The term intellectuals(s) has been in use for scarcely more than one century. What is its definition? What conditions of possibility govern the emergence of the Modern intellectual? How many of these conditions can be traced to the past? The typological approach used here sets the origin of the intellectual’s role and status in the new paradigm of power established in Carolingian times (781–804), which displayed a peculiar axiom: the idea that all Power is intrinsically divisible. This view was already five centuries-old when Petrarch claimed the autonomous position of cultural critic—not the Modern intellectual’s status, but some of his authority, though on different grounds.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Letocha, D., (2025), "Anachronisme et légitimité de la notion d’intellectuel pré-moderne", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: Letocha, Danièle. "Anachronisme et légitimité de la notion d’intellectuel pré-moderne." Renaissance and Reformation 36 (4): 2020. 7-28. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v36i4.8659. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.