduction to Know Thyself, “the common assumption is that the individual self is a fully autonomous and original entity, capable of selecting whatever path her or she decides to entertain in a way that is completely independent from traditional views and expectations. Individual identity, as we conceptualize it today, is something like a kit whose parts can be chosen, styled, and assembled at will: a do-it-yourself enterprise.” For much of ancient history, however, individual identity was formed by relationships to family, to the state, and to religion. Know Thyself “has glimmers of wonder, as when the author conveys the essence (and putrefying flesh) of a fascinating character”—in this case, the hermit Simeon Stylites, who lived near the town of Aleppo in Syria at the top of a long pillar, and used to tie himself to the top so that he could remain upright during Lent as a sign of piety.
Know Thyself, said Rossellini, is not intended to be a work of scholarship. “This book,” she wrote in the introduction to her book “is meant to be … a guide addressed to the lay reader who, while genuinely curious to explore the past, often feels intimidated by the excessive complexity of scholarly studies.” Still, “this is no beach book,” concluded a Kirkus Reviews contributor. “Rossellini gives us illuminating classes in art history, Western civilization, philosophy, and religion, all rolled into one book that must be read closely and pondered fully.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Rossellini, Ingrid, Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2018.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2018, Ray Olson, review of Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance, p. 4.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2018, review of Know Thyself.
Publishers Weekly, March 19, 2018, review of Know Thyself, p. 65.
ONLINE
BookPage, https://bookpage.com/ (May 22, 2018), Roger Bishop, review of Know Thyself.
INGRID ROSSELLINI was born in Rome and educated there, and later received a BA, master’s, and Ph.D. in Italian Literature from Columbia, writing her dissertation on Petrarch. She has taught literature and Italian film at Columbia, NYU, Harvard, Princeton, and other universities. She is the daughter of the actress Ingrid Bergman and the director Roberto Rossellini; Isabella Rossellini is her sister. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance
Ray Olson
Booklist. 114.16 (Apr. 15, 2018): p4+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance.
By Ingrid Rossellini.
May 2018. 496p. illus. Doubleday, $28.95 (9780385541886). 306.
Rumors of the death of Western civilization must be questioned when a work of popular history as absorbing and readable as this is published. While necessarily recording major political events in the successive eras she covers, Rossellini forefronts philosophy, literature, representational art, and architecture, and how those disciplines express conceptions of human nature. The idealism of classical Greece, the hierarchy and realism of imperial Rome, Christian antirationalism and feudalism in the early Middle Ages, resurgent secularism in the later Middle Ages, and the emergence of humanism and individual personality during the Renaissance, especially in Italy--these are the domains of the books five parts. Each era made its successors possible; the achievements of Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, Phidias, and Polyclitus; of Cicero, Virgil, the portrait bust, and monumental building; of Augustine, monasticism, and Neoplatonism; of the university, the Gothic cathedral, Giotto, and Dante; of the Italian city-state, Petrarch, Donatello, Botticelli, and Michelangelo remained inspirational to all that succeeded them. Rossellini describes those achievements with exemplary clarity and concision, provides pertinent illustrations of them (though sometimes at too small a scale), and notes the persistence of slavery and women's oppression in each period. New Western civ classes could ask for no better overview.--Ray Olson
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Olson, Ray. "Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2018, p. 4+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537267978/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0ded6aeb. Accessed 26 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537267978
Rossellini, Ingrid: KNOW THYSELF
Kirkus Reviews. (Mar. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rossellini, Ingrid KNOW THYSELF Doubleday (Adult Nonfiction) $28.95 5, 22 ISBN: 978-0-385-54188-6
Polymath Rossellini shares the fruits of her broad knowledge of literature, philosophy, art, and history in this dense yet highly rewarding work in which readers "return to the early times of our history with the intention of rediscovering the building blocks of our contemporary personality."
The author, who has taught at Columbia, Harvard, and other prestigious universities, begins with the ancient Greeks and works her way through the eras of the Romans, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Collaborating with others is an innate human characteristic, and few civilizations illustrated that trait better than the Spartans and Athenians. The Spartans were isolationist while the Athenians were open and embracing of their culture. In both societies, a person's social group determined who they were and what was expected of them. The author appropriately devotes a good portion of the book to Greece and the development of philosophy, focusing on the legacies of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great as well as the development of art, drama, and the theater and the role of mixed government. The Roman Republic carried that idea through with a perfect mix of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, which prevented the tyranny of the few or the many. Rossellini then moves on to the growth of Christianity, which distrusted reason and separated the mind from the soul. Suddenly the church, rather than the state, was essential to survival. Art was idolatry; doubt denied salvation, and guilt became the overriding mood. The church became a temporal leader, controlling kings and calling for the rise of the Crusades. In the Middle Ages, cities grew rapidly while infrastructure improved and universities and scholarship flourished. The author ends with humanism and the Renaissance, completing a highly satisfying journey across centuries of culture.
This is no beach book. Rossellini gives us illuminating classes in art history, Western civilization, philosophy, and religion, all rolled into one book that must be read closely and pondered fully.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rossellini, Ingrid: KNOW THYSELF." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650701/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=49860a09. Accessed 26 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650701
Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance
Publishers Weekly. 265.12 (Mar. 19, 2018): p65.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance
Ingrid Rossellini. Doubleday, $28.95 (496p)
ISBN 978-0-385-54188-6
A scholar of Italian literature and European history tackles an ambitious project: tracing changing ideas about collective versus individual identity from 2000 BCE to the 16th century. According to Rossellini, her work is intended for lay readers, but, unfortunately, the theoretical framework--the shift from communitarian to individualistic thinking, and the implications for civil society--is so loosely constructed that it feels more like a thread lost in an enormous tapestry. Major figures share slivers of Rossellini's expansive time line in close proximity: two Holy Roman Emperors, Charlemagne and Otto I, and one pope, John XII, share a single paragraph. The book has glimmers of wonder, as when the author conveys the essence (and putrefying flesh) of a fascinating character, a solitary ascetic: "the most extravagant anchorite of all was Simeon Stylites, who lived perched on a 60-foot-high column for 30 uninterrupted years" anchored by a rope that cut into his body. Rossellini's epic is dazzling, disorienting, and ultimately disappointing--too often a catalogue of names, dates, and places that falls short of her stated aim of promoting a more civic-minded sensibility in a self-centric moment. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance." Publishers Weekly, 19 Mar. 2018, p. 65. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A531977379/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=86c4b95b. Accessed 26 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A531977379
Web Exclusive – May 22, 2018
Know Thyself
An unexamined life is not worth living
BookPage review by Roger Bishop
Ingrid Rossellini’s Know Thyself: Western Identity From Classical Greece to the Renaissance, is a rich and engaging introduction (or reintroduction) to major ideas—particularly visual arts, literature, philosophy and religion—that influenced the development of Western civilization. Rossellini focuses on Greek and Roman antiquity, the Middle Ages, Humanism and the Renaissance. Her sweeping survey is meant for the general reader who is interested in—but perhaps intimidated by—academic studies. Well-written and interdisciplinary, Know Thyself wisely emphasizes the visual arts, since for thousands of years they were the only means of mass communication.
The motto “Know Thyself” was etched on Apollo’s temple at Delphi, but it has meant different things to people throughout the ages. In Greece it was understood as knowing one’s role within society. Through the years it has been interpreted within the frame of government or religion. Quite different approaches have shaped the ways of history. Rossellini includes incisive discussions about, among many others, the differing views of Plato and Aristotle, of Pythagoras “who best succeeded in finding a point of convergence between mystical aspirations and scientific conclusions,” and Thomas Aquinas, who believed that if reason were properly used it would always support the Christian faith. At the heart of Niccolo Machiavelli’s thought was a profound sense of disenchantment with human nature. “Men are fickle cowards, greedy and envious,” he wrote.
During the Renaissance, faith remained central but the Reformation and the advance of science led to greater understanding of the place of humans in the universe. Excellence and originality in art were abundant but rather than the result of creative freedom, artists produced what their rich patrons demanded. There are well-done descriptions of works of art and their background and over 100 color photos of famous paintings.
Rossellini is an independent scholar who has taught at major American universities. Her excellent overview enlightens and entertains and should be of interest to many readers.