The focus of this article is Alamanno Donati's On the Excellence of Intellect and Will (1482-1487). This short treatise provides further evidence for the connection between humanist and scholastic thinkers in Renaissance Florence, and their common interest in philosophical and theological questions which were part of the medieval héritage. Because of his untimely death, Donati cannot be regarded as a figure of major impor tance; nonetheless, his significance lies in the fact that he was able to bridge the gap between a humanist-oriented philosopher such as Marsilio Ficino and contemporary scholastic thinkers such as Vincenzo Bandello and Giorgio Benigno Salviati. This ar ticle attempts to show how, according to Donati, self-reflexivity becomes both the condition through which man can make use of his highest powers - the intellect and the will - and the instrument through which he becomes closer to God; thus, it is es sential to both theology and ethic