The Social and Educational Underpinning of the Renaissance: Humanism

The Rise of Humanism

The humanist movement actually had its origin in late fourteenth-century classical studies, a discipline which included grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy. Indeed, all humanist studies sprang from the classical literature of Greece and Rome, and a profusion of newly discovered or translated manuscripts fueled this new study.

Humanist methodology differed significantly from that of the medieval world. Classical thought supplied a means to study the world in a systematic, objective way that eliminated preconceived notions. Here direct experience furnished the tools of gathering. Conclusions could be verified by logic and held to comparison with models furnished by ancient history and philosophy. The profound effect of humanism upon Western culture is evident in the rise of modern science, social science, and historical method.

Humanism also embodied the development of all human virtue, not only qualities of kindness, mercy, and understanding, but also qualities that had public application. These qualities included judgment, prudence, eloquence, honor, and fortitude. In the Renaissance, the humanist was obligated to public participation to reform society and culture to the fullest of human potentiality. Hence humanism required a combination of education and action, and the realization of the individual was expected to project outward from him through his actions to the realization of the society and the state. That successful or able members of society contribute to the improvement of society through public service is a tenet that exists to this day.

The investigation of the elements that make humans human, conducted from an impartial viewpoint, was central to humanism. First and foremost, humanists asserted the dignity of man and his activities. They did not shy, however, from critical examination of his frailties, doubts, moral shortcomings, or folly. Social reform did not result from remaking man, but from reshaping social order in light of his nature. Humanist critical assessment freed the individual from preconceived and inherited institutions and programs, but it placed responsibility of thought, action, and choice squarely upon his shoulders.

Francesco Petrarca

The role of Francesco Petrarca (1307-74), or Petrarch, in the rise of humanism was profound and inestimable. His contributions were manifold. For one, he actively encouraged the discovery, recovery, and translation of classical texts, so providing the model and the impetus for generations of scholars to follow. As an ordained priest, he promoted humanism as an alternative to medieval barbarism, and propounded that humanism, based upon classical writings, and Christianity were mutually fulfilling. His letters and prose works developed the ideas that became central doctrine to the later movement. Preeminent among them were the ideas of moral autonomy, awareness of experience, adherence to reason and nature, and the supreme value of human virtue.

As a poet, Petrarch's secular, vernacular poetry proved Italian as a viable literary language alongside Latin and Greek and the sonnet a highly expressive poetic vehicle. He maintained that poetry promoted virtue and was the vessel of hidden truth. His sonnets were the prototype for all subsequent Renaissance lyric and the standard by which all subsequent poetry would be judged. Modeled after Dante, Petrarch's sonnets inspired those of Pietro Bembo and the epics of later important writers such as Ariosto and Tasso.

Pietro Bembo

Many of the key components of humanist education were in place by the turn of the fifteenth century, and schools that embraced its tenets were established in Italy. Curricula included arts and sciences, Latin literature and composition, Greek literature, Quintilian rhetoric, and Roman history. Additional subjects included music, drawing, and astronomy. Athletics were also incorporated as a key element. The advent of printing and the upsurge of writing in the vernacular helped greatly in the dissemination of humanist thought not only to the Italian society at large, but also to other parts of Europe, where humanist education became established and widespread by the sixteenth century.

Commercial printing also proved to be a boon to music, and editions of amateur music to be used in the home, embracing both vocal and instrumental music, became widespread in their availability. More importantly, printing made other social upheavals possible. The ideas of Martin Luther, the author of the Reformation, could not have effectively or quickly spread without printing. Not surprisingly, the number of Bibles printed in the sixteenth century easily eclipsed the combined number of all other volumes on other subjects.

Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), who served as cardinal from the 1530s, was, like Petrarch, a champion of the vernacular. To this end, he was among the first to write an Italian grammar. His lyric poetry in the vernacular contributed significantly to the establishment of Italian as a literary language. Bembo's poetry was of the highest quality. He modeled it so closely upon the Petrarchan sonnet that his imitation became known as "bembismo." The wide dissemination of Bembo's poetry and new editions of Pertrach assured the acceptance of the sonnet as a principal humanist poetic form. The sonnet also became the wellspring of texts for the important new music genre of the sixteenth century, the madrigal.