An Early Medievalist’s View on Ronald Witt’s «Two Latin Cultures»: Original Questions and Tentative Conclusions

The article discusses the first half of Ronald Witt’s The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy, devoted to the period between the 9th and 11th century. One of the aims of the book is offering a general history of the Latin culture of the Kingdom of Italy in the Early and High Middle Ages. The review thus considers the heuristic value of the conceptual framework proposed by Witt as a means to reconstruct the cultural history of the Kingdom in those centuries and addresses specific features and limits of Witt’s overview. Finally the article discusses how certain more recent studies may help integrate or nuance the reconstruction proposed in the book.