The Renaissance, Then and Now John Hunter Comparative Humanities Program

The Renaissance, Then and Now

John HunterComparative Humanities Program

The Liberal Arts, the Humanities, and the Humanists

• the “Liberal Arts” were based on the subjects taught in pagan schools in the late Roman empire (2nd – 5th century CE); early Christian writers (Origen, Tertullian, Jerome) strongly discouraged Christians from attending

• St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE), bishop of Hippo and a former teacher of rhetoric, wrote treatises encouraging the use of pagan learning (grammar, Platonic philosophy, etc.) for bible study and Christian theology

• after Christianity became better established, Augustine’s view prevailed

• Cassiodorus (480 – 575) was the first Christian writer to advocate the “seven liberal arts” in Christian schools and his vision of them set educational agenda for the next 900 years – argued divine sanction from Proverbs 9:1

Seven Liberal Arts

Trivium (“the three roads”)

Grammar

Rhetoric

Logic

(Verbal)

Quadrivium (“the four roads”)

Arithmetic

Astronomy

Geometry

Music

(Numeric)

Seven Liberal Arts

• these were always, directly or indirectly, the basis of secondary education in the western world – in the late Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance worlds

• became the basis of the arts course in the first European universities: Bologna (1088), Oxford (c. 1096), and Paris (c.1100) – the other faculties were law, medicine, and theology

• universities evolved from urban cathedral schools as self-regulating institutions of learning, with the explicit goal of trying to keep the curriculum free from ecclesiastical and civic interference

The Liberal Arts and the Humanities

• “Humanism” began in Italy at the beginning of the 14th c.

• started as a literary movement among groups of lawyers, notaries, etc. in a few Italian cities with the goal of reforming Latin prose style to make it more like classical Latin

• Francesco Petrarca or “Petrarch” (1304 – 74): first self-conscious “humanist”

• he tried to recover and edit classical texts and to revive classical ideals of prose and poetry – wrote a Latin epic and influential Italian love poetry (popularized the sonnet form)

• he also created the possibility of a secular “man of letters” - learning could be partly separated from the authority of the Church but still Christian

• there was never any organized “secular humanism” in the contemporary sense of the term

The Renaissance

As a historical period:

Italy: c.1400 – 1530Germany: c. 1480 – 1600England: c. 1500 – 1620

As a descriptive term:

The self-conscious revival (“rebirth”) of classical ideals and standards in all branches of artistic and intellectual endeavour

The Renaissance

OneVery Important Caveat: Renaissance scholars and artists often claimed to be totally

different from their medieval predecessors (they coined the phrase “Dark Ages”) and, for a long time, modern scholars believed them

Over the past thirty years or so, we have begun to realize how profound the continuities between the “Renaissance” and the Middle Ages were

Many scholars today use the term “early modern” to cover part or all of the period from the High Middle Ages (12th c.) to the French Revolution (1789)

The High Renaissance - Highlights

1455: - Johannes Gutenberg publishes first printed book (the Bible)1484: - Marsilio Ficino edits and translates and the first complete

works of Plato in Latinc.1485: - Leonardo da Vinci draws the “Vitruvian Man”c.1486: - Pico writes An Oration on the Dignity of Man1492: - discovery of the New World1498: - Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper

- Vasco da Gama becomes the first European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean

1511: - Raphael paints the School of Athens1508-12: - Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling1513: - Machiavelli composes The Prince1516: - Erasmus publishes the first modern edition of the Greek

New Testament with a Latin translation1520: - Ferdinand Magellan rounds Cape Horn and names the

Pacific Ocean

The High Renaissance – Then and Now

• NOW: modern clichés of the Renaissance tend to emphasize its optimistic, forward-looking characteristics and its many material and intellectual achievements - e.g. Pico’s Oration

• THEN: the people who lived through the High Renaissance saw these achievements, but valued them very differently to us – they also experienced it as an age of near constant war, plague, threat of invasion (by the Turks), and uncertainty – e.g. Erasmus’s letters

Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (c.1486)

It is written as a speech and, like all good speeches, it has a logical structure that organizes Pico’s ideas:

Part I: Mankind and Traditions of Knowledge

A) Thesis1. Essence of Man (pp.1-6)

B) Nature of Knowledge

1. Unity of All Traditions of Knowledge (pp.6-10)2. The Highest Forms of Knowledge are Mysteries (pp.10-14)


Part II – The Present and the Way Forward

C) State of Philosophy at Present

1. Philosophy is in Trouble (like always . . .) (pp.14-15)

D) His Plan for the Disputation

1. Justification for Public Debate of 900 Theses (pp.16-17)2. Desire to not be limited to One School of Philosophy, but to

range through them all (pp.18-19)


E) Christian Learning vs. Learning in General

• Learning Came Last to Christian Culture (pp.19-20)• Desire to Show the Syncretic Nature of Truth and to

Reconcile Different Schools (pp.20-22)

F) Magic

• Magic can be both good and bad (pp.22-23)• Good magic reveals the highest mysteries of creation (pp.23-

24)


G) Mysteries: Pagan, Jewish, and Catholic

1. Jewish Mysticism and its Affirmation of Christian Truth (pp.25-28)

2. Orphic Mysteries work in the same way (p.28)3. Ends by asserting that he can reconcile Plato and Aristotle

(p.29)

NOW: this text is seen as a paradigmatic example of Renaissance learning

THEN: it was condemned as heretical, never published in Pico’s lifetime, and led to Pico’s arrest. He was forced to recant 13 of the theses

Erasmus of Rotterdam,Letter to Wolfgang Capito (February, 26th, 1517)

“It is not part of my natural disposition, dear Wolfgang, to be excessively fond of life. Perhaps I have lived long enough, having entered my fifty-first year, or possibly I see nothing so splendid or delightful in this life as to merit desire by one who is convinced that a happier life awaits those who in this world earnestly seek after piety. But I almost wish to be young again, and this for the reason that I expect the coming of a golden age: we clearly see how rulers, as if changed by inspiration, devote all their energies to the pursuit of peace . . .”


“I see that the leaders of the world-King Francis of France, Charles the Catholic King, King Henry of England, and Emperor Maximilian-have made a drastic cutback on their armaments and have established a secure and, I hope, lasting peace. Therefore I am encouraged to entertain the expectation that there will be a renascence or even an efflorescence, not only of good morals and Christian piety, but also of the purer and genuine kind of learning and the finest branches of knowledge. The basis for my hope lies in the fact that this goal is being pursued with equal enthusiasm in various parts of the globe: in Rome by Pope Leo, in Spain by the Cardinal of Toledo, in England by King Henry VIII, a scholar himself of no mean ability; in our country by King Charles, a young man of superhuman gifts; in France by King Francis, who was born so to speak for this very purpose, and who is also offering rich rewards to invite and attract from other lands men who are eminent for virtue and learning . . .”


“It is due to the piety of such rulers that we see gifted men all over the world awakening to the sound of the signal and rising up and joining forces to revive the best learning. How else can one explain the fact that all these learned scholars from various lands are sharing their efforts, and pursue this wonderful work not only with vigor but also with a fair degree of success, with the result that there is almost a sure hope that all branches of learning will blossom forth in a much purer and more genuine condition.”


“On the other hand, theology has presented a little more of a problem, because until now professors of theology have generally had a deep abhorrence of good learning and have covered up their ignorance all the more successfully by doing so under the guise of piety. As a result these fellows have convinced the illiterate masses that it is a violation of religion for anyone to assail their barbarism. They complain bitterly to the unlettered populace in particular and appeal for stoning whenever they see any danger of their ignorance being exposed. But I am confident that this situation too will turn out well, once the study of the three languages gains public acceptance in the schools, as it has begun to. . . . Not long ago a man complained bitterly to the people here, in a tearful voice, and of course in a sermon, that the Scriptures were done with, as also the theologians who up to now had borne the Christian faith upon their shoulders-now that men had appeared who were emending the text of the Holy Gospel and even of the Lord's Prayer-as if I were finding fault with Matthew or Luke instead of discovering the original correct text. In England, one or two persons are screaming that it is a shameful thing for me to try to teach an outstanding man like St. Jerome-as if I were altering and not restoring his original.”


“There is one thought that causes me anxiety; it is the fear that under the appearance of a renascence of ancient learning paganism may attempt to rear its head, for even among Christians there are some who acknowledge Christ practically in name only, while within their hearts they breathe the spirit of paganism; I am also afraid that Judaism may plan to use the renascence of Hebrew learning as an occasion for revival. There is no plague so opposed and so hostile to the teaching of Christ. Such has always been the condition of human affairs. Whenever anything good has succeeded, something bad has immediately used it as a pretext for trying to intrude itself. I would like to see those chilly subtleties completely lopped off - or at least they should not be the only interest of theologians - and Christ in all His simplicity and purity deeply planted in the hearts of men. I think the best way to accomplish this is to use the knowledge of the languages in order to penetrate deeply into the meaning of the sources themselves.”

Erasmus of Rotterdam,Letter to Antony Dalban (April 1st, 1531)

“We would have woes in abundance, even if no more were added. For some time now we have been infested by the plague, which does not come to an end. The high cost of living continues to go up. God only knows what is to follow. . . . They say the Turks are assembling three armies: one to invade Austria, against Ferdinand; another to invade Poland, which they have long been threatening; and a third to attack Nap1es; and from there they will go to ask the Pope for his blessing. This is a difficult situation, but still not so bad as if all Germany and the neighboring countries should become embroiled in mutual slaughter. You will say it is a fierce disease and cannot be cured by ordinary remedies. But I loathe remedies that are more terrible than the disease itself. If the sword is the means of solving the situation, then the biggest share of calamities will fall upon the innocent, and under the guise of defending religion the world will be filled with robbers. Spain is harboring many concealed Jews and Germany contains very many who are naturally inclined toward robbery and are well practiced in it because of wars. This whole sea of filth will first engulf Germany, then the rest of the world. . . .”

Erasmus of Rotterdam,Letter to Antony Dalban (April 1st, 1531)

“The world has never-had a more powerful emperor than it has now. . . . But in the present state of affairs it seems that the one best augury is for all men to appease the divine Being. Yet this, the most important thing of all, is most of all neglected. This is an age of excellent rulers, yet how can one explain the disasters in Christendom if it be not that God is angry with our wicked deeds?”

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The Renaissance, Then and Now John Hunter Comparative Humanities Program