【Interpretation of history and culture】What is Renaissance humanism?
The idea of "humanism" really emerged in the 19th century, and questions remain about what exactly Renaissance humanism is.
Jacob Burckhardt's seminal 1860 book, Civilization in the Italian Renaissance, solidified the definition of humanism into the study of classical texts.
Thus influencing how you view your world, drawing inspiration from the ancient world to reform the "modern" and offering a more secular, humane view that focuses on the human capacity for action rather than blindly following religious plans.
Humanists believe that God has endowed human choice and potential, a definition that is still useful, but historians are increasingly concerned that the label "Renaissance humanism" pushes a great deal of thought and writing into a single term without adequately explaining subtleties or variations.
Renaissance humanism began in the late 13th century, when the desire of Europeans to study classical texts coincided with the desire to imitate these writers in style.
They are not copied directly, but borrow from old models, absorbing vocabulary, style, intent, and form. Each half needs the other half: you have to understand the text to participate in fashion, and doing so will take you back to Greece and Rome.
But what was developed was not a second-generation imitation; It's a second-generation imitation. Renaissance humanists began to use knowledge, love, and perhaps even obsession with the past to change their perception and thinking about their own time.
This is not an imitation, but a new consciousness, including a new historical perspective, that offers a history-based alternative to the "medieval" way of thinking.
The humanists who were active before Petrarch were called "primitive humanists" and were mainly concentrated in Italy. Among them was Lovatou de Lovarti, a judge of Padua, who was probably the first to combine the reading of Latin poetry with the creation of modern classical poetry and made a significant impact.
Others have tried, but Lovato has achieved much greater, including the tragedy of restoring Seneca. The desire to bring ancient texts back into the world is characteristic of humanists. This search is crucial because many materials are scattered and forgotten.
But Lovato also had limitations, and his prose style remained medieval. His student Musatorau connected his study of the past with contemporary issues and critiqued politics in a classical style.
He was the first person in centuries to deliberately write ancient texts, and was attacked for liking "infidels".
By 1400, the ideas of Renaissance humanism had spread, making oratory and other oratories classical: they needed to be spread so that more people could understand them.
Humanism was gradually admired, and the upper classes sent their sons to school in order to gain honor and career prospects. By the mid-15th century, humanist education had become the norm in Italian high society.
The great Roman orator Cicero became a central example of humanism. His adoption echoes a return to the mundane. Petrarch and his companions had always been politically neutral, but now some humanists advocated republican superiority over the dominant monarchy.
This is not a new development, but it affects humanism. Greek also became more common among humanists, although it was often second only to Latin and Roman. However, a great deal of classical Greek knowledge is now applied.
Some groups wanted to strictly adhere to Cicero Latin as a model of language; Others wanted to write in a Latin style that they felt was more modern. What they agreed on was a new form of education that the rich were adopting.
Modern historiography also began to appear, and in 1440 Lorenzo Vara proved that The Gift of Constantine ostensibly transferred most of the territory of the Roman Empire to the Pope, but it was a forgery, and humanism and its power of textual criticism and research were demonstrated.
Vala and others pushed for biblical humanism—textual proofreading and understanding of the Bible—to bring people closer to the corrupted Word of God.
All the while, the fame and number of humanist commentaries and writings grew. Some humanists began to abandon reforming the world in favor of a purer understanding of the past.
But humanist thinkers also began to think more about human nature: as creators, world changers, they created their own lives, and should not try to imitate Christ, but should find themselves.
By the 1500s, humanism had become the dominant form of education, spreading so widely that it was divided into a series of sub-directions.
As the perfected text was passed on to other specialists, such as mathematicians and scientists, the recipient also became a humanist thinker. As these areas developed, they split and the entire humanist reform program fell apart.
These ideas were no longer the preserve of the wealthy, as printing pushed cheap written materials to a wider market, and now large audiences often unwittingly embraced humanist ideas.
Humanism had spread throughout Europe, and although it split in Italy, the stable state of the north facilitated the movement's return and began to have an equally dramatic impact. Henry VIII encouraged humanist-trained Englishmen to replace foreigners among his staff.
In France, humanism is seen as the best way to study the Bible. John Calvin agreed and founded a humanist school in Geneva.
In Spain, humanists came into conflict with the Church and the Inquisition, and merged with the surviving scholasticism as a way to survive. Erasmus was a leading figure among the humanists of the 16th century, born in German-speaking countries.
By the middle of the 16th century, humanism had lost much of its strength. Europe was locked in a war of words, ideas, and sometimes weapons over the nature of Christianity, and humanist culture was replaced by hostile creeds as a semi-independent discipline dominated by the region's beliefs.
