Humanism:

• Humanism is a rediscovery and re-evaluation of the aspects of classical civilization (ancient Greece and Rome) and the application of these aspects to intellectual and social culture. It is also in many ways a reaction against scholasticism.
• Scholasticism had by the fourteenth century become little more than organized quibbling over minor points of philosophy and theology.
• Why Italy? →  Italy had never completely lost Latin literacy. Latin was still taught in the schools and universities, most significantly to laymen in training to become notaries. Latin literacy was not confined mainly to churchmen as it was elsewhere in Europe.
• Who was the first humanist? →  Petrarca might be the first humanist. Petrarch was a great admirer of Cicero, and rediscovered and translated much of his correspondence. Petraeca is  a man with one foot in the future and one in the past.
•  Petrarch's examination of Cicero's writings had found a man,  who increasingly turned to solitude and retirement in later life. → Petrarch gradually retired from life as well.
• Florence's past was to be extolled in literature, art, and architecture, and the link with the Roman Republic was to be emphasized in all things.
• One of the ways in which the spirit of humanism was expressed was in a rise in appreciation for the artifacts of the past. Indeed, the early humanists were the ones who invented the terms "Middle Ages" and "Renaissance."
• Artifacts were visible symbols of this past, and were thus to be cherished and collected.
• A few sites were eventually saved from destruction in this way. We may also note an increased interest in manuscripts → New editions and translations of these works were produced and disseminated.
• The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought an influx of expatriate Greek scholars to Italy, and from that point on, studies of ancient Greek gained tremendous ground.
• the humanists also became interested in Hebrew as they attempted to produce an accurate translation of the Bible. → All of this was aided by the invention of the printing press.
• Venice by the late fifteenth century was known as the printing capital of Europe.
• patronage by Italian princes and popes insured that the new thinking eventually came to dominate the univers ities
• Germany was greatly affected by the new methods, particularly in the area of Biblical scholarship.
• England was perhaps the last to be touched, for it was not until the latter half of the reign of Henry VIII that Oxford and Cambridge became dominated by humanist scholarship.

Petrarch (1304-1374):

• Petrarca was an Italian scholar, poet, and humanist, a major force in the development of the Renaissance, famous for his poems addressed to Laura. → it is possible that Laura was a fictional character. However, she was a more realistically presented female character.
• He was born in Arezzo he spend his early childhood in a village near Florence. His father, was expelled from Florence by the Black Guelfs, who had seized power.
• Petrarch was primarily interested in writing and Latin literature, sharing this passion with his friend Giovanni Boccaccio the writer of Decameron.
• The turning point in his life was April 6 1327, when he saw Laura in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon. She became the queen of his poetry.
• He wrote the majority of his works in Latin. Petrarch was known as a devoted student of antiquity. →  He combined interest in classical culture and Christianity and left deep influence on literature throughout Western Europe. →  he wrote many important letters.
• CANZONIERE (Song Book) was inspired by the Lady whom Petrarch names Laura.

Renaissance Literature:

• While the scholastics claimed a logical connection between word and thought, the humanists differentiated between physical utterance and intangible meditation; →  The humanists also sought to emulate classical values.
• Joseph Webbe wrote textbooks that taught Latin through reconstruction of the sentences of classical authors       ↓            
•  Roger Ascham taught that one could learn to speak effectively by studying the speeches of ancient orators.         ↓
• Thomas Elyot wrote The Book Named the Governor, which suggested rules for effective statesmanship            ↓
• Thomas More's most significant contribution to humanism was Utopia.
• The effect of humanism on English literature was wide and far-reaching. It is evidenced, for example, in the works of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare.
• Jonson considers sincerity, honesty, self-discipline, and concern to be chief virtues.
• In a play such as Shakespeare's Tempest, a main character (Prospero) embodies a full range of human abilities.
• In France Michel de Montaigne and Francois Rabelais were the most important proponents of humanist thought. Montaigne's essays are memorable for their clear statement of an individual's beliefs and their careful examination of society.
• Rabelais was the author of Gargantua and Pantagruel, the satirical biographies of two giants; the characters may be said to represent the humanist belief in the immensity of human capability.
• In Italy Petrarch is considered the founder of the humanist movement. → Giovanni Boccaccio, a follower of Petrarch, wrote works that include De genealogia deorum gentilium , a collection of classical myths, and the Decameron, a book of 100 stories told by Italian courtesans taking refuge from the Black Plague.
•   The Renaissance Italian Leone Battista Alberti is famed for a series of dialogues in which he teaches classical virtues in a vernacular tongue. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote Il Principe, and Discorsi.
• The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione is essentially about Castiglione himself; in it the author delineates the characteristics of a perfect gentleman.