The Rise and Characteristics of Renaissance Humanism

Characteristics of Humanism

During the 15^th century, Humanism emerged in Italy. It was an intellectual movement that gave rise to a change in worldview, contrasting with that of the Middle Ages. It had two basic features:

• Classical antiquity was taken as a model. The philosophical, literary, scientific, and artistic works produced by the Greeks and Romans were studied, disseminated, and used as a source of inspiration.
• Mankind was conceived as being at the center of the world (Anthropocentrism). In the medieval period, a theocentric view of life prevailed, in which God was conceived as being at the center. The humanists or intellectuals, in contrast, advocated an anthropocentric view along with human values such as freedom and reason. They also defended the values of the classical world: individualism, the search for earthly honor, success, fame, prestige, and power.

Areas of Humanistic Thought

Humanism was a complex movement that encompassed all areas of life:

• Literary and Philosophical: Humanists translated and wrote commentaries on classical writings, but they did so using the original texts. Pico della Mirandola and Niccolò Machiavelli were two leading Italian Humanists.
• Religious: It sought to combine admiration for the classical thinkers with the message of the Gospel. The Dutchman Erasmus of Rotterdam and the Englishman Sir Thomas More were two key representatives of this area.
• Scientific: It sought to explain natural phenomena through the use of reason, observation, and experiment. Its principal figures were Nicolaus Copernicus, Paracelsus, and Andreas Vesalius.

The Spread of Humanism

Humanistic thought spread across Europe between the 15^th and the 16^th centuries. Several factors contributed to this dissemination:

• The journeys undertaken by Humanists, which permitted the exchange of ideas between intellectuals from different countries.
• The foundation of academies, which disseminated knowledge about classical culture.
• The invention of the printing press, which meant books could be produced in greater numbers and at lower prices.

The Role of the Printing Press

The printing press is a mechanical means of reproducing texts that also allowed them to be made in series. It was invented around 1448 by Gutenberg, a German goldsmith who perfected Chinese printing techniques by using moveable metallic type for each letter, which could then be reused. Thanks to the printing press, there was:

1. An increase in book production.
2. The use of paper instead of parchment.
3. Content adapted to the tastes of a growing readership.