Renaissance Humanism: General Characteristics from Petrarch to Erasmus

Question 1

What is humanism?

Answer 1

Humanism was part of the greater Italian Renaissance. It started in northern Italy, later spread north.

An educational reform in essence. Basically, an alternative to scholasticism.
– Grammar (the art of readings and interpreting texts) and rhetoric versus dialectic and philosophy
– Scholasticism had focused mostly on science and metaphysics and ideas and dogmatic theology.

Question 2

Studio humanitatis

Answer 2

focus on individual human beings and social interactions in society

Question 3

Who were humanists inspired by?

Answer 3

Inspired by ancient rhetoric (e.g., Cicero). They weren’t looking at the philosophers, they were looking at rhetoric and historians of the ancient world.

Question 4

Who was the leading humanism figure?

Answer 4

Petrarch (1304-1374)

• Master of both Italian lyric and classical Latin, sought to style his writing like the ancient Latin writers, but he was also a master at the vernacular Italian.

• Sought to model his style on the great classical Latin authors
– Sought out classical manuscripts

• Language as creative, flexible instrument
– Revival of rhetoric: writing to please and influence

Question 5

Why did Petrarch attack scholasticism?

Answer 5

He attacked it. Because he believed that in looking at the abstract, they had diverted the attention from God and humanity to nature. He said those things were irrelevant to what the people were experiencing in real life.

Question 6

Who were the other leading voices of humanism?

Hint: there were four.

Answer 6

• Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444), both chancellors of Florence, became famous spokesmen for the movement
• Lorenzo Valla (1406-1456), one of the most brilliant figures, famous for exposing the Donation of Constantine
• Erasmus of Rotterdam (d. 1536), the principle figure after this movement spread north in the later 15th century

Question 7

What was the traditional view that people held of humanism?

Answer 7

Traditional viewpoint: Jacob Burckhardt’s The Civilization of Renaissance Italy (1840): Jacob said that humanism was secular and non-religious.

Question 8

What is the current view of humanism?

Answer 8

Recent Revision (Kristeller, Trinkhaus)

– They argue that humanist did not have a set of beliefs or philosophy of life
– But that they shared interests in grammar and rhetoric as an educational and civic reform. They weren’t secularist or rationalists.
– Often strongly religious, often strongly “Pauline” and Augustinian.

Question 9

What did the humanists focus on, and why?

Answer 9

The persuasive power of words to elicit action from people.

• Place of Rhetoric (the art of persuasion) in the ancient world: assembly, courts, commemorative gatherings
• New context: newly wealthy and urban city-states of north Italy
• Tool to penetrate the heart, move the emotions, and inspiring action (versus scholastic focus on serene truth)

Question 10

What view did humanism have of the human body?

Answer 10

Positive evaluation of the body, of life as embodied (humans are not just minds, our bodies are important). This was the opposite of the hardcore asceticism we’ve seen. So they start painting nude bodies.

Question 11

In humanism, what is the core of the spiritual life?

Answer 11

They had the conviction that the spiritual life was NOT just one of contemplation. They suggested that spiritual life was best used in service to others. Wow.

Question 12

How did humanism understand “knowing”?

Answer 12

– They rejected the scholastic preoccupation with ideas because it was foreign to their experience. Their world was always changing, it was more urban. “They impede our knowledge of better things”-Valla.
– They understood that the mind had limits.
– Knowledge to them was in the experience, shaping the heart, NOT just the mind. Knowledge was about getting stuff done.

Question 13

What did Valla, the humanist, understand about the past?

Answer 13

– Valla understood that we needed to know the cultural context of any text to really know it, so that we could imitate it.

– Valla especially understood that behind any attempt at imitatio was required real erudition (full knowledge of the text and culture)

Question 14

What was the battle cry for the humanists?

Answer 14

Ad fontes! “Back to the Sources”

– For most it meant the classical authors, but for many it included the Bible and Patristic authors (Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, etc.)

Question 15

Philologia

Answer 15

the science of words and texts

Question 16

What did philologia give the church?

Answer 16

– text criticism, literary analysis; interest in the rhetorical qualities of texts, with their “literary” qualities, not as a source for doctrine

• Willingness to admit problematic passages, tolerance of paradox (they let them stand as problematic).
• Curiosity about personalities behind the texts. They looked at style and asked why the author would write that way. They noticed that different authors expressed themselves in different ways.
• Privileging of the Fathers over scholastic and philosophical tradition. They stressed more the church fathers. Why? Because these writers were trying to inspire people, and not just play with ideas.
• Civic context: making Scripture relevant to society

Question 17

Why were the humanists so optimistic in their view of society?

Answer 17

– Why are they so optimistic? Because they understood that you can utilize language and all its persuasive powers to affect individuals and even society.
– They believed you could use language and rhetoric to change society.

Question 18

What is the connection between humanism and the Reformation?

Answer 18

Many first-generation Reformers had humanist training of some degree
– Luther somewhat, Zwingli and Melanchthon much more, Calvin the most

• Yet many of the Roman Catholics contending against the Reformation were also trained in humanism: humanists were for reform, but not always to the theological reform of Luther.