Introduction to Classical Humanism

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Introduction to Classical Humanism
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Reappropriation of Greek and and Latin classics

• Worth and dignity of individual
• New program of study grammar, rhetoric,
  history, poetry, and moral philosophy
• Focus on secular, not sacred (although never do
  they exclude Catholic faith)
• Life on earth no longer a vale of tears but an
  opportunity for talent and ability

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Uffizi Gallery
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World View from Classicism

• This-world view rather that St. Augustines focus
  on City of God
• Civic responsibility (Cicero and Aristotle) was
  hallmark of cultivated individual
• Studiolo manuscripts, musical instruments, and
  artifacts of scientific inquir

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El Duomo Florence,
Italy
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Italy Birthplace of Renaissance (1300-1600)

• Trade
• Least feudalized
• Profit from Crusades
• Florence shopkeepers introduced
  double-entry bookkeeping
• Pursuit of money and leisure

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Climate of anticlericalism and intellectual
skepticism

• Avignon Papacy and Great Schism
• Middle class
• Medici family in Florence supported scholarship
  and patronized the arts

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Artists supported by Medici Family

• Brunelleschi
• Botticelli
• Verrocchio
• Michelangelo

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Petrarch Father of Humanism

• Devoted life to recovery, copying, and editing of
  Latin manuscripts
• Tireless popularizer of classical studies
• Epistolary tradition revived he used letters to
  describe admiration for antiquity
• Passion for antiquity and eagerness to rescue it
  from neglect
• Motivated the printing press within 100 years of
  his death)

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Ficinos Platonic Academy in Florence (c. 1475)

• Love is exalted as a divine force
• Platonic (spiritual) love attracted the soul to
  God
• Such love is inspired by physical beauty

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Pico della Mirandola

• Efforts to recover the past and reverence for the
  power of human knowledge
• Typified individualism
• Affirms perfectibility of the individual
• Rational person at the center of a rational
  universe

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To Pico, man was created by the Divine
Artificer.

• His answer to the need for a creature who might
  comprehend the
• meaning of so vast an achievement as the
  creation of the world,
• and might be moved with love at its beauty and
  smitten with
• awe at its grandeur.