1. David Gaines
Mrs. Eckman Wissler
CP British Literature
03 November 2016

2. What is Humanism and who helped spread Humanism throughout the Renaissance?

3. What Humanism Is
Humanism is any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity predominate(dictionary.com).
Humanists believed that man was responsible for his good/bad deeds and God did not control their morality.
Humanists were interested in grammar, poetry and philosophy..

4. Humanisms Development
Humanism started when europeans started studying classical texts from Greece and Rome.
With more and more people becoming scholars; the church's power start to decline. Instead of focusing on religion, scholars began to look at other aspects of life such as human values and culture.

5. Individual Power Grew
Before the Renaissance, the feudal system was in place.
The plague and rise of trade made the church lose power and the power of the individual grew.

6. Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
Petrarch is known as the father of humanism because of his big contribution to the development of humanism.
He started off as a cleric and while traveling as a diplomatic envoy for the Church, he was able to find classicals texts all over Europe.
Petrarch rediscovered Cicero’s work which he used to form humanism.
His philosophy of humanism helped the renaissance with intellectual growth.
Petrarch was a devout Catholic, so he from humanism in a way that it affects the views of Catholicism, but did not disprove it.

7. Lorenzo Valla
Lorenzo Valla was another Italian humanist from the Renaissance.
He used his humanist education to help the church.
He studied the difference between medieval Latin and classical Latin.
Using his study of Latin, he was able to prove that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery.
The Donation of Constantine was a document that Constantine I supposedly wrote to donate the whole of the Western Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church.

8. Nicholas of Cusa One of the first German humanist.
He was a cardinal appointed by Pope Nicholas V.
Nicholas wrote mystical writings about Christianity; one is about the possibility of knowing God with the divine human mind through spiritual means.

9. Guillaume Budé Influenced the study of ancient Roman law.
His humanist ideas influenced France’s cultural policy.

10. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Wrote “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” which defended 900 theses on religion and philosophy and was a key text of humanism. This writing also justified how important the quest for knowledge is.
His writing combined many different beliefs: such as Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, Hermeticism and Kabbalah.

11. Marsilio Ficino
Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was an influential humanist.
Popularised the works of Plato and was the head of the refounded Plato’s Academy.
He was the first person in Europe to translate all of Plato’s work and spreaded them to other humanists.
Ficino believed that Platonism(philosophy of Plato) was a middle ground between Paganism and Christianity.

12. Niccolò Machiavelli
Machiavelli is known for popularizing political science.
Wrote “The Prince” which described immoral behavior like dishonesty and killing innocents in order to gain standing in politics. Many people viewed the book as negative as it promoted those in politics to use immoral tactics.

13. Works Cited (Information)
Historyguide.org. N. p., Web. 3 Nov <
"The Renaissance Humanists". Roebuckclasses.com. N. p., Web. 3 Nov <
Wilde, Robert and Robert Wilde. "Renaissance Humanism". About.com Education. N. p., Web. 3 Nov <
"Humanism In The Renaissance: Recognizing The Beauty Of The Individual - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.Com". Study.com. N. p., Web. 3 Nov < individual.html>
"Humanism". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 3 Nov <Dictionary.com
"Renaissance Humanism: An Introduction". YouTube. N. p., Web. 3 Nov <
"What Was Humanism? AP Euro Bit By Bit #2". YouTube. N. p., Web. 3 Nov <
Biography.com Editors. “Petrarch Biography.” Bio.com, A&E Networks Television, 2 Apr. 2014, < >
"The Humanist Theology Of Marsilio Ficino: Selected Translations Of His De Christiana Religione - The Calvinist International". The Calvinist International. N. p., Web. 3 Nov < selected-translations-de-christiana-religione/>

14. Works Cited (Pictures)
-Vitruvian Man (Slide 3)
-Petrarch (Slide 6)
-Lorenzo Valla (Slide 7)
-Nicholas of Cusa (Slide 8)
-Guillaume Budé (Slide 9)
-Oration on the Dignity of Man by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Slide 10)
-Marsilio Ficino (Slide 11)
(Slide 12)