Humanism the heart of the Italian Renaissance

HUMANISM

• The heart of the Italian Renaissance

• An intellectual movement that focused on secular (worldly) rather than on the spiritual (religious) issues of the Medieval thinkers

• Humanists were Christians who hoped to use the wisdom of the Classics (Greek and Roman literature) to increase their understanding of their current place in time

To Seek fulfillment in daily life

Individual has dignity and worth

Challenge long-accepted traditions and institutions

• One of the first person’s to challenge was Desiderius Erasmus with his book

• The Praise of Folly

• Erasmus sought reform within the Catholic Church

Students should study…

• Grammar

• Rhetoric

• History

• Moral Philosophy (ethics)

• Mathematics

• Literary works

• Poetry

• Music

• Astronomy

• To stimulate creative and logical powers

Each can exist without the other,

Humanism

• A means of understanding how humanity fits into the plan of God’s creation.

• A return to Classical principles: balance, symmetry, control, thought and simplicity

• Use of mathematics to determine harmony and proportion

• Types

• of

• Humanism

Christian or Northern Renaissance

• Major goal was to reform the CHURCH

• Believed in the ability of human beings to reason and improve themselves

• Christianity should show people how to live good lives on a daily basis rather than provide a system of beliefs that people have to practice to be saved

Civic

• Reflected the values of the urban society

• The duty of the individual is to live an active life for one’s state (government)

• An individual only ‘grows to maturity’—both intellectually and morally—through participation’ in the life of the state

Intellects and their works

• Petrarch—Father of Renaissance Humanism

• Desiderius Erasmus—The Praise of Folly

• Thomas More--Utopia

• Leonardo Bruni—History of the Florentine People

• Niccolo Machiavelli—The Prince

• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola—Oration of the Dignity of Man

• Pietro Paolo Vergerio—Concerning Character