New Idioms

• A device that serves as a vehicle to...
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• Standpoint
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HUMANISM

•Ø  Definition: humanism is a rediscovery and re-evaluation of classical world (ancient Greece and Rome) and the application of these aspects to intellectual and social culture

•v  intellectual and social movement

•v  at the base of the Renaissance

•v  improvement of the art, literature, learning, law, and civic life

•v  it developed firstly in Italy, later in Europe

•Ø  a reaction against scholasticism

ITALY

•Ø  new civic spirit, particularly in Florence

•Ø  inspired by Petrarch

•Ø  several generations of Florentines had produced several works which extolled the city

•Ø  humanists applied their methods to biblical scholarship

•Ø  Venice by the late fifteenth century was known as the printing capital of Europe

•Ø  the early humanists were the ones who invented the terms "Middle Ages" and "Renaissance"

•Ø  before this time, history was seen as a continuum. There was no distinction between the civilization of Greece and Rome and that of the medieval period

•Ø  interest in manuscripts, particularly those recording the works of the writers of antiquity

•Ø  accurate translation of the Bible

•Ø  Invention of the printing press: for the first time, people could acquire their own books

FRANCIS PETRARCH (1304-1374)

•Ø  was born in Arezzo

•Ø  Italian scholar, poet, and humanist

•Ø  Petrarch wrote using Cicero's style in his own Latin writing, and he used the vernacular a style which would finally acquire acceptance among scholars in the Renaissance

•Ø  called spiritual father by humanists

•Ø  He was a great admirer of Cicero

•Ø  famous for his poems addressed to Laura

•Ø  the majority of his works are in Latin

•Ø  his critical spirit made him a founder of Renaissance humanism

•Ø  1341: he was crowned as a poet laureate in Rome

•Ø  died in Arquà on July 18, 1374

A CENTURY AFTER PETRARCH

•Ø  the universities were still dominated by thinkers of the older schools

•Ø  Humanism spread outwards from Italy. Germany in particular was greatly affected by the new methods. The printing houses of Germany rivaled those of Italy

•Ø  finally humanism touches England too