Renaissance Humanism

What is meant by the phrase “Renaissance Humanism”?
(an essay in exemplum from Mr. Munro)

      Renaissance Humanism was at the core of much of what developed conceptually in art and the humanities throughout the Italian Renaissance.  It began, first and foremost, with a revival of interest  in classical latin texts, specifically Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC).  One of the major players in this early Renaissance academic game was Plutarch (46 – 120 AD), who studied, read, translated, critiqued, annotated and distributed many of the almost forgotten (and many long lost) writings of ancient Greece and Rome.  

      Cicero and his classical counterparts cultivated the idea of humanitas, to describe the formation of an ideal speaker (orator), or Roman civilian, who he believed should be educated to possess a collection of virtues of character suitable for an active life of public service; these would include a fondness for learning acquired from the study of bonae litterae ("good letters", i.e., classical literature, especially poetry), which would also be a source of continuing cultivation and pleasure in leisure and retirement, youth and old age, and good and bad fortune.  These classical ideals would help to re-invent the idea of “individualism” in the 14th and 15th centuries in Florence, and beyond.   An appreciation of individuality, celebrated secular pursuits, and inquiry in human nature was generally seen by the medieval church as something unchristian and looked down upon.  However, the catastrophic events of the mid 14th century (The Black Death, economic growth and increasingly complexity, and the development of urban centers such as Florence) opened a new threshold in academic and individual allowance.

   The explosion of celebrity status artists, writers, and statesmen during the renaissance, showed a re-renewal in an interest in individuality.  Lorenzo de Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, Alberti and Castiglione are prime examples of “renaissance men” who were even famous in their own day.  This can also be seen in how art continued to deepen its representation of humanity.  This development is exhibited by  the emotional depth of Masaccio's depiction of Adam and Eve expelled from paradise, or the gravitas* of Donatello’s Zuccone.  These innovative artistic phenomenon are central to, and stem from, the idea of renaissance Humanism. Further, the artistic and conceptual artifacts enduring represent the movements viral durability, popular appeal and enduring legacy. 

*Gravitas was one of the Roman virtues, along with pietas, dignitas and virtus. It may be translated variously as weight, seriousness and dignity, also importance, and connotes a certain substance or depth of personality. - Wikipedia

 in addition to Petrach, Poggio Brancciolini has been celebrated as a key figure in unearthing and disseminating many classical texts during the 15th century.  Notable is his rescue of the last remaining (or so it seems) copy of Lucretius's De rerum natura.

This is celebrated in the recent Pulitzer Prize winning Swerve:  How the World Became Modern, which Mr. Munro highly recommends: