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Francis Petrarch: Leader of the Humanistic Movement and Father of the Renaissance Before the civic spirit and individuality evident and necessary to the Renaissance came to fruition, there had to have been something to trigger a change in the mentality of the medieval civilization. The medieval manorialism fostered illiteracy and ignorance and a very narrow view of the outside world, people did not question their place, the church, or the need to prepare for the after life. The "awakening" of the Renaissance came after the dawn of a new Roman Empire way of thinking.. Humanism is the intellectual, literary and scientific movement of the 14th to the 16th centuries without which the Renaissance would never have evolved. Humanism is a rediscovery and reevaluation (analysis) of classical civilization and the application of the aspects of this civilization to intellectual and social culture in the current time. It is a blend of concern for the history and actions of human beings, mainly the ancient Greeks and Romans, such as, Cicero, Ceaser, and Augustine, with the belief that man was at the center of the universe. Contrary to Christian teachings, humanist believe that man is subject and creator of his own destiny, governed by ideals of beauty, grace, and harmony and the glorification of individual freedom. These ideas provide the vehicle, in which the transition from medieval thinking of vassalage (servitude) and the afterlife to a return to the principles of the Pax Romana occurred. Christian humanism came to mean individualism and the value of life in the present. Italy, and specifically Florence, is said to have been the birthplace of humanistic thinking and the Renaissance for a variety of reasons. Geography, more ... ... middle of paper ... .... Petrarch and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963. Donadoni, Eugenio. A History of Italian Literature, Volume 1. New York: New York University Press, 1969. Hollway-Calthrop, Henry. Petrarch: His Life and Times. New York: Putnam's, 1907. Lawall, Sarah, ed. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Seventh Edition, Volume 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1998. Musa, Mark, ed. Selections from the Canzoniere & Other Works by Francesco Petrarch. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Robinson, James Harvey, ed. Petrarch: The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters New York: G.P. Putnam, 1898. Symonds, John Addison. "Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance" History of the World, 01-01-92 (obtained online). Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. A History of Italian Literature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.
Bibliography:.. Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic: Six lives by Plutarch, Translated by Rex Warner (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1972).
So, I read and reviewed five volumes that I found to be representative of the recent scholarship on Renaissance Imperial power structures in Italy, the works span a range of imperial topics from Italian Cardinals and the Papacy, to the absolutist rulers of Italian cities like Milan and Florence. The works themselves are of course: Jane Black’s Absolutism in Renaissance Milan: A Plenitude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza 1329-1535, Charles Stinger’s The Renaissance in Rome, Gerard Noel’s The Renaissance Popes: Statesmen, Warriors, and the Great Borgia Myth, Margaret Ann Zaho’s Imago Triumphalis: The Function and Significance of Triumphal Imagery for Italian Renaissance Ruler’s, and finally K.J.P. Lowe’s Church and Politics
Lawall, Sarah, et al. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Vol. I. 7th ed. New York: Norton,
Bierhorst, John, et al. The Norton Anthology: World Literature. Vol I. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,
Najemy, John M. Italy in the Age of the Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Lemaitre, Alain J., and Erich Lessing. Florence and the renaissance: the quattrocento. paris: Terrail, 1993.
Harman, Alec, and Anthony Milner. Late Renaissance and Baroque Music. London: Barrie Books LTD., 1959. ML193.H37
Bondanella, Peter. (2009), A History of Italian Cinema, NY, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
Brucker, Gene A. & Co. Renaissance Florence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. Mandelbaum, Allen. A.
Petrarch’s letter to Cicero symbolizes his quest for knowledge from the ancient philosophers and his effort to bring out the best of humanism in Florentine society. His very act of writing a letter to an ancient philosopher represents his longing to be associated with the antiquity and his desires to get guidance from the ancient leaders. This letter addresses to an individual (Cicero), but it is intended for the Florentine society, which shows that Petrarch wanted to provide a new lens of studying history—by questioning the authors and finding morality through the study of antiquity and the ancient philosophers. It is the essence of humanism to constantly try to improve the society by guiding it towards being moral and focused in improving
Lawall, Sarah and Maynard Mack, Eds. _The Norton Anthology of world masterpieces: The Western Traditions_. New York. 1999.
Kristeller, P. O. (Spring 1970). Erasmus from an Italian Perspective. Renaissance Quarterly.Vol. 23. No. 1.
Florence, Italy was a city just like any other during the Renaissance. It was city of 50,000 people, less than there were in Paris and Venice but more than most other European cities. The busiest parts of the city were the Ponte Vecchio, a place lined with markets and houses, the neighborhood of the Orsanmichele and Mercato Vecchio, or the Old Market. Florence was a place of beauty and leisure. A Venetian visitor once said, “There is in my opinion no region more sweeter than that wherein Florence is a placed for Florence is situated in a plain surrounded on all sides by hills and mountains…And the hills are fertile cultivated, pleasant…” (Unger, pg. 1). Florence was a very prosperous city; it made fortunes off of wool and banking trades. A certain Florentine family contributed to the vast wealth as well. The Medici family was no doubt the foundation of prosperity for Florence.
Harr, James. Essays on Italian Poetry and Music in the Renassisance: 1350-1600. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. "Dante Alighieri." Stanford University. Stanford University, 29 Jan. 2001. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.