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Renaissance humanism is aworldview centered on the nature and importance of humanity that emerged from the study ofClassical antiquity.
Renaissance humanists sought to create acitizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity, and thus capable of engaging in thecivic life of their communities and persuading others tovirtuous andprudent actions. Humanism, while set up by a small elite who had access to books and education, was intended as acultural movement to influence all of society. It was a program to revive the cultural heritage, literary legacy, and moral philosophy of theGreco-Roman civilization.
It first beganin Italy and then spread acrossWestern Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the termhumanist (Italian:umanista) referred to teachers and students of thehumanities, known as thestudia humanitatis, which included the study ofLatin andAncient Greek literatures,grammar,rhetoric,history,poetry, andmoral philosophy. It was not until the 19th century that this began to be calledhumanism instead of the originalhumanities, and later by theretronymRenaissance humanism to distinguish it from later humanist developments.[2]
During theRenaissance period most humanists wereChristians, so their concern was to "purify and renewChristianity", not to do away with it. Their vision was to returnad fontes ("to the pure sources") tothe Gospels, theNew Testament and theChurch Fathers, bypassing the complexities ofmedieval Christian theology.[3]
Very broadly, the project of the Italian Renaissance humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was thestudia humanitatis: the study of thehumanities, "a curriculum focusing on language skills."[4] This project sought to recover the culture of ancient Greece and Rome through its literature and philosophy and to use this classical revival to imbue the ruling classes with the moral attitudes of said ancients—a projectJames Hankins calls one of "virtue politics."[5] But what thisstudia humanitatis actually constituted is a subject of much debate. According to one scholar of the movement,
Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the oldTrivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. Thestudia humanitatis excluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history,Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group.[6]
However, in investigating this definition in his article "The changing concept of thestudia humanitatis in the early Renaissance," Benjamin G. Kohl provides an account of the various meanings the term took on over the course of the period.[7]
And so, the termstudia humanitatis took on a variety of meanings over the centuries, being used differently by humanists across the various Italian city-states as one definition got adopted and spread across the country. Still, it has referred consistently to a mode of learning—formal or not—that results in one's moral edification.[7]
Under the influence and inspiration of theclassics, Renaissance humanists developed a new rhetoric and new learning. Some scholars also argue that humanism articulated newmoral andcivic perspectives, andvalues offering guidance in life to allcitizens. Renaissance humanism was a response to what came to be depicted by laterwhig historians as the "narrow pedantry" associated with medievalscholasticism.[9]
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 The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486) byBotticelli |
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In the last years of the13th century and in the first decades of the14th century, the cultural climate was changing in some European regions. The rediscovery, study, and renewed interest in authors who had been forgotten, and in the classical world that they represented, inspired a flourishing return to linguistic, stylistic and literary models of antiquity. There emerged a consciousness of the need for a cultural renewal, which sometimes also meant a detachment from contemporary culture. Manuscripts and inscriptions were in high demand and graphic models were also imitated. This "return to the ancients" was the main component of so-called "pre-humanism", which developed particularly inTuscany, in theVeneto region, and at the papal court ofAvignon, through the activity of figures such asLovato Lovati andAlbertino Mussato in Padua,Landolfo Colonna in Avignon,Ferreto de' Ferreti in Vicenza,Convenevole from Prato in Tuscany and then inAvignon, and many others.[10]
By the 14th century some of the first humanists were great collectors of antiquemanuscripts, includingPetrarch,Giovanni Boccaccio,Coluccio Salutati, andPoggio Bracciolini. Of the four, Petrarch was dubbed the "Father of Humanism," as he was the one who first encouraged the study of pagan civilizations and the teaching of classical virtues as a means of preserving Christianity.[5] He also had alibrary, of which many manuscripts did not survive.[11][citation needed] Many worked for theCatholic Church and were inholy orders, like Petrarch, while others werelawyers andchancellors of Italian cities, and thus had access to book copying workshops, such as Petrarch's discipleSalutati, theChancellor of Florence.
In Italy, the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th century, many of theupper classes had received humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditionalscholastic ones. Some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was CardinalBasilios Bessarion, aconvert to the Catholic Church fromGreek Orthodoxy, who was considered for thepapacy, and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There were several 15th-century and early 16th-century humanist Popes[12] one of whom,Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), was a prolific author and wrote a treatise onThe Education of Boys.[13] These subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement which they inspired is shown as humanism.
The migration waves ofByzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the Crusadersacking of Constantinople and theend of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 was a very welcome addition to the Latin texts scholars like Petrarch had found in monastic libraries[14] for the revival ofGreek literature and science via their greater familiarity with ancient Greek works.[15][16] They includedGemistus Pletho,George of Trebizond,Theodorus Gaza, andJohn Argyropoulos.
There were important centres of Renaissance humanism inBologna,Ferrara,Florence,Genoa,Livorno,Mantua,Padua,Pisa,Naples,Rome,Siena,Venice,Vicenza, andUrbino.
Italian humanism spread northward toFrance,Germany, theLow Countries, Poland-Lithuania, Hungary andEngland with the adoption of large-scale printing after 1500, and it became associated with theReformation. In France, pre-eminent humanistGuillaume Budé (1467–1540) applied thephilological methods of Italian humanism to the study of antiquecoinage and tolegal history, composing a detailed commentary onJustinian's Code. Budé was aroyal absolutist (and not arepublican like the early Italianumanisti) who was active in civic life, serving as adiplomat forFrançois I and helping to found theCollège des Lecteurs Royaux (later theCollège de France). Meanwhile,Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of François I, was apoet,novelist, andreligious mystic[17] who gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, includingClément Marot,Pierre de Ronsard, andFrançois Rabelais.
Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II,Sixtus IV, andLeo X,[18][19] and there was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures.[20] Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before and after the Reformation, which was greatly influenced by the work of non-Italian, Northern European figures such asErasmus,Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples,William Grocyn, and Swedish Catholic Archbishop in exileOlaus Magnus.
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy describes therationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact onRenaissance scholars:
Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature.[21]
In 1417, for example,Poggio Bracciolini discovered the manuscript ofLucretius,De rerum natura, which had been lost for centuries and which contained an explanation ofEpicurean doctrine, though at the time this was not commented on much by Renaissance scholars, who confined themselves to remarks about Lucretius's grammar andsyntax.
Only in 1564 did French commentator Denys Lambin (1519–72) announce in the preface to the work that "he regarded Lucretius's Epicurean ideas as 'fanciful, absurd, and opposed to Christianity'." Lambin's preface remained standard until the nineteenth century.[22] Epicurus's unacceptable doctrine that pleasure was the highest good "ensured the unpopularity of his philosophy".[23]Lorenzo Valla, however, puts a defense of epicureanism in the mouth of one of the interlocutors of one of his dialogues.
Charles Trinkhaus regards Valla's "epicureanism" as a ploy, not seriously meant by Valla, but designed to refute Stoicism, which he regarded together with epicureanism as equally inferior to Christianity.[24] Valla's defense, or adaptation, of Epicureanism was later taken up inThe Epicurean byErasmus, the "Prince of humanists:"
If people who live agreeably areEpicureans, none are more trulyEpicurean than the righteous and godly. And if it is names that bother us, no one better deserves the name of Epicurean than the revered founder and head of theChristian philosophyChrist, for in Greekepikouros means "helper". He alone, when thelaw of Nature was all but blotted out by sins, when thelaw of Moses incited to lists rather than cured them, whenSatan ruled in the world unchallenged, brought timely aid to perishing humanity. Completely mistaken, therefore, are those who talk in their foolish fashion about Christ's having been sad and gloomy in character and calling upon us to follow a dismal mode of life. On the contrary, he alone shows the most enjoyable life of all and the one most full of true pleasure.[25]
This passage exemplifies the way in which the humanists saw paganclassical works, such as the philosophy ofEpicurus, as being in harmony with their interpretation ofChristianity.
Renaissance Neo-Platonists such asMarsilio Ficino (whose translations of Plato's works into Latin were still used into the 19th century) attempted to reconcilePlatonism with Christianity, according to the suggestions of early Church FathersLactantius andSaint Augustine. In this spirit,Pico della Mirandola attempted to construct asyncretism of religions and philosophies with Christianity, but his work did not win favor with the church authorities, who rejected it because of his views on magic.[26]
The historian of the RenaissanceSir John Hale cautions against too direct a linkage between Renaissance humanism and modern uses of the term humanism: "Renaissance humanism must be kept free from any hint of either 'humanitarianism' or 'humanism' in its modern sense of rational, non-religious approach to life ... the word 'humanism' will mislead ... if it is seen in opposition to a Christianity its students in the main wished to supplement, not contradict, through their patient excavation of the sources of ancient God-inspired wisdom."[27]
Historian Steven Kreis expresses a widespread view (derived from the 19th-century Swiss historianJacob Burckhardt), when he writes that:
The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with the diverse customs of the East, and gradually permitted expression in matters of taste and dress. The writings of Dante, and particularly the doctrines of Petrarch and humanists like Machiavelli, emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom and individual expression. In the essays of Montaigne the individualistic view of life received perhaps the most persuasive and eloquent statement in the history of literature and philosophy.[28]
Two noteworthy trends in some Renaissance humanists were Renaissance Neo-Platonism andHermeticism, which through the works of figures likeNicholas of Kues,Giordano Bruno,Cornelius Agrippa,Campanella andGiovanni Pico della Mirandola sometimes came close to constituting a new religion itself.[according to whom?] Of these two, Hermeticism has had great continuing influence in Western thought, while the former mostly dissipated as an intellectual trend, leading to movements inWestern esotericism such asTheosophy andNew Age thinking.[29] The "Yates thesis" ofFrances Yates holds that before falling out of favour, esoteric Renaissance thought introduced several concepts that were useful for the development of scientific method, though this remains a matter of controversy.
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Though humanists continued to use their scholarship in the service of the church into the middle of the sixteenth century and beyond, the sharply confrontational religious atmosphere following the Reformation resulted in theCounter-Reformation that sought to silence challenges toCatholic theology,[30] with similar efforts among theProtestant denominations. Some humanists, even moderate Catholics such asErasmus, risked being declared heretics for their perceived criticism of the institutional church.[31]
A number of humanists joined the Reformation movement and took over leadership functions, for example,Philipp Melanchthon,Ulrich Zwingli,Martin Luther,Henry VIII,John Calvin, andWilliam Tyndale.
With the Counter-Reformation initiated by theCouncil of Trent (1545–1563), positions hardened and a strict Catholic orthodoxy based on scholastic philosophy was imposed. However the education systems developed by Jesuits ran on humanist lines.
Hans Baron (1900–1988) was the inventor of the now ubiquitous term "civic humanism." First coined in the 1920s and based largely on his studies of Leonardo Bruni, Baron's "thesis" proposed the existence of a central strain of humanism, particularly in Florence and Venice, dedicated to republicanism.
As argued in hischef-d'œuvre,The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny, the German historian thought that civic humanism originated in around 1402, after the great struggles between Florence and Visconti-led Milan in the 1390s. He considered Petrarch's humanism to be a rhetorical, superficial project, and viewed this new strand to be one that abandoned the feudal and supposedly "otherworldly" (i.e., divine) ideology of the Middle Ages in favour of putting the republican state and its freedom at the forefront of the "civic humanist" project.[32] Already controversial at the time ofThe Crisis' publication, the "Baron Thesis" has been met with even more criticism over the years.
Even in the 1960s, historiansPhilip Jones andPeter Herde[33] found Baron's praise of "republican" humanists naive, arguing that republics were far less liberty-driven than Baron had believed, and were practically as undemocratic as monarchies. James Hankins adds that the disparity in political values between the humanists employed by oligarchies and those employed by princes was not particularly notable, as all of Baron's civic ideals were exemplified by humanists serving various types of government. In so arguing, he asserts that a "political reform program is central to the humanist movement founded by Petrarch. But it is not a 'republican' project in Baron's sense of republic; it is not an ideological product associated with a particular regime type."[5]
Two renowned Renaissance scholars,Eugenio Garin andPaul Oskar Kristeller collaborated with one another throughout their careers. But while the two historians were on good terms, they fundamentally disagreed on the nature of Renaissance humanism.
During the period in which they argued over these differing views, there was a broader cultural conversation happening regarding Humanism: one revolving aroundJean-Paul Sartre andMartin Heidegger.
While this discourse was taking place outside the realm of Renaissance Studies (for more on the evolution of the term "humanism," seeHumanism), this background debate was not irrelevant to Kristeller and Garin's ongoing disagreement. Kristeller—who had at one point studied under Heidegger[39]—also discounted (Renaissance) humanism as philosophy, and Garin'sDer italienische Humanismus was published alongside Heidegger's response to Sartre—a move that Rubini describes as an attempt "to stage a pre-emptive confrontation between historical humanism and philosophical neo-humanisms."[40] Garin also conceived of the Renaissance humanists as occupying the same kind of "characteristic angst the existentialists attributed to men who had suddenly become conscious of their radical freedom," further weaving philosophy with Renaissance humanism.[35]
Hankins summarizes the Kristeller v. Garin debate as:
According to Russian historian and Stalinist assassinIosif Grigulevich two characteristic traits of late Renaissance humanism were "its revolt against abstract, Aristotelian modes of thought and its concern with the problems of war, poverty, and social injustice."[41]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link)The unashamedly humanistic flavor of classical writings had a tremendous impact on Renaissance scholar.
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