With reference to selected examples, the volume highlights various aspects of literary studies since the Age of Humanism, concentrating on the history of its institutions, the contest between rival methodologies and the 'difficult'question of pluralism. Over and above the kind of perspective customarily taken on the discipline, the volume trains its sights on the academic precursors of literary studies in the earlier stages of Humanism. With reference to various examples it points up the creative tensions existing between influential individual scholars and the various 'schools'. A section of the book is given over to studies designed to trace the genesis of the present-day pluralism that many find so disconcerting. An attempt is also made to contribute to ongoing historically oriented reflection on method and methodologies via provisional résumés.