Lebano, Edoardo A. “Luigi Pulci and Late
Fifteenth-Century Humanism in
In this article, Lebano contends that, while most scholars
group all writers, poets and thinkers of the fifteenth and sixteenth century as
humanists, there were those who still clung desperately to the views and beliefs
of medieval times or were anti-religious. The
author Lebano chooses to represent his case through one Luigi Pulci.
Throughout the article, Pulci’s anti-religious views [then not
medieval] and mocking of the popular Italian humanists of the time are shown as
examples of how he was indeed not a humanist at all, but a medieval thinker
whose only humanist influence came from his desire to blend his work with the
popular trends of his time, and his respect for one great humanist named
Poliziano, whom he honors in his work Morgante.
His constant clashes with humanist thinkers and authors led him to
eventually brand himself an outcast from the Italian men of letters.
Many of his works were directly aimed at lambasting the beliefs and views
of noted humanists such as Bartolomeo Scala, Matteo Franco, Marsilio Ficino, and
others. He is seen as a classic
example of the anti-humanist, blatantly attacking both authors and religion
itself. It finally took an
intervention and reprimand from Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Pulci was duly worried about what events may be set into motion by
upsetting Lorenzo, and he therefore halted all attacks on Ficino and made a
public display of his repentance. His
Confessione was meant to be an honest “profession of faith and
[his] sincere retraction of all preceding irreligious writings.”
To many, this was to be a hollow attempt to get him out of the trouble he
was in, and was seen as insincere. When
Pulci died in November 1484, the
I found this article to be a very interesting account of
Pulci’s life, which gave me an indirect view into the controversy caused by
the societal change of the humanism of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The article shows how the rapid growth of humanism (especially in urban
Jardine, Lisa. “Lorenzo Valla and the Intellectual
Origins of Humanist Dialectic*. Journal of
the History of Philosophy 15.2 (1977): 143-164
The main focus of this article is to discuss the
replacement of the logic of scholastic medieval dialectic by the rhetorical
humanist dialectic. It recognizes
Lorenzo Valla and Rudolph Agricola as founders of this new curriculum.
The humanist dialectic is “a program of logic teaching built around
Aristotle’s and Cicero’s Topica, and Boethius’s systematization of the loose and largely
non-syllogistic types of argumentation treated in the Topica…”. Syllogistic
technique (a main staple of scholastic dialectic) is a source of much debate due
to the simplicity of the argument strategy.
The article states that both Valla and Agricola wrote on dialectic
“because they believed that there was something intrinsically wrong with the
fifteenth century dialectic studies, which reflected a misguided attitude
towards the acquisition of knowledge as a whole.” Another main theme of their
teachings was that about doubt of the possibility of gaining true wisdom as
compared to the old quest for said wisdom. The
teachings and writings of Valla and Agricola became the focus of education in
almost all of the major universities of the time.
The article outlines their views and their formation of the humanist
dialectic according to their works, which she quotes frequently throughout the
article.
Although many of the ideas and themes presented in this article are far beyond my grasp, I did learn quite a bit about the philosophical changes spawned by the introduction of humanism. The teaching styles changed, as did entire themes of philosophy, such as the views on logic, intellectual development and the acquisition of knowledge. This article gives new depth to the idea of humanism as more than just a change of focus. It shows humanism to be a complete evolution of the ideals of high scholasticism.
D’Amico, John F. “A Humanist Response to Martin Luther:
Raffaele Maffei’s Apologeticus.” Sixteenth
Century Journal 6.2 (1975): 37-56
This article is mainly about the life and unpublished
writings of one humanist named Raffaele Maffei, one of the first laymen to
attack the principles of Martin Luther. Maffie’s
writings were held together by one major theme which was that the classical
world could be “reconciled” with Christianity, very similar to the writings
of Christian writers before him. Although
this is a very medieval view, his dependency on the humanistic beliefs and views
placed him in the same category as his friends Paolo Cortesi and Angelo
Poliziano, noted humanists. The
majority of Maffie’s writings center on the non-secular side of humanism and
the traditions of the church. In his
mind, Luther was opposing the traditions of the church and therefore was
opposing God. His Apologeticus
confronts Luther’s views one at a time, dealing with things such as the pope,
indulgences, saints, and so forth. Maffie
was not the last author to attack Luther, or the first to raise certain points
against him. However, because he was
a layman and a humanist, he was able to offer a certain perspective on the
subject that many of his contemporaries could not.
This article was quite interesting to me due mostly to the fact that I know very little about the ideologies of Luther. In the process of reading this article I was able to see why Luther’s actions were such a debated topic. The differences of opinion between Luther and the humanist thinkers of the era caused major divisions in the church and the society as a whole. The writings of Maffie were controversial at the very least and showed exactly why humanists of the time were so vigorously set against Luther. The article did an excellent job of not only stating the facts, but affirming the Christian view point that Luther was wrong.
Schaeffer, Peter. “The Emergence of the Concept
’Medieval’ in Central European Humanism.” Sixteenth
Century Journal 7.2 (1976): 21-30
The main purpose of this article is to inform the reader as
to the origin of the term “middle ages” to denote a certain time period in
history. It centers around the
discovery of the terms ‘media antiquitas’ and ‘media aetas’, used in
writings a century and a half prior to the supposed introduction of the name by
Georg Horn in 1667, and how they would be the “first conscious demarcation of
Antiquity against the Middle Ages and the apprehension of these Middle Ages as a
concluded period”. Plainly stated,
this was apparently the first time anyone recognized the Middle Ages as being an
important period in history that is now over.
This is astounding due to the fact that the humanists in
This article was an onteresting look into humanism because of its focus. The idea that humanists in the fifteenth century were able to distinguish between the so called “Middle Ages” and their present is an absolutely incredible thought. To be able to discern the difference between each era is a problem that historians today still face and dispute. To think that the humanists who were present for the gradual change could see it more than 100 years before anyone else would catch on shows the deeply intellectual roots of the humanist movement. They had the capacity to define the end of the era, a thing of which people today are still unsure.
Blair, Ann, and Anthony Grafton. “Reassessing Humanism
and Science.” Journal of the History of
Ideas 53.4 (1992): 535-540
This article was about the opposing views of humanism and
science. The originators of science
such as Bacon, Galileo and Descartes “mocked the traditional methods of
natural philosophy, which culminated in Renaissance humanism”.
It talks about the inability to reconcile the classical studies and focus
on philology with the methods and goals of science.
The article never really solves this problem, leaving the readers to
decide for themselves.
I felt this article raised many good points. I myself have a hard time believing anything without fact, so the lack of scientific evidence to support the humanist beliefs shows a fault in humanist theories. I would greatly like to search more about this topic and see if maybe by testing the humanist theories, I can either affirm them or deny them adequately.