HUMANISM

-Intellectual and social movement.

-Humanism à Rediscovery and re-evaluation of the aspects of classical civilization (ancient Greece and Rome) and application of these aspects to intellectual and social culture.

-Scholasticism, the dominant intellectual school of the Middle Ages, had become little more than organized quibbling over minor points of philosophy and theology.

-Return to study of the original texts, rather than reliance on the glosses and commentaries produced by the scholasticists.

-Why Italy?

Latin was still taught in the schools and universities, most significantly to laymen in training to become notaries. Thus, Latin literacy was not confined mainly to churchmen as it was elsewhere in Europe.

-Who was the first humanist?

Petrarch, the Italian poet. He strove to learn from Cicero and use his style in his own Latin writing. He also wrote in the vernacular-- a style which would finally gain acceptance among scholars in the Renaissance.

-Inspired by Petrarch, the intellectuals of Florence carried on his work and expanded it. 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.

-Humanism had its religious aspects as well. New appreciation was gained for the "pagan" classics of antiquity and humanists were quick to apply their methods to biblical scholarship.

-The humanists were the first to draw the distinction, seeing classical antiquity as something which was long past, but to be admired and revived--hence the term "Renaissance".

-Not only were coins and artworks unearthed and collected, but attempts were made to map out and draw many of the Roman ruins one could see in Italy before they disappeared.

-Increased interest in manuscripts, particularly those recording the works of the writers of antiquity. Many of the humanists undertook large journeys, wandering from monastery to monastery and finding works forgotten for centuries.

-Interest in Hebrew to produce an accurate translation of the Bible. Introduction of what we would today call "critical" scholarship. Manuscripts were compared and words analyzed in an attempt to produce the most accurate edition possible.

-Invention of the printing press, which meant that for the first time, men and women of moderate means could acquire their own books and that both the classics and new works could circulate widely.

PETRARCH

-Italian scholar, poet, and humanist.

-As a scholar and poet, he soon grew famous, and in 1341 he was crowned as a poet laureate in Rome.

-He wrote the majority of his works in Latin, although his sonnets and canzoni written in Italy were equally influential.

-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.

-Famous for his poems addressed to Laura.

-His love was not returned, but her presence causes him unspeakable joy, and on the other hand it creates unendurable desires.

-Upon her death, the poet finds that his grief is as difficult to live with as was his former despair.