Biography

Thomas Gruber is a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Assistant to the Director for Publications and Conferences. He holds a D.Phil. in History from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar at Merton College and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. Before coming to I Tatti, he pursued a career as a strategy consultant, policy advisor to the German Federal Parliament, and consultant to UNESCO. Thomas’ research interests include Renaissance anthropology, the history of unbelief, the methodology of the reception of ideas, and the life and intellectual networks of Ernst H. Kantorowicz. His publications have focused on the transcultural and cross-epochal history of the idea of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as the 'Three Impostors'.

Project Summary

This project seeks to liberate the Catalan philosopher, theologian, and physician, Ramon Sibiuda (d. 1436), from his status of an 'inconnu célèbre', obscured rather than defended by Montaigne's 'Apologie de Raimon Sebond', and to reposition his novel and radically anthropocentrical approach within the context of the Florentine Renaissance, French humanism, and Northern European 'devotio moderna'.