The Origins of Humanism

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to offer an alternative picture of humanism's birth. The scope of humanism will not be limited to writers adopting a classicizing Latin style but will include wider rhetorical, philological and literary studies concerned with classical antiquity. It will be argued that classical studies continued to thrive in twelfth-century Italy but notably declined there in the thirteenth century; it will be suggested that humanism originated as a reaction to the ebb of classicism in thirteenth-century Italy; the connection between humanism and legal culture, first noticed by Weiss, will be highlighted as crucial to understanding humanism's social context and origins. It will be argued that humanism emerged as the ideology of the professional legal class attempting to assert its political and social position in Italian communes hitherto dominated by aristocratic elite. Keywords: aristocratic elite; classical antiquity; classicism; humanism; Italy; Weiss