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RENAISSANCE 



the rii-li humanity of Greece and Rome, aimed 

 t a complete rehabilitation of the human spirit 

 with all flu- frit; activities ami art* and grace* 

 which invested tin- classical age. It was an escaj>e 

 at first hesitating, then triumphant from a life 

 regulated ami conlincd un all Hides h\ ecclesias- 

 tirul tniilition mid intellectual tyranny into joyous 

 freedom and unfettered spontaneity. Zeal for the 

 J.ittrrte Ilumaniora brought forth a new ideal of 

 culture, and the new view of life for which the 

 name of Humanism (q.v.) is used. Renaissance, 

 re-birth, was originally used as synonymous with 

 the Revival of Letters, the revived study in a new 

 spirit of the classical languages and classical litera- 

 tures of Greece and Koine in all their depth and 

 breadth, interpreted in their own spirit, and divested 

 of the narrow traditional limitations. Greek in 

 especial was practically a new discovery, and a 

 vastly important one ; but the knowledge of the 

 classics WHS only one side of the movement which 

 permeated nnd Iran-formed philosophy, science, 

 art, and religion. The new spirit powerfully aided 

 in weakening the power of the papacy, in the 

 establishment of Protestantism and the right of 

 free inquiry. Under its impulse astronomy was 

 - eventually reformed by ('ojxTiiicus ami Calileo, 

 and science started on its modern unfettered career; 

 by it, too, feudalism was abolished, and the demand 

 for political liberty began to be raised. Reverence 

 for the Holy Roman Empire and for its ancient 

 rival the papacy w-as alike decaying ; a new sense 

 , of nationality was springing up, and national lan- 

 puagi's began to flourish. To the same general 

 impulse, as causes or effects, belonged also the 

 invent i-in of printing and multiplication of Ixmks, 

 new methods of paper-making, the use of the 

 mariner's compass, the discovery of America, and 

 the exploration of the Indian Sea, The fall of the 

 Eastern Empire in 1453 sent swarms of Greek 

 scholars to promote the revival of scholarship 

 already in progress in western Europe, From the 

 nature of the case, it is impossible to fix a definite 

 date for the beginning of the Renaissance; lone 

 bei'ore the close of the dark ages there were isolated 

 scholars and thinkers who anticipated the new 

 light. In its main elements, however, the move- 

 ni. -lit originated in Italy towards the end of the 

 14th century, and, attaining its full development 

 there in the earlier half of thu liith, the Renais- 

 sance communicated itself throughout the whole 

 of the rest of Euro|>e ; France, Germany, England, 

 and other countries participating later in the move- 

 ment, which in each of them took a somewhat 

 dilleient .-hape. But Italy was specially the 

 nursing moiliiT of the Renaissance. 



ic Mist herald of the Renaissance we may 

 go as far back as Dante (1265-1321 ), who, with nil 

 his medievalism of conception, yet by the pristine 

 energy ami fullness of his |x>etry was no unworthy 

 follower of his chosen master, Virgil. The first 

 |H>sitive impulse, however, in that direction was 

 imparted by Petrarch (1304-74). Besides suggest- 

 ing in his Italian Itime the old Koman grace, he 

 awoke enthusiasm for the classics by his Latin 

 ejiie Africa and numerous epistles and disserta- 

 tions. In his old age he tried to imbilie a little 

 Greek at the extremely sorry sources within his 

 reach, and on receiving Homer from Constantinople 

 urged lloceaeeio to t ranslate the supreme poet into 

 Latin. Itoccaccio did not rest till he had piously, 

 though very imperfectly, rendered into L-itin Uith 

 the Until ami (hlynsri/. A secretary of Petrarch, 

 ( iiovanni Malpnghino. commonly culled da Ravenna, 

 wan the most accomplished Latinist of his day, 

 and, wandering as he did all over Italy, communi- 

 cated the new impulse to distinguished pupils, 

 Itarhimi. Stio/./i, I'oggio, llruni. who in their turn 

 propagated it anew from Venice, Koine, Mantua, 



and elsewhere. Luigi Marsigli's house became 

 private academy of the new doctrine, a resort of all 

 the promising neophytes of Florence. Caluccio de 

 Salutato, who translated Dante into Latin, having 

 been made chancellor of Florence in l.'tT.'i. intro- 

 duced into public documents the stately sonorous 

 periods of the classic style, and so rendered it 

 imperative on all princes and popes of the IM-M 

 age to have trained stylists as their secretaries. 

 A like classic transformation was effected in epis- 

 tolary correspondence by Gasparino da Barzi/va, 

 who made a special studyof Cicero's letti-i-. 

 The glory of having been the first Florentine to 

 visit Byzantium for the sake of learning the 

 sacred Greek belongs to Giacomo da Scaparia. 

 To Salutato and Palla deglf Strozzi is due the 

 foundation of a Greek chair at Florence ; and 

 in 1396 Manuel Chrysoloras, a genuine Greek 

 in the lles.li, began his instructions from the Greek 

 chair. Chrysoloras planted ^schools also at Rome, 

 Padua, Milan, and Venice. In the earlier period 

 of the Renaissance Florence leads the van. The 

 president of the republic, Cosimo de' Medici, 

 himself a scholar, theologian, philosopher, musi- 

 cian, financier, a connoisseur in painting, sculp- 

 ture, and architecture, figures as the magnificent 

 M;icenas of the new learning, founding the 

 Platonic academy, and o|n>ning his hospitable 

 house to all the wits at home and all the dis- 

 tinguished visitors attracted thither. The son 

 of his physician, Marsilio Ficino (q.v.), Cosimo 

 educated for the express purpose of interpreting 

 Plato. Strozzi, perhaps the richest after Cosimo 

 of the merchant-princes of Florence, sent to 

 Greece for countless volumes of MSS.. and con- 

 stantly kept copyists employed. Niccolo 

 Niccoii spent his whole fortune in buying MSS. 

 or procuring copies. Poggio Bracciolini, one of 

 the most eminent of the scholars of bis time, 

 re-cued Quintilian from a 'foul prison' and trail 

 scrilx:d him, and copied with his own hand MSS. 

 of Lucretius and Coltiniella, while he also unearthed 

 Italieus, Manilius, and Vitruvius. Though for 

 fifty years chancellor in the Roman Curia, he 

 directed the most ixiigiiiint satires against the 

 church. Yespasino da Bisticci (1421-98) was 

 perhaps the last of the medieval scribes, and 

 the first of modern booksellers ; he was agent of 

 Cosimo, Nicholas V., and Frederick of I 'rhino, 

 supplier of MSS. to Hungary, Portugal, Ger- 

 many, and England, and the largest employer 

 of copyists in Europe, whom, too, he personally 

 superintended. 



The second period in the history of the Renais- 

 sance is distinguished by indiscriminate avidity for 

 everything classic. As its most representative 

 scholar may lx_- cited Francesco Filelpho ( 1398-1481 ). 

 Having studied rhetoric and Latin at Padua, he 

 learned Greek at Constantinople, became prof. 

 at Venice, Bologna, and Florence, and gained the 

 admiration of all Italy for erudition. In the thin! 

 period of the Renaissance the leading figures are 

 I. in -enzo dc' Medici and I'olitianat Florence, Boiaido 

 at Ken am, and Sannazaro at Naples. President ot 

 Florence from 1409, and himself of the most vei.-a 

 tile talent, Lorenzo de' Medici was, like his grand- 

 father ( 'osimo, his son Giovanni ( I,eo X.), and his 

 nephew Giulio (Clement VII.), a munificent patron 

 of learning. By the consent of all, the most 

 consummate of the humanists is Politian, whose 

 Jlfritilo, Auilirn, and Xnlrilin display almost as 

 spontaneous a command of the classic languages 

 as do his Orfeo, Stttnze, and Kime of his native 

 Italian. Towards the end of the l.">tb century 

 mere erudition began to sink in credit, and the 

 accomplished [xsrsonages who adorn the fourth 

 period are of a somewhat more independent type 

 the historians, Guicciardini and Machiavelli, 



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