The Beginning of the Italian Renaissance

Abstract

While “the new road” of victorious nominalism led scholars through the same areas as “the old road”, though in different directions, the time was ripe for the entry of the West into a wholly new sphere, where other questions were asked and interests focussed upon other matters than those which had concerned the Greek, Arabic, Jewish or Latin Scholasticism. The 14th century saw the beginning of that change of the culture of Western Europe, which bears the name Renaissance and affected philosophy as well as science, art and religion, economy and social life. The characteristic manifestation of this movement was Humanism, the learned revival of interest in the literature and culture of classical Antiquity, principally in Roman literature and in ancient Rome, but also in the Greek language and Greek literature. Among the Greek writers, who in those times either became known for the first time or were better understood, Plato occupied a special place for the charm of his literary art as well as for the content of his philosophy and particularly for his scheme for the perfect state.