Chapter 16

Classical Humanism in

1.     The Age of the Renaissance

Vocabulary:  ars nova (new rhythms, harmonies, polyphonic)

                   ballade                           caccia                  chiaroscuro

                   grisaille                         indulgences         round

I.                   Introduction to Classical Humanism

A.               Revival of Greco-Roman culture

1.     did not disappear in 476 C.E. with fall of Rome

2.     preserved by Christian and Muslim scholars

3.     revived by Charlemagne c. 1000 C.E.

4.     champoined by medieval intellecturals (church-ed)

B.               New attitudes toward Greco-Roman antiquity

1.     interest of broad-based population rather than handful of theologians as in earlier times

a.      study of entire body of Greek and Latin ms.

studia humanitatis

b.     self-conscious imitation of classical art and arch.

2.     rational guide to fulfillment of human potential

a.      grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, moral philosophy

b.     pleasing to God, advantageous to society as whole

c.      shift from otherworldly preoccupations to robust, this-worldly point of view

II.                Italy:  Birthplace of the Renaissance

A.               Trade

1.     Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey, but then a large, diverse culture)

2.     the Crusades

3.     commercial prosperity

4.     sound currency:  gold florin

B.               Bustling City-States

1.     rivalry

a.     professional soldiers   

b.     little interference by the papacy to unify

2.     ruled by wealthy middle-class families

example:  The Medici

-         supported scholarship and patrons of the arts

C.               Petrarch  (1304 – 1374):  Father of “Humanism”

1.     traveled to hand copy ancient manuscripts

2.     revived epistolary (letter-writing) style

3.     popularized classical studies

4.     dilemma of Christian piety vs. will to reason

5.     poet laureate

6.     sonnet form:  8/6; rhyme scheme ababcddc eeffgg

III.             Italian Renaissance Humanism

A.               Pride in manuscripts, studies, emerging libraries

B.               One’s highest good is activity in the public interest

C.               Platonic (spiritual)love as a divine force

D.              Pico:  Unity of truth

Example:  Oration on the Dignity of Man

          free will, unlimited potential of the individual, optimism for perfectibility

E.               Alberti:  mathematician, architect, engineer, musician

virtù (not virtue)    

-   cultivated, not inherited

-         self confident vitality of Renaissance individual

-         buoyant optimism

F.               Castiglione and “l’uomo universale”

1.     ideal Renaissance man and woman

2.     Book of the Courtier

G.              Renaissance Women

H.              Machiavelli and Power Politics

1.     after French invasion, call for unification under a powerful leader

2.     “trust no one”

3.     the state as an entity

4.     negative view of humankind:

a.      personal morality differs from collective morality within the entity of state

b.     real-life politics 

“Machiavellian” = political duplicity

ex.  The Borgias