Silvio Antoniano, umanista ed educatore nel «rinnovamento» cattolico del Cinquecento

Starting from Elisabetta Patrizi’s recent studies on cardinal Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603), «humanist and educator in the age of Catholic renewal», this paper remarks again the relevance of his figure. He took part in the attempt of rethinking the use of the intellectual tools (humanistic and rhetorical equipment, book knowledge, moral and religious institutio) with a new purpose: the firm rooting of Catholic faith chiefly in the ecclesiastical order and the social élites of early Counter-Reformation Italy. Between Papal Rome and Carlo Borromeo’s Milan a project of «rechristianization» is outlined, in which the most marked turning points are weaved together with the revival and original development of a tradition that is influenced, at its highest degrees, by the canons of «Christian classicism».