The renaissance self

The scope and accomplishment of Renaissance literary and visual forms of self-expression, regardless of the mode of their interpretation today, offer proof of the idea of the Renaissance as an age of creation of the modern self. Extensive research has indicated that selfconstruction is the product of a combination of social, economic, political and intellectu-al forces. Still, can they determine the self fully or is there also something that cannot be processed? Letters, astrological and alchemical studies, drama and theatre and, in particular, Renaissance Neoplatonism, indicate that the Renaissance self, the elite self at least, is free and resistent, strongly individualized. Homo humanus is in harmony with the constructed ego ideal of his age but he is also focused on gnothi seautón, conscious of his own singolarita, unique and inimitable.