korrents

What Ada Palmer thinks about Europe

@ada-palmer · 37 positions · 0 changes of mind

Historian of the Renaissance and of the history of ideas, professor at the University of Chicago, author of Inventing the Renaissance and the Terra Ignota novels, and writer of the blog Ex Urbe.

Ada Palmer did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

5 dated positions, 2020 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Ada Palmer has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingThe papacy made Italy uniquely unstable in Europe, because each new pope inherited a precedent that he could overthrow any government he liked.

    Their wordsAnd soon we have a precedent that every new pope feels he has the authority to knock down every pawn upon the chessboard if he feels like it. Once that is the norm, even a fairly nice pope still inherits the idea that the pope is going to overthrow and replace governments. And this creates a unique instability within Italy that no other part of Europe is subject to

    ↗Machiavelli is the most misunderstood thinker of all time – Ada Palmeryoutube.com 2nd of 26 in this recording

    government

    Interesting

  3. Our readingMachiavelli is the first person in the European tradition to suggest that two political parties could exist in one state at once and be viable.

    Their wordsMachiavelli is the first person that we have ever in the European tradition to suggest that it could be viable for there to be more than one political party in a state at the same time.

    ↗Machiavelli is the most misunderstood thinker of all time – Ada Palmeryoutube.com 5th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting
  4. 6 years earlier

  5. Our readingThe Renaissance and early modern period were not a better time to be alive than the Middle Ages they are said to have rescued Europe from.

    Their wordsAs a Renaissance historian, I feel it’s my job to shoulder the other half of the load by talking about what the Renaissance was like, confirming that our Medievalists are right, it wasn’t a better time to live than the Middle Ages

    ↗Black Death, COVID, and Why We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Agesexurbe.com 2nd of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  7. Our readingThe plague did not pass through in 1348 and leave: it stayed endemic in Europe for nearly four centuries afterwards.

    Their wordsin school they talk as if the plague swept through in 1348 then went away, but the bubonic plague did not go away, it remained endemic, like influenza or chickenpox today, a fact of life.

    ↗Black Death, COVID, and Why We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Agesexurbe.com 5th of 6 in this piece

    Interesting

  9. Our readingPlague receded from Europe through fourteen generations of natural selection, not through any advance in medicine.

    Their wordswhen plague finally diminished in Europe, not because of any advance in medicine, but because fourteen generations of exposure gave natural selection time to work

    ↗Black Death, COVID, and Why We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Agesexurbe.com 6th of 6 in this piece

    Interesting