Petrarca and Humanism

In a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), one of the parents of the humanism. Petrarca, stood out for his intense work as a philosopher, philologist and, above all, as a poet with his work Song book (Venice, 1470). With this, our protagonist laid the foundations of a new literary trend, known as Petrarchism, exposed new ideas away from the dominant theological culture and defended a script both in Latin and in vernacular. If you want to know more about Petrarch and Humanism, Keep reading this lesson!

Petrarch (1304, Arezzo- 1374, Padua) lived during the Late Middle Ages (11th-15th centuries), a historical period that is characterized by being on the way between the Middle Ages and the Modern / Humanism, therefore, the world of our protagonist was a world in full change and that characterized by:

• Urban development: The urban area began to be revitalized thanks to the resurgence of commerce, highlighting especially the nuclei from central Europe and the coastal cities (the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea) close to the circuits commercial.
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• The birth of an aristocracy or urban elite: This social class was a very heterogeneous group (highlighting an incipient bourgeoisie), made up of individuals from different backgrounds and who were engaged in activities of various kinds. Their wealth was based on land and livestock ownership, manorial power and, above all, on mercantile activities.
• The crisis of the Church and the first questions about her precepts: There are heretical movements that question the preponderance of the Catholic faith and the crisis of the Avignon Papacy takes place (1309-1378).
• ANDl awakening from the great commercial thoroughfares connecting all of Europe and the resurgence of East-West trade.
• The reinforcement of royal power against the weakening of the feudal lords.
• The birth of the lay spirit and the development of universities.
• The new literary / artistic conceptions: Where Petrarca is framed with the rebirth of Renaissance literature.

The figure of Petrarca marked a before and before after in history, being recognized as ornot from the fathers of humanism and, as such, various contributions have been attributed to this movement. Among which stand:

1. Rediscovery of the works of the classical world

Petrarca dedicated his entire life to the study of the works of Greco-Roman authors and his work as a translator and philologist was very important. In fact, thanks to him today we can read the classics, since our protagonist spent a large part of his fortune in rescuing ancient manuscripts from different libraries. In this way, he recovered the works by Tito Livio, Pompio Mela, Cicierón and some of the work of Plato:

1. He brought together the work of Virgilio in a single codex.
2. He concatenated the History of Livy and shaped it.
3. He discovered the Letters of Cicero (In defense of the poet Archia and Letters to Atticus).

2. A more humanistic education

For Petrarch the educational system controlled by the Church was not the most correct. In this way, he defended the intellectual freedom, he established that access to the great classical works should be open to everyone, not just a few, and stated that education should be taught in a language that most people understood and not in a Latin that had become slang (medieval Latin,) far removed from Latin pure.

He also defended the studia humanitatisor the study of letters: classical literature, history, rhetoric, dialectics, philosophy and classical and modern languages. Finally, during the Modern Age, the studia humanitatis was included in the educational curriculum.

3. A new philosophical ideal

In many of his works, Petrarca, defines himself as a philosopher, and it is that, for our protagonist, philosophy was "the art of living”Was the key to understanding the world and the individual as a free being who makes himself. Furthermore, he states that it is a discipline that he must be at the service of the human being and that he must provide dignity and virtue through knowledge.

Likewise, the Italian will also stand out as a follower of Cicero (the rhetoric), Seneca and Plato, against the Aristotelian philosophy imposed by the Church. In this sense, it should be noted that Petrarch does not criticize the philosophy of Aristotle, but rather the simplistic and inadequate interpretation that the patristic and scholastic from his work (to criticism widely). Even so, Petrarch, defined the philosophical work of Plato as more brilliant than that of Aristotle.

4. Reconciliation between paganism and Christianity

In the figure of Petrarca the two aspects present in humanism, Christianity and paganism or classical cultures converge. On the one hand, he was a very believing person (he came to take minor ecclesiastical vows) and, on the other hand, he was a great admirer of the Greco-Roman world as a period of splendor. Reason why, he defended the idea that both worlds should be reconciled and not to confront, since, the knowledge of the classics could improve to the Christianity.

5. Father of Renaissance literature

All of Petrarch's literary work reflects a great influence from the style of the classical works. In addition, in them he defends that the man should be the center of attention, captures us idealized love towards the woman and tells us about himThe values ​​that define the individual (virtue, justice, honesty). Finally, in his work Cancionero establishes the foundations of a new literary genre, the Petrarchan songbook, which spread throughout the entire Renaissance.

6. Defense of vernacular languages

Petrarch was a great defender of Latin and much of his work was written in that language, however, he also he defended vernacular writing or vulgar so that the knowledge reached a greater number of people. In fact, his masterpiece, Cancionero, is written in Italian.

7. Promote the public library

Petrarca, always defended the idea that knowledge (= virtue) should be open to people and, therefore, he was one of the first to defend the idea of ​​the public library as a place open to knowledge and where is makes reading easier to all the world.

The Humanism is a intellectual and philosophical current that arose in the cities of Italy at the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century. From there, quickly (15th-16th centuries) spread throughout Europe and it was configured as the predominant thought, radically breaking with the medieval current prevailing until now.

Also, characteristics of Humanism most prominent are:

• To be born in a bourgeois society and urban.
• Defend reason and critical thinking against medieval religious and dogmatic thought.
• Advance parallel to the university development and the birth of the printing press.
• Break with theocentric thinking (God the center) and impose the model anthropocentric.
• Promote scientific development and philosopher versus theology.
• Bet on vernacular languages, being the most accessible knowledge for the majority of the population.
• Rediscover the classics, promote philosophical values and aesthetics of ancient Greece and Rome.