Critical Responses to the Humanist Work Ethic: The Image of the Pedant

Abstract

While the humanist cult of diligence and hard work may have represented a positive moral code for aspiring members of the Republic of Letters, it did not go uncontested. The ambitious pursuit of bookish study clashed in many aspects with wider social values, such as courtesy, civility, and good manners. This chapter explores critical responses to the new humanist work ethic by focusing on the notion of “pedantry.” First appearing in early sixteenth-century Italian comedy, the pedant offers us an outsider’s perspective, a negative stereotype of humanist intellectuals that highlights the anti-social nature of excessive studiousness. Hypercritical and cantankerous, parading obscure and useless knowledge, the pedant thus presents a revealing foil for the humanists’ influential self-depiction. Bringing together anti-humanist criticism and humanist responses, this chapter seeks to illuminate how the humanist rhetoric of hard work provoked a counternarrative that would prove at least equally powerful and effective.