By Anne Leader
Renowned Renaissance scholar Paul Oskar Kristeller died on 7 June 1999 in New York, where he had been professor of philosophy at Columbia University. He was 94. Kristeller published over 200 books and articles on Renaissance humanism and Renaissance philosophy and is known for his six-volume catalog of Italian Renaissance manuscripts, Iter Italicum (Italian Journey). Born in Berlin on 22 May 1905, Kristeller received PhDs in philosophy from the University of Heidelberg (1928) and the University of Pisa (1937). Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1939, he taught in Florence, Pisa, and New Haven. He became F.J.E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy Emeritus in 1973 but continued lecturing and publishing into the 1990s. Kristeller served as president of the Renaissance Society of America and the Medieval Academy of America. Art historians especially appreciate his work on manuscripts and Neo-Platonism, as well as his writings on the intellectual and philosophical context of Renaissance art.
Reference: Cynthia M. Pyle. “Kristeller, Paul Oskar.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.