Renaissance Humanism — The Intellectual Foundation of the Renaissance

What Was Renaissance Humanism?

Renaissance humanism was the intellectual movement that formed the core of the Renaissance and transformed European culture more profoundly than any other single force. The term “humanism” derives from the Latin studia humanitatis — the study of the humanities — which comprised grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy, all based on the literature of classical Greece and Rome. Humanism was not a philosophy or a system of beliefs in the modern sense but an educational and cultural program that placed the study of classical texts at the center of learning and made the imitation of classical eloquence and wisdom the goal of education. The humanists believed that classical literature contained the highest models of eloquence, wisdom, and virtue ever achieved by human beings, and that the careful study and imitation of these models would produce better writers, better citizens, better rulers, and better human beings.

Humanism began in fourteenth-century Italy with the poet and scholar Francesco Petrarch, who is called the “father of humanism,” and spread across Europe over the next two centuries, reaching England in the late fifteenth century and achieving its fullest English expression in the works of Sir Thomas More and the circle of scholars associated with Erasmus and John Colet. At its core, humanism was a literary and educational movement, but its implications extended far beyond the classroom. It transformed the way Europeans thought about themselves, their history, their society, and their relation to God. It recovered the learning of the ancient world and made it the foundation of a new kind of culture — one that was more secular, more critical, and more focused on the potential of human beings than the medieval culture it replaced. The humanist emphasis on the dignity of human beings, their capacity for reason and virtue, and their power to shape their own lives through education and effort was one of the most important intellectual developments in Western history.

The Italian Origins of Humanism

Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) is the pivotal figure in the development of Renaissance humanism. His discovery of the letters of Cicero in 1345 inspired him to call for a revival of classical learning and eloquence, and his own writings — his Latin works, his Italian poetry, his letters — provided the model for the humanist program. Petrarch’s successors — Giovanni Boccaccio, Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni, Lorenzo Valla — built on his foundations, recovering and editing classical texts, writing histories in a new critical spirit, and developing the disciplines of philology and textual criticism that would become central to humanist method. By the late fifteenth century, Italy was the center of a flourishing humanist culture that attracted scholars from all over Europe. The Platonic Academy in Florence, under the patronage of the Medici, and the humanist schools of Vittorino da Feltre and Guarino da Verona established the educational model that would be exported across the continent.

The humanists’ recovery of classical texts was a work of extraordinary intellectual heroism. They searched monastic libraries across Europe for lost manuscripts, collated and emended texts, and made them available in accurate editions. Their work of textual recovery was accompanied by a new approach to the classical past: instead of treating ancient authors as authorities to be cited in support of medieval arguments, the humanists sought to understand them in their historical context, to recover the original meaning of their works, and to apply their wisdom to the problems of contemporary life.

The Studia Humanitatis

The humanist curriculum emphasized the study of classical languages — first Latin, then Greek — as the foundation of all learning. The student who mastered these languages could read the works of the ancient world in the original and participate in the international republic of letters that the humanists were creating. The curriculum consisted of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music), but with a new emphasis on rhetoric and moral philosophy. The goal of humanist education was to produce the vir bonus dicendi peritus — the good man skilled in speaking — whose eloquence would be at the service of virtue and the common good.

The humanist curriculum had a profound impact on the development of vernacular literature. The humanists’ emphasis on rhetoric and style influenced the development of English prose, as writers like Thomas More, Francis Bacon, and John Milton sought to match the elegance of classical Latin in their native language. The humanist emphasis on moral philosophy and the active life shaped the themes of English Renaissance literature, from the tragedies of Shakespeare to the epic ambition of Milton.

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was the greatest humanist of the northern Renaissance and the most influential figure in the spread of humanism to England. His Adagia (a collection of classical proverbs with commentary), his Praise of Folly (a satirical masterpiece), and his Greek New Testament (which exposed the errors of the Latin Vulgate) were among the most widely read works of the sixteenth century. Erasmus’s Christian humanism — his program of combining classical learning with Christian piety, his emphasis on the simple ethics of the Gospels, his satire of ecclesiastical corruption, and his belief in the power of education to reform society and the church — had a profound influence on English humanists like John Colet and Thomas More.

Thomas More and Humanism in England

Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) was the leading English humanist and the author of Utopia (1516), the most famous work of English humanism. Utopia presents a fictional account of an ideal society on an imaginary island, using the conventions of the classical dialogue and the travel narrative to explore questions of social justice, political philosophy, and human nature. The book is both a serious work of political philosophy and a playful literary game, and its title — meaning both “good place” and “no place” — captures the ambiguity of its relation to the real world.

More’s circle at the English court included John Colet, who reformed St. Paul’s School on humanist principles; William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre, who brought Greek learning from Italy to Oxford; and Henry VIII himself, who was an accomplished humanist scholar and patron of learning. The English humanists brought the new learning to England, reformed education, and created the intellectual conditions for the flowering of English Renaissance literature.

Humanism and Education

Humanism transformed English education through the grammar schools, which were established or reformed on humanist principles in the sixteenth century. These schools taught Latin grammar and rhetoric through the study of classical authors, and they produced the generation of writers who created the great works of English Renaissance literature. Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, and Milton all received the intensive classical education that the grammar schools provided, and their works show the influence of that education in their command of rhetoric, their knowledge of classical mythology and history, and their ability to adapt classical forms to English purposes.

Humanism and Literature

Humanism shaped the literature of the English Renaissance at every level. The humanist emphasis on rhetoric and persuasion influenced the development of the soliloquy and the dramatic argument. The humanist recovery of classical form influenced the adoption of the sonnet, the epic, and the satire. The humanist concern with the dignity of human beings and their capacity for moral choice informed the great tragic dramas of Shakespeare and the epic ambition of Milton. The humanist program of education created the conditions for the literary culture of the Renaissance, and the humanist values of eloquence, wisdom, and virtue remained the guiding ideals of English literature until the Romantic period and beyond.

FAQ

What is the studia humanitatis? The study of the humanities — grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy — based on classical texts.

Who is the father of humanism? Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), the Italian poet and scholar who called for a revival of classical learning.

What is Christian humanism? The application of humanist methods and values to Christian texts and theology, associated above all with Erasmus.

How did humanism affect education? It emphasized the study of classical languages and literature, rhetoric, and moral philosophy, transforming the curriculum of grammar schools and universities.

Who was the greatest northern humanist? Desiderius Erasmus, whose works including The Praise of Folly and his Greek New Testament were among the most influential of the sixteenth century.

What is the significance of Thomas More’s Utopia? It is the most important work of English humanism, founding the genre of utopian fiction and exploring questions of social and political philosophy.

How did humanism influence Shakespeare? Through the education Shakespeare received at grammar school, which gave him his knowledge of classical literature, rhetoric, and mythology.

Internal Links

• Read about the prose tradition in Renaissance Prose.
• Explore the broader context in Renaissance Literature Guide.
• See the legacy in Renaissance Legacy.