The Renaissance

Humanism

If there is any one aspect of the Renaissance that can be said to have been characteristic, that must surely be the movement known as humanism. This term has served multiple purposes over the years and sometimes has been stretched until it has lost most of its meaning. As with the word "renaissance", I shall here use the word "humanism" in a fairly narrow sense.

The word itself appears first in Italy in the later 15th century, where it was used to describe university students to subscribed to a particular programme of study. These students rejected the traditional curriculum of theology and medicine to concentrate on grammar, rhetoric, and a study of classical literature.

A word to describe a movement often will not appear until the movement itself is well under way. So it is with "humanism." We can see individuals evincing the same interests and beliefs as the humanists long before anyone was referring to humanists. Petrarch is the founding father of humanism, along with Bocaccio. The movement gained real momentum at the beginning of the 15th century and was a significant force throughout that century and the next.

History of Western Civilization

E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University

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