James Hankins (born 1955) is an American intellectual historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance. He is the general editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library and the associate editor of the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum. He was a professor of history at Harvard University. In spring 2018, he was a visiting research fellow at the University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.
In 2012, he was honored with the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award of the Renaissance Society of America. In December 2025, he announced that he was leaving Harvard University in favor of the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education of the University of Florida because he believed Harvard University was no longer committed to teaching the history of Western civilization.
Books in order of publication:
The Humanism of Leonardo Bruni, 1987 (ed. and tr.), with Gordan Griffiths
Supplementum Festivum: Studies in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, 1987 (ed.), with John Monfasani and Frederick Purnell
Plato in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols., 1990
Repertorium Brunianum: A Critical Guide to the Writings of Leonardo Bruni, vol. 1, 1997
Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections, 2000 (ed.)
The Lost Continent: Neo-Latin Literature and the Birth of European Vernacular Literatures, 2001 (ed.)
Leonardo Bruni: History of the Florentine People, 3 vols. 2001-7 (ed. and tr.)
Marsilio Ficino: Platonic Theology, 6 vols., 2001-6 (ed.)
Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, vols. 8 (2003) and 9 (2011), associate editor
Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols., 2003-4
Maffeo Vegio: Short Epics, 2004 (ed.), with Michael C. J. Putnam
The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy, 2007 (ed.)
The Recovery of Ancient Philosophy in the Renaissance, 2008, with Ada Palmer
Aurelio Lippo Brandolini: Republics and Kingdoms Compared, 2009 (ed. and tr.)
Virtue Politics. Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy, 2019
Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy: The Virtuous Republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena, 2023
The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom, 2025, with Allen C. Guelzo
The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West, 2026, with Allen C. Guelzo
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