Hellenism in the Renaissance

Abstract

This article discusses Hellenism in the Renaissance, illustrating how humanist scholarship laid the foundations for modern philology and the later stages of classical studies. It points out the hunger for ancient texts and knowledge that fuelled Renaissance intellectuals such as Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni. A large part of the humanist project was devoted to acquiring Greek texts, translating them into Latin, and studying them with the intense philological precision that was also deployed in the scrutiny of Latin. The humanist achievements cannot be separated from the enhanced status of libraries, the invention of printing, and the political upheavals caused by the fall of Constantinople in 1453, all of which served as an impetus to Greek learning in Europe.