01. The Renaissance  c. 1350 – c.1600

           Petrarch was born in 1304 to the family of a Florentine attorney.  Political conditions in Florence made life difficult for his father, and factional problems forced the family into exile.  They eventually settled in the French city of Avignon, then the seat of the papacy.  Young Petrarch at first studied law but later devoted his life entirely to literary pursuits.   Living largely upon the patronage of friends, Petrarch resided in Vaucluse, near Avignon. Although he never married, he did have two illegitimate children whom he dearly loved.  His interest in the classical past and love for writing frequently took him to Italy.  Moved by the beauty of nature, he loved to travel and, in an age when travel was extremely dangerous, did so purely for personal enjoyment.  His writings enjoyed an immense popularity within the limited world of the wealthy literate, and he became the most well-known figure of his time. 

            Petrarch possessed an immense and infectious enthusiasm for the ancient authors of the classical past.  He personally sought to save from neglect the works of ancient authors preserved in monastery libraries and launched an eager search for classical manuscripts.  This intense interest in the classical literary heritage would become a major characteristic of the humanist movement.  He had a low opinion of his own times (for which he coined the phrase "dark ages") and held up in contrast the ideal world of ancient Rome.  Free from the intellectual restrictions of a domineering Church, the world of ancient Rome, he felt, knew both authentic learning and virtue.  For this reason he thought that the Latin classics should be the heart of the educational curriculum.

            He wrote in both Latin and Italian.  In Latin his best work, in his own opinion, was his Letters to the Ancient Dead.  Here he communed with such figures as Cicero and Livy as if they were his friends and he was their contemporary and intellectual equal.  He studied the styles of ancient Roman scholars and was able to recognize which of their works were scholarly copies and which were ignorant reproductions.  Not accepting anything at face value, Petrarch subjected all manuscripts to intense critical analysis.

            Petrarch's most famous works in Italian were some 366 sonnets, most of which were lyric poems expressing his love for a young woman named Laura.  As Laura was married, Petrarch loved her from a distance in the tradition of medieval courtly love.  For 21 years, until Laura's death in the great plague of 1348, he yearned for her and found inspiration in her.  The Laura sonnets contributed to both the Italian vernacular as a literary language and to the art of poetry.  They contributed to humanism because Laura was a recognizable human being, unlike the idealized women of traditional medieval courtly poetry.

            As if sounding the opening of a new way of thinking, Petrarch's life and his writings celebrated the spirit of the individual.  His writings show a human sensitivity to the world of man and nature of which he was a part.  Rather than condemn a sinful humanity for the ravages of war and plague, he wrote love verses to Laura.  Rather than immerse himself in the Bible and theological study as was the traditional preoccupation of medieval scholars, he cast his critical eye over the writings of the classical past and found them filled with virtue.  The Homeric heroes, the Athenian philosophers, the Roman lawyers, all had virtue, an innate human "goodness" that enabled them to develop their human potential as fully as possible.  They were not restricted in thought and action by the moral dictates of a universal Church claiming a monopoly of truth.  Nor were they relegated to their "proper" place in society by the traditions of feudal custom.  To Petrarch, his own times were indeed a "dark age" of ignorance and gullibility.  Study of the ancients would once again free the human spirit. 

            Petrarch was a scholar, quietly introspective and engaging.  He was neither a social activist nor a revolutionary.  Yet his impact on Western thought was revolutionary.  His love for the Greco-Roman past, his pursuit of classical studies, and his individualism made him an example for future scholars and intellectuals.  His writings stimulated greater expression of secular (non-religious) thought and, thus, contributed to the "rebirth" of humanism.  The Renaissance can be said to begin with Francesco Petrarch.

   Boccaccio

            Petrarch’s contemporary, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375), also from Florence, was a writer of poetry and romances.  His humanism is seen in his best known book, the Decameron (1348).  On the background of the Black Death, ten young upper class men and women flee the plague’s ravages and escape to a country villa for ten days (hence the book’s title).  To pass time they tell stories, some one hundred of them – some quite bawdy, satirizing the traditions of medieval courtly love and chivalry.  In short, Decameron was an attack on the ideals of feudalism.  The heroes of the stories are not noble Christian knights or monks, but opportunists who live by their wits and wiles in an unpredictable and troubled world.  As did Petrarch’s Laura sonnets, Boccaccio’s  Decameron contributed greatly to the development of the Italian vernacular as a literary language.

            Soon after writing Decameron, Boccaccio met Petrarch and redirected his life to scholarly pursuits. He tried to learn Greek, wrote an encyclopedia of classical mythology, and traveled throughout Italy searching monastery libraries for classical manuscripts.      

Humanist Scholarship

The writings of Petrarch and Boccaccio inspired scholarly interest in the works of classical literature and philosophy.   Over the next century ancient manuscripts that had been ignored for centuries in monastery libraries were “discovered” in a seeming frenzy of intellectual enthusiasm.  A millennium earlier as the Roman Empire declined and collapsed, much of its literary heritage was saved by the Church.  Throughout Europe Latin manuscripts that had been deposited in monastery libraries were now being actively sought and subjected to intense scholarly scrutiny.  Classical Greek manuscripts were also sought by Italian collectors and avidly translated into Latin.  And, with the fall of Constantinople, many valued Greek manuscripts were brought to Italy adding to the wealth of humanist learning. 

          Wealthy collectors from the cities likewise sought to acquire ancient manuscripts.  Florence’s Cosimo de Medici actively sought works from Italy, Greece, and Alexandria.  To house his collections he established several libraries, which were opened to scholars for research.  Later Medicis established a school for humanist study and another for the training of artists and sculptors.  The Medicis became models for the leading citizens of other cities likewise to pursue and encourage humanist scholarship and patronage.   The Vatican (papal) library in Rome would become, and remains today, one of the world’s best collections of classic manuscripts.

          Humanist scholars, in doing their own writing, copied the style and expression of classical authors.  Of the ancient writers, Cicero was the universal favorite.  Wallbank writes:

               "Stressing moral philosophy, rhetoric (the art of persuasion), and a commitment to public affairs, [Cicero’s] work appealed to the humanists and their audience of urban leaders. The revival of the art of writing classical Latin prose was due largely to the study and imitation of Cicero’s  graceful, eloquent, and polished literary style." (Wallbank et al, 315)

          Scholars copied the manuscripts and laboriously checked them for authenticity, often seeking other works by the same authors by which to compare them.  It was also possible that “ancient” documents might be forgeries. Significant among scholarly critics able to prove forgeries was Lorenzo Valla.

           Hot-tempered, uncompromising, and controversial, Lorenzo Valla (1407 - 1477) taught Latin and rhetoric at the university in Pavia.  A fervent enthusiast for the Latin language, Valla noticed that the styles of Latin expression differed from century to century. Using this knowledge, he tested the authenticity of documents through analysis of language.  He came to scholarly attention when he criticized a noted professor of Roman law on his ignorance of Latin and Roman history.  The following debate caused such an emotional response that students rioted, and Valla was asked to leave the university.  Controversy continued when Valla’s investigation of the Latin Bible (officially sanctioned by the Church as the correct version of Holy Scripture) revealed errors in St. Jerome’s translation.  He ridiculed Medieval Latin and outraged fellow humanists by accusing them of poor scholarship in their own efforts to use classical Latin in their writing.  Ever defiant of accepted norms, he thought another classical writer, Quintillian, to be superior to Cicero! 

           In 1435 Valla relocated to Naples where he entered the service of King Alfonso of Aragon (Spain) who was also ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Sicily and southern Italy).  Alfonso was then in a dispute with Pope Eugenius IV who was making claims to Naples.  The pope’s justification for these claims was the “Donation of Constantine,” an allegedly fourth century Latin document wherein Emperor Constantine supposedly granted all secular power over Roman Christendom to Pope Sylvester I.  For almost seven centuries, the Donation of Constantine had been the basis of the pope’s claim to political authority over the Papal States (Rome and large areas of central Italy).  By analyzing the Latin in the document, Valla proved it to be a forgery. Its language was Latin as used several centuries later and even its history was in error. According to the document, Constantine had made Constantinople a patriarchy of the Church before Byzantium had been re-named Constantinople!  The pope, Valla concluded, had no temporal claim to Naples or to any other territory on the basis of the so-called Donation.  An angry Eugenius demanded that Valla be tried for heresy, but Alfonso intervened and refused to turn Valla over to papal authority.  Valla went on to do further scholarly work including a translation of Thucycidides.  Ironically, at the time of his death, he was employed as a scholar in the pope’s own council. 

            The nature of the Italian cities was such that humanists took part in civic life, often holding positions in city governments.   Revered as a translator of Greek classics into Latin, Leonardo Bruni (1369 - 1444) served for 17 years as Florence’s city chancellor (prime minister).  Writing in Latin and using the style of the classical historian Livy, Bruni wrote A History of the Florentine People, an account of Florentine history that differed radically from the style of medieval history writing.  Traditional medieval histories were largely chronicles that accounted events as if they were in the present.  Bruni’s book examined Florence in the whole experience of its past. In so doing Bruni divided the city’s history into ancient, medieval, and modern segments, an innovative classification that has remained universal ever since.  As did the ancient Romans, he gave history a practical purpose.  Italy’s political divisions made it a tempestuous region as cities attempted to expand their territorial control.  In Bruni’s time Florence was being threatened by Milan.  Palmer writes:

           [History would] "show that Florence had a long tradition of liberty and possessed values and attainments worth fighting for against menacing neighbors. History took on a utility that it had had for the Greeks and Romans and was to retain in the future in Europe and eventually in other parts of the world: the function of heightening a sentiment, not yet of nationalism, but of collective civic consciousness or group identity. It was meant to arouse its readers to a life of commitment and participation." (Palmer et al., 62)    

          In its appeal to Florentine civic identity and pride, Bruni’s history compared the city to Pericles’ Athens and the virtuous Rome of the republic.  The city government was so appreciative of Bruni’s work that he and his descendants were exempted from taxation!  He was buried with honors following a state funeral.

Education and Publication

            It is important to remember that in the 15th and 16th centuries, there was no such thing as mandatory public education.  The literary impact of the Renaissance could be experienced only by those who were educated, and they numbered no more than ten percent of the population.  They came largely from the aristocracy and the commercial middle class, people who were wealthy enough to afford education.  The centers for scholarship were largely universities, which in the 15th century were relatively few.  What schools existed had traditionally been provided by the Church and were primarily for boys. Cathedral schools (in cathedral cities) and monastery schools provided for fundamental literacy and mathematical skills.  Fewer in number were convent schools which likewise educated girls.  Elementary schools might, as was the case in Florence and several other Italian cities, be provided by city governments.  In all cases education was at a price that most people could not afford. 

            For the wealthy, higher education (what we would call secondary school) was largely by tutorial, scholars being employed by families to educate their children.  Many of the humanist scholars of the Italian Renaissance had their own schools, instructing their students in the mastery of Latin and the Greco-Roman classics and, in effect, becoming mentors for future scholars.  As was mentioned earlier, the Medici family of Florence established schools for humanist studies.   As education was seen as essential to effective political participation and overall prosperity, other cities encouraged learning and provided libraries and educational services.  The curriculum of universities, which traditionally had trained scholars in logic, theology, law, and medicine, gradually expanded to include the studia humanitatis.   Latin, the universal liturgical language, remained the language of instruction in university education. 

            What was studied?  In short, the studia humanitatis - what came to be called the “liberal arts.”  A treatise on education, Concerning Character by Pietro Vergerio (1369 - 1444), stressed the liberal arts as key to the development of one’s individual potential to the fullest.  According to Vergerio,

               " ... we call those studies liberal which are worthy of a free man; those studies by which we attain and practice virtue and wisdom; that education which calls forth, trains, and develop those highest gifts of body and mind which ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to rank in dignity to virtue only." (Spielvogel 431-432)

Vergerio identified as liberal such studies as history, moral philosophy, eloquence (rhetoric), letters (grammar and logic), poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music.  Essential to a liberal arts education was mastery of Greek and Latin, for only in those languages could the classical authors be fully understood and appreciated.  In some humanist schools the liberal arts were augmented by physical and spiritual education.  Vittorino da Feltra’s school at Mantua included javelin throwing, archery, and dancing.  He also required his students to study Christian scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers, especially St. Augustine.

            Was there humanist education for upper class women?   Most women who were highly educated, such as Isabella d’Este, received that education through personal tutoring at home.  Only two women, both daughters of the Duke of Mantua, attended Vittorino’s school.  They were allowed to study history and classic literature and taught to ride, dance, read and write poetry, sing, and play the lute, but were discouraged from the study of mathematics and rhetoric.  The prevailing attitude regarding upper class female education was that learning should be primarily spiritual and moral.

            The “New Learning,” as humanist education in the liberal arts was called (Knapton 67), was believed to have practical purpose – not simply to produce scholars, but to create complete citizens.  Vittorino said, “Not everyone is obliged to excel in philosophy, medicine, or the law, nor are all equally favored by nature; but all are destined to live in society and to practice virtue” (Spielvogel 433).   Living in the society of Renaissance Italy required intense and active participation in the public life of one’s city.  One could best live in that society and practice virtue if one had a wide-range of learning upon which to cultivate one’s interests, talents, and abilities.  The goal of humanist education, therefore, was to create the uomo universale, the universal man.

            We have already seen that throughout the Middle Ages, books and manuscripts were reproduced through copying by hand.  This remained the means of publication throughout most of the 15th century.  Copies of the writings of the classical authors as well as of the books written by humanist scholars were reproduced by hand.  By the early 1400s “block-books” were being published.  Here, an entire page was carved in relief on a wooden block that could be inked and pressed on a page.  While the blocks were extremely time-consuming to carve, multiple copies could be easily reproduced.  Nonetheless, the sources for learning were limited at best, even though the Medici libraries and other sources of humanist education employed professional copiers and block carvers.   In the mid-to late-1460s book publication underwent significant change when the first printing presses began operation in Italy.  The “invention” of the printing press using movable type is attributed to the German publisher Johann Gutenberg around 1450.  With his press Gutenberg produced bibles and other religious works.  By the end of the century Gutenberg’s idea had spread to every country in Europe.  Coupled with Renaissance humanism, the printing press would enable an intellectual revolution.  The “New Learning” could be reproduced quickly and cheaply.  In Italy its primary “voice” became the Aldine Press.

            In Venice in 1490 Aldus Manutius established a publishing business that was dedicated to reproduction of the Greek and Roman classics.  The Aldine Press became famous for the quality of its publications. To assure the credibility of his publications, Manutius employed “a veritable academy of scholars and editors” (Knapton 73). Aldine publications were small in size, well-bound and embossed, and cleanly printed. [2]They were also inexpensive. The Aldine Press heralded the explosion of the printing industry.  By 1500 there were a thousand printers across Europe who had produced almost 40,000 editions of works in some eight to ten million copies (Spielvogel  434).  The uomo universale could now afford to buy books.