Overview

• Humanism– Definition & Early Development– Literary Humanists– Civic Humanists– Legacy

• Print technology and its impact

The Rise of the Merchants & Cities

• The rise of merchants was most pronounced on the Italian peninsula and was well under way by the twelfth century

• The Crusades opened new channels for Italian merchants to expand their trading ventures to the Byzantine Empire and the Near East, where the lucrative trade in spices and fine silks created opportunities to accumulate vast profits

• In order to protect themselves from pirates and others merchants frequently became proficient at arms and hired men who could protect their valuable possessions

• By the thirteenth century the merchants were successfully leading popular communes throughout the Italian peninsula against the dominance of the warrior or feudal aristocracy

The Rise of the Merchants & Cities

• Although these trends toward increasing urbanization and the creation of independent communes led by the merchants also spread to Northern Europe, by 1300 the Italian peninsula contained more than a dozen independent city states ruled by the merchant elite

• Merchants supplied the aristocracy with loans and the luxury goods that aristocrats needed to maintain their elaborate social practices

• Increasingly members of the aristocracy found it advantageous to form marriage alliances with the most wealthy and influential merchants, a phenomenon that was almost unthinkable a century earlier

• As the merchants’ influence grew they developed and celebrated values and traditions that either mocked or rivaled the romanticism of the chivalric ethos

Humanism

• Humanism emerged during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries

• It was the product of the practical and legalistic orientation of the merchants who controlled the city states of northern Italy

• Its initial practitioners were often men who were interested in the recovery of ancient texts– Celebration of the achievements of the Greeks and Romans– To uncover lost knowledge

• Unlike the impractical orientation of chivalric poems, humanist writings tended to explore practical concerns, such as whether a document was a forgery (many medieval documents were) and whether it contained knowledge that could be applied to specific problems

• Humanists were often opposed to the scholastic learning of the universities and its emphasis on theology; many humanists were often at least partially self taught

Humanism

• An early source of this humanist trend in education and learning was the northern Italian Republic of Florence– Bruno Latini wrote a practical advice manual and how to rule a city

state c. 1280; Bruno had been a notary, a quasi legal profession engaged in the authentication of documents and contracts

– His student Dante Alighieri would inspire generations of humanist writers through his mastery of classical Latin, his familiarity with the ancient world, and his development of what would become the vernacular Italian language

• Humanists shared with the authors of chivalric literature a willingness to write in the vernacular; however, unlike the chivalric poets who wrote about Love and fantasy, humanists often used the vernacular to write about serious issues related to the journey of the soul and the quest for divine revelation

• This use of the vernacular implicitly threatened the Church’s control over serious intellectual discourse

What exactly is humanism?

• Humanism is a vague term that is often misunderstood; it is important to distinguish between– Secular humanism: 20th century– Literary and civic humanism: 1300-1550

• Dante inspired the revival of classical literature that was at the heart of literary humanism

• One of its earliest exponents was Francesco Petrarch, a churchman who wrote love poetry, inspired by courtly love literature

• Petrarch was infatuated with Cicero and the grandeur of the Roman Republic

Mons Meg – c. 1450

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Kompas_Sofia.JPG

What do you consider the most important invention in history?

A. Nuclear power including bombs

B. The internet

C. The printing press

D. Gunpowder

E. Something else entirely

In what sense does technology function as a religion in modern Western society?

A. It makes the seemingly impossible possible

B. It explains our position in the cosmos

C. It explains nature and gives us hope of controlling it

D. We look to it to solve our problems

E. Like the God of the Old Testament, it has the powers to create and destroy humanity

A Book of Hours

English Almanac

Humanism

1300-1525

Portrait of a Humanist

by Giovanni Bellinic. 1490

Medieval Scriptoria

• Began in monasteries• Spread to urban

craftsmen during 13th and 14th centuries

• Normally worked under contract from rich patrons

• Satisfied a growing appetite for books

The Gutenberg

Bible

1455

Papermaking, Bibliotheque Nationale, ParisInside a Printing Works, Bibliotheque des Arts

Decoratifs, Paris

Print contributed

to the decline of

the prestige of the Church

leaders

Print changed

the reputation

of the ancients by exposing their flaws

Print removed the dependence

on patronage

Print unleashed a

torrent of inaccurate

and misleading

material

De Revolutionibus

1543

Scientific Revolution

Ptolemy’s Map

Ptolemeic Map

Mappae Mundi

T-O map

Terra Oceana

Genoese Map c. 1457

Waldseemuller’s Map, 1507

Roselli, 1508

Ortelius’ Map, 1597

Compass Diagram c.

1300

Astrolabe

Mariner’s Quadrant

Portuguese Exploration

• Influenced by Arabic knowledge of the stars and navigation, the Portuguese were the premier sailors of Europe c. 1500

Portuguese Caravel c. 1470

Carvel Built ships allowed for improved tacking

Replica of the Santa

Maria

A Carrack

Carrackc. 1490

Exploration, 1492 -1522

Galleon

Boccaccio

• Decameron (c. 1350) is a classic collection of 100 short stories in Italian vernacular prose– often bawdy and frequently mock the presumption and greed of

the medieval Church– His main characters are wealthy bourgeoisie who flee Florence

during the Black Death– Probably inspired by the Fabliaux literary tradition

• In addition to producing great literature, Boccaccio was also a Florentine diplomat and a scholar of Roman literature

• In the 1350s he wrote “On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles” which provided insights into the gods of the Greco-Roman world and inspired later generations of Renaissance painters

Literary Humanism• Begins in early 1300s with Dante & Petrarch but gains

steam in the 1400s with the flight of Byzantine scholars to Italy

• Literary Humanism was focused on the recovery of ancient Greek & Latin texts and involved essentially four processes– Collection – multiple copies of the same text helped

to eliminate errors– Transcription – rewriting the old texts into new

script– Translation – more precise; words matter– Imitation – of the classical Latin style

• Philosophical orientation of Humanism– Man is the primary concern– Revival of Greco-Roman philosophical speculation– Increasingly assumes a Platonic orientation

Literary Humanism• Emphasized writing and rhetoric in school studies

instead of scholastic methodology• Well suited to societies with a growing need for

lawyers because of emphasis on writing and rhetoric• Continues well past the sixteenth century with

Erasmus’ translation of a Greek New Testament into Latin (c. 1500)

• By celebrating both the past and the potential of humanity, it provides impetus to both the Renaissance and the Reformation

• Generally conveyed a more optimism regarding human nature than medieval philosophy which emphasize the corruption of the flesh and original sin

Civic Humanism• The application of humanist philosophy to

government– republican values glorified– Cicero seen as ideal statesman– emphasized need to have virtuous leaders– focused on practical matters

• Favoured especially in Florence in the 15th and 16th centuries but also influential in England; it gives rise to social contract theories of the Enlightenment

• In contrast to scholastic political philosophy of the late Middle Ages (e.g. Aquinas), it increasingly removed religious considerations from political theory and eventually paved the way for the social contract theories of the Enlightenment

Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527

• Champion of republican values in Florence during the 15th and early 16th centuries

• Had practical experience as one of the leading statesmen of Florence from 1499-1510

• His practical guide for dictators, known as the Prince, left a longstanding legacy that he embraced violence and was amoral

• However, he wrote other works that clearly leave the impression that he believed in the value of a republican form of government

• His political theories were a departure from previous political philosophy in that they were not based so much on the ideal form of government as the methods to achieve the interests of the state

Summary of Humanism

• The historiography of the Renaissance often claims that Humanism began in 14th century Florence with the figure of Petrarch (c. 1350) who developed a cult following around Cicero; but clearly many of the trends evident in Petrarch’s writings were already visible in the writings of Dante and Bruno Latini c. 1300

• In its earliest forms it displayed mastery of various literary genres (both prose and poetry), and it celebrated ancient Roman culture

• It influenced – Literature– Art & Architecture– Education and scholarly pursuits– Political Philosophy

The Influence of Humanism

• The recovery and analysis of texts provided an impetus for much of the reforming spirit that was to spark the Reformation– Lorenzo Valla’s analysis of the Donation of Constantine led to the

conclusion that the document was a forgery; this discovery brought into question the Papacy’s claims to temporal authority in the Italian peninsula

– Erasmus’s translation of the New Testament into Latin during the early 1500s provided the basis for Luther’s vernacular (German) version during the 1520s

• By translating and explaining Greek and Roman sources, the humanists shed new light on the Greco Roman past which would provide a large portion of the subject matter for Renaissance art

• Humanism inspired several later intellectual movements, such as Renaissance painting, neo-Platonism, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment

The Influence of Humanism

• One of the primary legacies of humanism was its impact on the modern educational program– challenged the speculative and impractical nature of

scholastic educational practices, which emphasized theology

– focus on practical issues and eventually (in the 1700s) reoriented the course of higher education toward the humanities and away from speculative philosophy

– Education in the vernacular• The impact of the humanist educational program

is still evident in higher education today

Printing before Gutenberg

• By the eleventh century the Chinese had developed both moveable type and paper, the two critical ingredients for mass production of print

• However, print technology does not seem to have spread in China during this period

• This experience contrasts rather markedly from the widespread diffusion of printing press technology in Europe during the second half of the 15th century and suggests that the demand for books was particularly strong in Europe during this period. In other words as historians have studied the phenomenon of print it has led them to realize that literacy rates in Europe may have been relatively high compared to other areas of the world

Printing before Gutenberg

• During the fourteenth century lay scriptoria began to spread throughout Europe

• These lay scriptoria were workshops dedicated to the production of books

• Monasteries had maintained scriptoria since the early Middle Ages but the demand for books increased dramatically during the fourteenth century especially in university towns and major commercial cities throughout Europe where literacy rates and the demand for books were particularly high

• Consequently lay scriptoria, which operated as workshops in medieval towns, employed large numbers of scribes who were continuously employed in the production of manuscripts

Printing before Gutenberg

• Typically scriptoria worked under contracts from wealthy patrons who desired to obtain large quantities of books to bestow upon their clients and acquaintances as a reflection of their power

• In other words, just as painting and architecture reflected the power of wealthy patrons, so books too represented the knowledge available to the European aristocracy

• The diffusion of lay scriptoria during the fourteenth century was aided in part by the increasing availability of paper, which was considerably cheaper to produce than vellum

• By the late fourteenth century printers were experimenting with mechanical printing processes that used wooden blocks to mass produce books

Printing before Gutenberg

• Wooden block printing, xylography, had a several serious drawbacks– The wood broke, chipped, and cracked– The carving of the printed blocks was time consuming– The letters on the page were not re-usable on other

pages and because each letter was carved individually, they lacked uniformity

• By the 1420s two different solutions to this problem were developed– Use of metal type– Wooden block letters could be reused on pages

Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1380s-1468)

• Son of a patrician (aristocrat) from Mainz in modern Germany, he was exiled and lived in Strassbourg for most of the 1430s and 1440s

• Appears to have worked as a silversmith during this period

• Was perpetually in debt for most of his professional life

• A lawsuit from 1438 indicates that he was working on an invention related to a press at this time

The Diffusion of Print Technology

• Within twenty five years of the production of the Gutenburg Bible, printing presses were either producing books or under construction in virtually every polity in Europe

• The printing press spread especially rapidly within the Holy Roman Empire where demand for printed Bibles appears to have been particularly strong

• The total number of books in Europe increased from approximately 100,000 to about nine million between 1455 and 1500

• The most popular book in print was the Bible, which more or less guaranteed printers a solid return on their investment for setting up a press

William Caxton, 1422-91

• Established the first printing press in England during the late 1470s

• Caxton was prolific– He translated 24 books– Published 100 books, virtually everything available in

his time including Canterbury Tales, Morte D’Arthur, and many other native English works

• His patrons were the crown and nobility; however, his output was varied and he also produced books with popular appeal

William Caxton, 1422-91

• The first English printer; had an enormous influence on English literature

• Began his career as a successful wool merchant on the Continent where he became interested in history and printing

• One of his earliest books printed in 1474 in Bruges was the Game and Play of Chess, which treated chess as an allegory for life

• Soon thereafter he returned to England and set up his printing works in Westminster

• He printed the first English book produced by a printing press, Dictums and Sayings of the Philosophers, in1478

Impact of the Printing Press

• Historians are still trying to measure and determine the impact of the printing press

• It clearly accelerated an already noticeable increase in literacy that was well under way by 1300

• It provided for the first time a wide availability of the principal book of the Christian tradition: the Bible

• Prior to the printing press, most Christians had never read any part of the Bible or heard the Bible read in their own language; that situation changed in the century following the Gutenburg Bible

• In addition to increasing the familiarity with Bible, printers learned to produce pamphlets and other writings which had a ready market

Albrecht Dürer, 1471-1528

• German artist who utilized the printing press to produce large quantities of his printed engravings to a mass market

• By demonstrating the use of the press to cheaply produce art for common people, Dürer demonstrated to his contemporaries how to loosen the grips of patronage on artistic and intellectual development

• His breakthrough work was Apocalypse which was essentially a pictorial representation of the Biblical book of Revelation

Dürer

Self Portrait in Venice

1498

DürerSelf Portrait

1500

The Apocalypse

1498

Conquest,War, Justice, Pestilence

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

Engraving

1504

Summary & Conclusion

• Humanism often found its supporters in the wealthy city-states of northern Italy

• It reflected the practical concerns of merchants and urban patricians who sought to increase their own power and authority by associating themselves with the lost wisdom of ancient Rome

• The orientation of the humanist differed markedly from either the chivalric courts of kings or the intellectual practices of the medieval universities

• Humanism provided a fundamental catalyst for the entire intellectual enterprise of the Renaissance

Summary & Conclusion

• As humanism spread from its late Medieval origins in Italy to northern Europe, it contributed to the separation of intellectual endeavors from Church control; patronage proliferated

• Humanism also increased the general interest in original texts and eventually new translations of the Bible based on older and more reliable texts

• The increasing demand for Bibles and other ancient texts encouraged the development of the printing press in the middle of the 1400s

• Similar to humanism, the printing press contributed to both the diffusion of literacy and familiarity with Western literary traditions

Summary & Conclusion

• As Bibles and other texts became available throughout Europe, the Church increasingly lost control over the reading and interpretation of Biblical passage

• Furthermore, intellectuals increasingly sought to challenge papal and Church practices by noting that the Bible failed to demonstrate precedents for many medieval Christian practices

• Consequently the impact of the printing press and humanism on the development of the Protestant Reformation can hardly be overemphasized

• However, this result was not the intended purpose of most literary humanists and publishers, and many other factors contributed to the phenomenon that we call the Reformation