Genius of the 1300's

Genius of the 1300's

The 1300’s were a time on the brink of change. People were putting a higher price on education, literature was coming into the hands of the populace, and art was beginning to reflect life. Aquinas, Dante, and Giotto represented the intellectual, literary, and artistic genius of the 1300’s. These men were ahead of their time by bringing a humanistic aspect to their works. They were concerned with the human being as a creature of this world as well as the next. These men truly show the transition from Medieval to Renaissance. They also showed a balance in their concern with the human soul as well as their concern with the human as an earthly individual.

During this time of higher education some scholars challenged the thought of blind faith as the guide to truth. Students of Aristotelian philosophy believed that everything in nature could be understood without reference to a divine creator. Two schools of thought in the finding of truth had developed, one reached through human reason alone and the other reached through divine revelation. St. Thomas Aquinas refused to accept this dichotomy stating that human reason, a gift from god, could not lead to contradictions with divine revelation. The Summa of Theology was Aquinas’s way of defending the integrity of human reason while reconciling it with divine revelation. He believed that faith and reason must work harmoniously but when in conflict, faith takes precedence over reason.

Dante Alighieri was a man of his time. He was living on the brink of the Renaissance and yet still captured the essence of a man of the Middle Ages in his great work the Divine Comedy. Dante’s reasoning for writing this work came from the sentence bestowed on him from the people of Florence. This work was a way for him to understand and make sense of what his life had become while trying to understand what may come in the afterlife. The Divine Comedy was also a way for him to settle a vendetta against Florence and the Church. Dante tried to make sense out of the afterlife, God’s plan and the imperfections of the Church. The Inferno was Dante’s version of hell and Reason was his guide.