Jake Kaufman

AP Euro Assignment #5

Mrs. Nierman

1) The Renaissance philosophy known as Humanism had an aim for an ideal citizen. Their model was Cicero, of classical Rome, who was both an intellectual and a political leader. He exemplified the ideal that an intellectual has a duty to live an active life to help his community. By serving ones community, one can grow and mature both morally and intellectually. Humanist believes that their studies should be put to the service of the state. A good citizen must carry out his or her civic duties to add to society. In order to follow this ideal, many Humanists served as government officials. 2a) Leonardo Bruni was a Humanist scholar who served as a chancellor of his native city of Florence. Traditionally Humanists, like Petrarch, took a life of solitude over a family or communal life, but Bruni changed that. He wrote a biography on Cicero, called New Cicero, in which he described the life of the scholar, but also his role in Roman society. This biography helped change the Humanist ideals for the perfect citizen in the 15th century. Bruni was one of the first Italian Humanists to thoroughly gain knowledge of Greek, and study the works of the Greek masters, such as Euripides and Sophocles. These scholars works were finally beginning to be learnt again after being ignored during the middle ages. 2b) Lorenzo Valla was a Roman Humanist who lived in the first half of the 15th century, and was educated in both Greek and Latin. Valla served as the papal secretary to Pope Nicholas V between 1447 and 1455. This position gave him access to the ancient texts held by the Vatican, which he thoroughly analyzed and often criticized. When studying the Vatican texts, Valla proved that the Donation of Constantine, which gave the Church control over almost all of its western lands, was a fraud document. Valla also attempted to restore Latin to its original position, instead of the local vernaculars. In The Elegance of the Latin Language, Valla tried to purify Latin and create new literary standards for it.

4) Marcillo Ficino was commissioned to translate the dialogues of Plato. He was also one of the leaders of the academy. Ficino dedicated his life to the translation of Plato and explanation of Platonic philosophy, known as Neoplatonism. Ficinos Neoplatonism was based off of two basic ideas: a hierarchy of living things and a theory of spiritual things. Neoplatonic hierarchy of substances is best described as a great chain of being. It goes from the lowest level of physical matter, a plant, to the purest spirit, meaning G-d. Humans start off in the middle of the hierarchy, and it is our duty to strive for and to climb the hierarchy, becoming more godlike. Ficinos second basic principle was the principle of Platonic love. It stated that just as humans are bound through connections of love, so too the universe is bound together through sympathetic love. 5) The Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Pico della Mirandola, depicts many examples of Renaissance individualism. The speech is mostly about how G-d created Man, and gave him the ability to decide between doing the good or the bad in any situation. It says that if a man is vegetative and lazy, he will become like a plant. If a man is overly sensitive, then he will become brutish. If a man is rational, then he can break past mediocre humanity and become heavenly. But only if he is intellectual will a man become angelic, like the son of G-d. 6) Pietro Paolo Vergerio was a Humanist whose ideas on education, published in Concerning Character, became the Renaissance view on the value of liberal arts. He stressed liberal arts as crucial, because they allowed people the key to true freedom and the ability to reach their full potential. The purpose of the liberal arts was to produce an individual who followed a path of wisdom and virtue, and could convince others to follow him or her along this path. Vergerio wrote that the most important of the liberal arts were history (to learn from the thought processes and mistakes of the past), moral philosophy (to teach one how to properly conduct oneself), poetry, mathematics, astronomy and music (based off of the Greek idea that only one who knew to sing or play an instrument was truly educated). An understanding of Greek and Latin was also necessary for liberal

studies, since it gave a student access to the works of the great classical authors, who were the foundation of liberal arts. 7) One of the inventions with the biggest impact on educational history was the movable printing press. Often credited as its inventor, Johannes Gutenberg played an important role in the end stages of the printing presss development. By printing using movable metal type-blocks, a printer could quickly produce multiple copies of the same text. This allowed for the mass distribution of great educational texts, giving the laymen an opportunity to learn from them. Some elitist Humanists disapproved of the printing press, saying that it cheapened the value of knowledge and scholarship by making them available to the general public. In reality the printing press was highly beneficial to European society, allowing the quick spread of information and ideas around Europe. Most important was the spreading of reformative ideas, causing a huge rise in literacy as more and more common people started to read.