L’Umanesimo e i suoi mostri. Rinascite e naufragi dell’humanitas tra Hieronymus Bosch, Friedrich Nietzsche e Thomas Mann

The contribution intends to question the traditional and classicist interpretation of Humanism. Through a brief analysis of the theme of “madness” in the late Medieval and Renaissance eras, it is intended to highlight Humanism as an age of transition and crisis. The "dark" side of this enigmatic phase of the history of Western thought is then investigated through the analysis of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting. The painting Ship of Fools, in particular, constitutes the most convincing representation of Nordic Humanism and its “monsters”. The critique of traditional Humanism understood as a philological, erudite and rational movement emerges again in the controversy between Nietzsche and Wilamowitz on the approach to Greek antiquity. The final part of the paper is dedicated to the correspondence between Th. Mann and Kerényi, who wonder whether a Humanism-renaissance is possible after the tragic events of Nazism and war.