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Aim: What were the intellectual hallmarks of the Italian Renaissance? (part 1)

Aim: What were the intellectual hallmarks of the Italian Renaissance? (part 1). September 27, 2012. Individualism. The inhabitants of the Italian city-states had a thirst for fame and driving ambitions for greater wealth and power. Makes them more individualistic.

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Aim: What were the intellectual hallmarks of the Italian Renaissance? (part 1)

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  1. Aim: What were the intellectual hallmarks of the Italian Renaissance? (part 1) September 27, 2012

  2. Individualism • The inhabitants of the Italian city-states had a thirst for fame and driving ambitions for greater wealth and power. Makes them more individualistic. • Rise of biographies and autobiographies • Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) • Emphasize Virtù: The ability of a person to shape the world around them according to their will. Alberti

  3. Humanism • Emphasizes and celebrates human beings and their achievements, interests and capabilities. • How does this contradict the philosophical outlook of the Middle Ages? • Deep interest in the classical texts of the Greeks and Romans (Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Livy, etc.). • Why does humanism lead to classicism?

  4. Great Humanists • Francisco Petrarch (1304-1374): “Father of Humanism.” • Great poet and writer who recognized that humanity is living at the dawn of a new age of intellectualism and culture after a thousand years of Medieval darkness. • Loves classical learning, scorns anyone who does not. “O inglorious age! that scorns antiquity, it’s mother, to whom it owes every noble art.” • Writes of his romantic love for Laura in the vernacular. Read Petrarch’s sonnets about Laura (the last page of the supplemental readings packet on my website). How do these sonnets reflect the values of humanism?

  5. Great Humanists • Leonardo Bruni (1374-1444): Celebrates classical works, emphasizes a broad liberal arts education based on the following subjects: • History • Oration (public speaking) • Classical poetry (Homer, Pindar, Euripides) How is Bruni’s approach to education different from Medieval scholastics like Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas? Bruni believed learning would increase fame and personal happiness. What is Renaissance about this attitude?

  6. Great Humanists • Pico dellaMirandola (1463-1494) – “On the Dignity of Man” • Places humanist ideas in a Christian context: “Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand We have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature…Thou shalt have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul’s judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine.” What is Mirandola saying about humanity in this passage?

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