movement of the revival of interest in classical culture that occurred
in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — a period which
saw the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times. The inter
penetration of Greek and Latin culture that occurred as a result of
the formation of extensive Latin dominions in the Eastern
Mediterranean after the 4th Crusade can be regarded as the basic
condition, if not directly the cause, of the Renaissance. It began in
Italy, and its first period was marked by a revival of interest in
classical literature and the classical ideals. It was a great revolt
against the intellectual sterility of the medieval spirit, and
especially against scholasticism, in favor of intellectual freedom and
its first sign was a passion for the cultural magnitude and richness
of the pagan world. Traces of this revolt can be seen in Dante (1265-
1321), who, although thoroughly medieval in his sympathies, chose the
Roman poet Virgil as his model, and who, in the vigour and
magnificence of his own verse, was a striking contrast to his
contemporaries and earlier medieval authors. Petrarch (1304-1374) was
the first true poet of the Renaissance. His poems written in Latin
hexameter followed the classical models of poetry. He traveled to
foreign countries and thus was familiar with a larger world than his
predecessors. Further, he may be said to have rediscovered Greek,
which for some six centuries had been lost to the western world. His
friend and disciple Boccaccio studied that language, and by his
master's advice made a translation of Homer into Latin. In 1360 the
first chair of Greek was established in Florence. Greek scholars were
now encouraged to come from Byzantium to Italy, and in 1396 in turn
the learned Manuel Chrysoloras began to teach in the chair of Greek at
Florence which become the cradle of the classical revival. Outstanding
Italian humanists of that epoch visited Byzantium in order to learn
Greek and to buy old manuscripts, saved from pillages, conflagrations,
and devastation of the invaded country. Many Greek texts were brought
from Constantinople. Europe was ransacked for copies of the long
unused Latin classics and copyists multiplied them. Libraries were
founded, and schools for the study of both Greek and Latin in their
classic forms were opened at Rome, Mautua, Verona, and many other
towns. Pope Nicholas V earnestly fostered the new movement and laid
the foundation of the great Vatican collection. Cardinal Bessarion
presided over the formation of the Library of St. Mark at Venice.
Individual scholars went about looking for manuscripts of lost
authors, for coins, medals; for anything that could give a better
knowledge of classical antiquity. After the fall of Constantinople in
1453 Renaissance gained a further impetus because of a number of Greek
humanists who moved from Byzantium to Italy. In 1462 the Platonic
Academy was opened in Florence under the patronage of Cosimo de'
Medici. Its leader became Marcilio Ficino.
The second period of the Renaissance is marked by a continued zeal for
classical study, and by the developmental of a broad learning and the
new view of the intellectual life which is now known as Humanism. By
this time the movement had spread to Germany, Poland and France, the
Netherlands and to other northern countries, where it developed into
the wide scholarship and sound learning of men like Thomas More,
Campanella, Bruno, Ronsard, Erasmus, and Copernicus. The movement had
gone far beyond the mere revival of classical studies and was felt in
every department of life. In philosophy it gradually replaced the
purely formal methods of thought that scholasticism had fostered. In
science it led to the great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler
and Newton. In architecture it brought about the revival of the
classical style. In the fine arts it inspired new schools of painting
in Italy, such as of Giorgione, Raphael, Leonardo, Bellini, and
Michael Angelo, and the Flemish school in the Netherlands. In religion
its influence can be seen in the revolt of Martin Luther. Also, it
indirectly inspired the passion for exploration that led to the
discovery of the New World.
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