The book completes and unites into a whole, determined by chronological sequence and a cross-cutting theoretical and methodological task, a cycle of works begun in the book “Italian Renaissance in Search of Individuality” (1989). The content of the book - at the highest points of culture - covers ancient Christian patristics, the French Middle Ages of the 12th century, the emergence of humanistic self-awareness in the 14th century. and its crisis at the beginning of the XVI century. Among the sections of the book: `Machiavelli: individuality and the problem of social action`, `Blessed. Augustine: `Do not dream about yourself`, `Abelard and Heloise: personal feeling and matrices of epochal mentality`, `Loving and composing: Two `I` in the lyrics of Petrarch`, etc.