Humanism: Ancient Learning, Criticism, Schools and Universities

Abstract

Humanism combined a set of scholarly skills, admiration for the ancient world, and a sharp critical attitude. The first component of humanism was learning based on the classics. Humanism placed greater emphasis on the classics, it had a much better knowledge of the classics than medieval men, and it emphasized certain texts, such as Cicero's letters and orations, unavailable to medieval scholars. A set of scholarly skills based on an intense admiration and study of the ancient world came next. Paul Oskar Kristeller's definition of the studia humanitatis is valid and useful. He wrote, By the first half of the fifteenth century, the studia humanitatis came to stand for a clearly defined cycle of scholarly disciplines, namely grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy, and the study of each of these subjects was understood to include the reading and interpretation of its standard ancient writers in Latin and in Greek. Keywords: ancient world; critical attitude; humanism; medieval scholars; Paul Oskar Kristeller