The Humanists

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The Humanists

• Alyssa Baggio
• 5th period

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Bibliography

• Scholasticism. Answers.com. www.answers.com/topi
  c/neo-scholasticism
• United States. Library of Congress. Humanism.
  July 1 2002. www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/humanism
  .html
• Renaissance, Microsoft Encarta Online
  Encyclodedia 2007. http//uk.encarta.msn.com

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Who were Humanists?

• Italian scholars who developed interests in Greek
  and Roman literature. This study became called
  classical education. Knowing the classical
  languages, as they had been used by the ancient
  Greeks and Romans became the mark of an educated
  person.
• Humanism was the dominate intellectual movement
  of the Renaissance.

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What they did

• Stressed the study of grammar, rhetoric, history,
  and poetry, using classical texts called
  Humanities. Thus, they were called Humanists.
• They would search for manuscripts written in
  Greek and Latin. If they found more than one copy
  of the same work, and they differed, the
  Humanists compared them to determine the older
  copy. Doing this, they displayed an approach to
  learning that hadnt been there before.

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What made them different from everyone else?

• Since they studied classical manuscripts, they
  came to believe that it was important to know how
  things worked. This emphasized education.
• Believed people should lead meaningful lives. For
  example, a Patronage of the arts.
• They stressed the general responsibilities of
  citizenship and social leadership. They felt they
  had an obligation to participate in the political
  life of the community.
• They had admiration for individual achievements

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The Humanists largest contribution

• Humanists created flexibility and openness to all
  the possibilities of life. Many of the humanists
  were townspeople who werent directly associated
  with the church. Because of this, they didnt
  agree with an educational system that was
  monopolized by the church. They believed it to be
  too rigid and closed minded.

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Religious Beliefs

• Viewed existence as preparation for life after
  death but also as a joy in itself.
• Committed to Christian teachings. They Sometimes
  felt tension between their commitment to the
  study of the ancients and their commitment to
  Christianity.

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Francesco Petrarch

• An Italian humanist (1304-1374)
• One of the first humanists
• Famous as a scholar, teacher, and poet
• Greatest work was his sonnets to Laura, an
  imaginary woman. They are considered some of the
  greatest love poems in literature.

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Niccolo Machiavelli

• Italian diplomat and historian (1469-1527)
• One of the most illustrious Renaissance writers
• Wrote a famous essay, The Prince, which described
  the government, not in terms of lofty ideas, but
  as Machiavelli felt government actually worked.
• He can be considered a humanist because he looked
  to the ancient Romans for models and because he
  was into politics. However, the lack of morality
  that he wrote about in The Prince separated him
  from the other humanists.

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Desiderius Erasmus

• Northern Renaissance humanist (1466-1536)
• He was a Dutch scholar and the most influential
  humanist of northern Europe. He learned about the
  ideas of the Italian humanists from printed
  books.
• He entered into priesthood, but left the
  monastery to study the classics.
• Believed that Christianity had once coincided
  with civilization.

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Desiderius Erasmus con.

• He applied to his study of the Bible the method
  that the Italian humanists had developed.
• He argued for returning to the original, simple
  message of Jesus.
• His most famous book, The Praise of Folly
  ridiculed ignorance, superstition, and vice among
  Christians. He criticized fasting, pilgrimages to
  religious shrines and the churchs interpretation
  of parts of the Bible.

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Thomas More

• English humanist
• Erasmuss friend who believed his views about the
  church and society.
• In 1516 Thomas published Utopia, a book in which
  he described an imaginary, ideal society. All the
  citizens lived together harmoniously. Thus, the
  word Utopia came about.

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Pius II

• Humanists had been involved with the papacy for a
  while, but Pius II was the first to actually
  become a pope.
• He was crowned in 1458.
• His real name was Enea Silvio Peccolomini.
• His reputation was of a diplomat, belletrist, and
  womanizer.

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How Humanism Spread

• Humanism started in Italy and made its way to the
  northern areas of Europe. For example, Germany
  and England.
• In the Alps, there were mountain passes such as
  the Brenner and the Great Saint Bernard. People
  and ideas passed through the mountain passes.
• The Danube, Rhone, and Rhine rivers also provided
  routes for people and ideas to travel through.

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How Humanism Spread con.

• New ideas were carried by northern European
  students whod studied in Italy. They traveled to
  Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England.

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Differences in Humanists

• Some humanists became experts in rhetoric, and
  town governments would employ them to give style
  to formal papers, to compose speeches for public
  occasions, and to write official histories.
• Other humanists became patriotic. They responded
  to the attacks by Milan. They found that Roman
  literature encouraged love of country and offered
  practical historical lessons.

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The Difference Between The Northern Renaissance
and the Italian Renaissance

• The Northern Renaissance humanists were
  interested in early Christian periods, as well as
  Greek and Roman culture.

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Scholasticism

• Humanism brought scholasticism to a dormant
  stage. It would revive years later.
• Scholasticism was a theological and philosophical
  movement, beginning in the 11th century, that
  sought to integrate the secular understanding the
  ancient world.
• Aristotle exemplified this belief.
• Its aim was a synthesis of learning in which
  theology was greater than the hierarchy of
  knowledge.