The 1990 Charles Homer Haskins Lecture

Paul Oskar Kristeller is Frederick J. E. Woodbridge Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University. He was born in Berlin, Germany. He holds degrees from the Universities of Heidelberg and Pisa and did postdoctoral work at the Universities of Berlin and Freiburg. He joined the Philosophy Department of Columbia University in 1939, becoming Frederick J. E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy in 1968. He has been a member of several ACLS constituent societies including the American Philosophical Association, the Renaissance Society of America (of which he was president and delegate to ACLS), and the Medieval Academy of America (of which he was also president). He also served for several years as a member of the Committee on Renaissance Studies of the ACLS. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Medieval Academy of America, and the American Philosophical Society He is also a corresponding fellow of academic organizations throughout Europe. He holds honorary degrees from Columbia; the University of Padua; the University of Rome; Middlebury College; Catholic University of America; the University of Rochester; Duke University; Washington University; State University of New York at Binghamton; and the University of Arizona.

Professor Kristeller has held many distinguished fellowships and has received awards for his contributions to the humanities. Most recently, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and the first Newberry Library Award for contribution to the humanities. In 1989 he also received an award for scholarly distinction from the American Historical Association. The author of numerous articles and books, Professor Kristeller has also delivered a variety of lectures in this country and abroad.