Humanist Writers of the Renaissance

Question 1

(1265-1321) wrote The Devine Comedy which mocked the hypocrisy of religion during the Middle Ages

Answer 1

Dante

Question 2

(1304-1374) one of the first humanist writers; wrote Letters to Laura; idolized the Roman poet Cicero; encouraged others to emulate the classical writers

Answer 2

Petrarch

Question 3

(1313-1375) wrote Decameron a book portraying life during the era of the Black Plague at its heights (1340s); described life in late middle ages

Answer 3

Boccaccio

Question 4

(1478-1529) wrote Book of the Courtier (1528), a manual of etiquette for men during the middle ages and renaissance periods; set new standards of behavior

Answer 4

Castiglione

Question 5

(1469-1527) wrote The Prince the most lasting work of the renaissance which showed his dream that the renaissance people would behave like early romans

Answer 5

Machiavelli

Question 6

(1469-1536) greatest of all northern humanists; criticized the worldliness of priests; had an “unpolitical” outlook; wrote Praise of Folly and Handbook of a Christian Knight (greatest Christian Humanist)

Answer 6

Earsmus of Rotterdam

Question 7

(1478-1535) dreamed of a utopian society in Utopia(1516) (Christian Humanist)

Answer 7

Thomas More

Question 8

wrote On Pleasure, an analysis of pleasure and humanistic condemnation and, Elegance of the Latin Language, a brilliant and influential philological defense of classical Latin, proved Donation of Constantine to be forgery

Answer 8

Lorenzo Valla

Question 9

(1379-1471) German monk writer who is generally supposed to have written The Limitation of Christ a classic in Christian devotional literature; urged people to live their life as Jesus lived

Answer 9

Thomas a Kempis

Question 9

(1340-1400) wrote Canterbury Tales; described the ills of late medieval society in England; pioneer in using written English

Answer 9

Geoffrey Chaucer