Итальянский гуманизм

In western Europe during the Middle Ages, the legacy of Greece and Rome had not been forgotten. Aristotle was the supreme philosophical authority. Plato's works were less well-known; but his reputation was great, and his ideas and outlook had penetrated to medieval thinkers, partly through his Timaeus, partly through the writings of others, especially St. Augustine. Virgil was revered and read. Nevertheless, despite the attention paid to these and other classical authors, it is proper to speak of a classical revival in the Renaissance. 

An intense search was carried on for classical writings that had disappeared from circulation. The study of Greek, which had largely lapsed in the West, was resumed, and the body of classical Greek literature was recovered and studied. Classical authors were looked to as models of style, and the ideas of ancient philosophers found adherents. The world of antiquity was regarded as an age of greatness that had been followed by one of decline. It was hoped that by following in the footsteps of the ancients, it might be possible to rise from the decadence of the present to a higher plane. We have seen something of this in the case of Machiavelli. In the areas of literature and education, this endeavor was carried on largely by a class of professional classical scholars who came to be referred to as humanists. 

Humanism derives from the Latin word humanitas, which carries the connotation of the highest human faculties and the type of intellectual culture that develops these faculties. The humane studies aimed at training men to take their place in society and public life. Cicero, one of the great Roman humanists, states in the De officiis (On Moral Duties) that men are set apart by reason and speech, which enable them to live together in society. Renaissance humanism, following the ancient tradition, was largely oriented toward rhetoric, the art of correct expression. Rhetoric was important in the life of the ancient city-states, where each citizen could attend public assemblies and try to persuade his fellows by his skill in oratory. Rhetoric had a moral purpose, since by effective expression the orator was supposed to persuade to good action. The education of the orator in antiquity was largely literary and linguistic. Renaissance humanists followed in this tradition by concentrating on a special set of subjects: oratory, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. Thus humanism did not cover all fields of knowledge and was not equally interested in all aspects of the works of classical antiquity. Nor did humanistic education comprise all the educational activity of the age by any means. 

The term humanism has not been defined in the same way by all. The preceding discussion is based on the ideas of Paul Oskar Kristeller, one of the most distinguished scholars in the field. Others give the term a broader definition. For the sake of an introductory survey like this, it may be permissible to go a bit beyond the narrow definition and include some writers, not strictly humanists, who were concerned with the problem an absorbing one in the Renaissance of the nature of man and his place in the universe. 

It was in Italy, because of the persistence of the classical tradition there, that Renaissance humanism first grew up. As early as the later years of the thirteenth century, in several places, a more accurate understanding of the ancient writers becomes evident. The bearers of this understanding were often lawyers, whose study of the Roman civil law provided them with access to the spirit and institutions of Rome, and led them to the study of Roman history and literature. The city of Padua was one of the important early centers of humanistic study. The great figure who did most to give the decisive impulse to these developing tendencies was Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch (1304-74), who has been called the "father of humanism." Though of Florentine parentage, he was born in Arezzo, where his father, a member of the proscribed White faction, was then living in exile. When Petrarch was about eight years old, the family moved to Avignon, then the seat of the papacy. In his writings, Petrarch expressed hatred for the corruption of the place. It was here that he first saw Laura, the woman he loved and celebrated in his poetry. From an early age he was attracted to the study of the classics, a study his father tried in vain to discourage. At his father's bidding, Petrarch attended the University of Montpellier for four years to study law, and later continued his studies in the same subject at Bologna. He was never attracted to legal study, and abandoned it on the death of his father in 1326. For several years he lived in and near Avignon, much of the time in his country home at Vaucluse about fifteen miles from the city. In 1341 he went to Rome to be crowned with the laurel wreath of poetry. This honor, conferred upon poets in antiquity, had been revived or continued in medieval Italy. Petrarch apparently had schemed to get this honor, although he later told the story in such a way as to make it appear that it was unsolicited and came as a surprise. Although he became known for his Italian love poems to Laura, these would not have gained him the laurel. For this he needed something more serious, written in Latin. He had been writing an epic on the Second Punic War, entitled Africa, which was not finished and had not been published. Few people, if any, could have seen it, and yet it was chiefly on the strength of this work that he was crowned. He also received Roman citizenship, of which he was very proud. For him, filled as he was with memories of antiquity, Rome still was, or ought to be, the center of the world. "What else is all history," he once wrote, "but the praise of Rome?" From then on, he spent much of his time in Italy, until he moved there permanently in 1353. 

Meanwhile, he became acquainted with Cola di Rienzo and followed his remarkable career with great interest. At first Petrarch was enthusiastic, hoping Cola would be able to restore something of the ancient glory of Rome. His enthusiasm shows both his feeling for Rome and his political navet. In time he became disillusioned with Cola, as his career proceeded to its tragic end. In 1352, when Cola had been sent to Avignon by the emperor, he asked to see Petrarch, who refused to meet him. Yet Petrarch always praised Cola for what he saw as his attempt to liberate Rome, and regretted that it had not succeeded. During the last two decades of his life (1353-74), Italy was Petrarch's home. For a while he lived in Milan, where he had been invited by the ruler Archbishop Giovanni Visconti, though some of his friends were unhappy that he would accept a tyrant's patronage. Later he lived in the territories of Padua and Venice. From 1370 he lived in the Euganean hills, in the domains of the rulers of Padua, the Carrara family. His death came on July 19, 1374. 

He never accepted any position that might keep him from his real work, study and writing. He could have had an important position in the church, perhaps a bishopric or even the red hat of a cardinal, but he refused to compromise his freedom. It was his voluminous writing that gave him his immense prestige and made him the friend and valued guest, not only of the rulers of Italian city-states but also of the king of France and the Holy Roman emperor, and caused lesser men to feel honored to receive a letter from him. His writings in Italian will be discussed elsewhere; it was his Latin works that were the primary basis for his standing among the great and the learned. (He never succeeded in learning Greek, and was unable to form an adequate concept of Greek history and civilization.) One of the chief purposes of his literary efforts was the revival of the glories and the ideals of ancient Rome, by conveying to his contemporaries a knowledge of that great age. He had a practical purpose in doing this: He hoped that the examples of ancient greatness would elevate the sadly deficient standards of his own age. His equipment for this task included a knowledge of Roman history and literature remarkable for the period in which he lived. Perhaps as important, or even more so, was his remarkable capacity for imaginative reconstruction and sympathy for the men and events of ancient Rome. He could feel the presence of the great figures of antiquity, not as symbols or abstractions but as living, individual personalities. According to a great authority, Pierre de Nolhac, Petrarch was the first person in centuries to understand Cicero's character. He wrote an extraordinary series of letters to classical authors, including not only Cicero but Virgil, Homer and others, praising their virtues and achievements and chiding them for their faults and weaknesses. He must be regarded as one of the guides to the modern historical consciousness, which endeavors to see the past as alive and to know and experience it, as far as may be, on its own terms. 

Not only the content of the Roman authors but also their form was important to Petrarch. He revolted against the style of the scholastic writers of the Middle Ages and advocated a return to a classical manner of expression. He developed his own distinctive Latin style, which, while it is not like that of any ancient writer, is indisputably his own. Humanism had practical aims. This can be seen in Petrarch's attitude toward philosophy. He had no use for the abstract philosophy of the scholastics, who, in addition to using language that he considered barbarous, dealt with problems that to him seemed abstract and irrelevant, problems of metaphysics, natural philosophy, and the nature of knowledge, or epistemology. The only branch of philosophy that concerned him was moral philosophy, which did something useful by teaching men how to live. Aristotle, so much admired by many of his contemporaries and in many ways by Petrarch himself, he nevertheless criticizes: Aristotle, he says, defines virtue, but does not impel one to follow it. 

He attacked the scholastic concern for logic; logic, says Petrarch, should come early in one's training and not at the end of it. 

He was also the first great Renaissance seeker and collector of classical manuscripts. His library may have contained over two hundred volumes, mostly classical works. On his travels he always looked for new books to add to his collection. He was especially eager to find works that had been lost; his great discovery was Cicero's Letters to Atticus. 

In some ways Petrarch's most interesting creation was himself. All his study and work went into making a self-conscious, unique personality, which can still, after six hundred years, impress itself vividly upon us. It is difficult to think of anyone for centuries before his time and not many since whom we can know as well as we can know him. His intense consciousness of himself is shown in his unfinished Letter to Posterity. This was to be the last of his published letters, which remain an important source of information about his life, aims, and character. He was aware of the originality of the Letter to Posterity. In it he gives a comprehensive picture of himself, describing his family, his temperament, and his physical appearance, and then giving an account of his experiences. It is clear from this, as from other evidence, that he was a man conscious of his own eminence and easily disturbed by criticism, seeing himself as someone apart from the herd, though at the same time eager for its approval. He was also a man of great personal warmth, with a gift for friendship. 

The most intimate glimpses of Petrarch's mind and personality probably come from his Italian poems, which will be discussed later. But one little book, which he called his Secretum, is also significant for its self-revelation. It is written in Latin and consists of a series of imaginary dialogues between Petrarch himself and St. Augustine, to whose works he was very much attached. Augustine here plays the part of Petrarch's conscience, and there is some remarkably acute self-analysis on Petrarch's part. He pleads guilty to cupidity, ambition, and lust, and there is a discussion of his acedia, a black melancholy that sometimes possesses him for days. His worst sins are his love of Laura and his love of glory, the desire for human praise and an undying name. Augustine exhorts him to turn from such thoughts and think of his soul and of preparation for death. It is doubtful Petrarch ever managed to subdue his desire for fame and glory. That he felt it as a sin shows that his moral standpoint was that of a devout Christian, strongly affected by the ascetic ideals of the Middle Ages. He was always faithful to the church and to religion, no matter how critical he was of the corruption of the Curia at Avignon. As he grew older he turned more and more to religious literature and meditation. One of his most beautiful poems is his address to the Blessed Virgin (Vergine bella), and many of his writings deal with moral subjects. To the accusation that he was a good man but not very learned, he replied that if he had the choice, he would prefer to be good. We have given a rather large amount of space to Petrarch, partly because so much is known about him, but chiefly because he is so important, both in himself and in the precedents which he set. The humanists who come later were in many respects his followers, and his outlook and attitudes have exercised a formative influence on subsequent generations.

В Западной Европе в  средние века, наследие Греции и  Рима не были забыты. Аристотель был  высшим философским власти. Платона  были менее известны, но его репутация  была велика, и его идеи и перспективы  проник тем мыслителям, отчасти благодаря  его Тимей, частично за счет трудами  других, особенно Санкт-Августин. Вергилий был почитаемым и читать. Тем не менее, несмотря на внимание к этим и другим классическим авторам, уместно  говорить о возрождении классической в ​​эпоху Возрождения. 

Интенсивный поиск  велся для классического письма, которые исчезли из обращения. Изучение греческого языка, которому удалось  истек на Западе, было возобновлено, и тело классической греческой литературы был найден и изучен. Классические авторы смотрят как модели стиль  и идеи античных философов найти  единомышленников. Античном мире считался возраст величия, которое было следовать  один из упадка. Была выражена надежда, что, следуя по стопам древних, можно  было бы подняться из упадка представить  более высокий уровень. Мы уже  видели нечто подобное в случае с  Макиавелли. В области литературы и образования, эти усилия велась в значительной степени от класса профессионального классических ученых, которые стали называть гуманистами. 

Гуманизм происходит от латинского слова Humanitas, который  несет оттенок высших человеческих способностей и тип духовной культуры, которая развивает эти способности. Гуманные исследования, направленные на подготовку мужчин занять свое место  в обществе и общественной жизни. Цицерон, один из великих римских гуманистов, говорится в Де officiis (на моральных обязанностей), что мужчины отделены разумом и речью, которые позволяют им жить вместе в обществе. Ренессанс гуманизма, следуя древней традиции, в значительной степени ориентированы на риторику, искусство правильного выражения. Риторика играет важную роль в жизни древних городов-государств, где каждый гражданин может посещать публичные собрания и попытаться убедить своих товарищей по его мастерство в ораторском искусстве. Риторика была моральной цели, так как, эффективного выражения оратора должна была убедить, чтобы доброе дело. Образование оратора в древности был в значительной степени литературной и языковой. Ренессанс гуманистов следуют этой традиции, концентрируя внимание на специальный набор предметов: ораторское искусство, история, поэзия и моральной философии. Таким образом гуманизм не охватывает все области знаний и не одинаково заинтересованы во всех аспектах произведений классической древности. Не было гуманитарное образование включает в себя все образовательной деятельности возрасте любыми средствами. 

Термин гуманизм не был определен таким же образом, для всех. Предыдущие рассуждения  основаны на идеи Павла Оскар Кристеллер, один из самых выдающихся ученых в  этой области. Другие дают срок более  широкое определение. Ради вводный  обзор, как это, это может быть допустимо пойти немного дальше узкого определения и включают в  себя некоторые писатели, строго говоря, не гуманисты, кто был связан с  проблемой поглощающие один в  возрождение природы человека и  его место во Вселенной. 

Это было в Италии, из-за сохранением классической традиции там, что гуманизм Ренессанса первые вырос. Уже в поздние годы тринадцатого века, в нескольких местах, более  точное представление о древних  писателей становится очевидной. Носителями этого понимания часто адвокаты, чье исследование римского гражданского права предоставили им доступ к духу и институтов Рима, и привел их к  изучению римской истории и литературы. Города Падуи был одним из важных ранних центров гуманистических  исследований. Большая фигура, и  большинство, чтобы дать решающий импульс  этим тенденциям развивающихся был  Франческо Петрарка, или Петрарка (1304-74), который был назван "отцом  гуманизма". Хотя флорентийского происхождения, он родился в Ареццо, где его  отец, член запрещенного белого фракции, в то время жила в изгнании. Когда  Петрарка был около восьми лет, семья  переехала в Авиньон, то место  папства. В своих работах, Петрарка выразил ненависть к коррупции  место. Именно здесь он впервые увидел Лауру, женщину, которую он любил  и празднуется в его поэзии. С раннего возраста он был привлечен  к изучению классики, изучать его  отец тщетно пытался препятствовать. На торги его отца, Петрарка учился в университете Монпелье в течение  четырех лет, чтобы изучать право, а затем продолжил учебу в  ту же тему в Болонье. Он никогда  не привлекают юридическое исследование, и отказался от нее после смерти отца в 1326 году. В течение нескольких лет он жил в и вблизи Авиньона, большую часть времени в своей  стране дома в Воклюз около пятнадцати милях от города. В 1341 году он отправился в Рим, чтобы увенчать лавровым венком поэзии. Это честь, возложенных на поэтов в древности, была возрождена или продолжено в средневековой  Италии. Петрарка, видимо, интриги, чтобы  получить такой чести, хотя позже  он рассказал историю таким образом, чтобы сделать вид, что она  была нежелательной, и стало неожиданностью. Хотя он и стал известен благодаря  своим итальянским стихи любви  к Лауре, это бы не принесло ему  лавра. Для этого ему нужно  что-то более серьезное, написанной на латинском языке. Он писал эпическое на второй Пунической войны, озаглавленная Африке, которая не была закончена и не были опубликованы. Мало кто, если таковые имеются, могли видеть его, и все же это было главным образом, на основании этой работы, он был коронован. Он также получил римское гражданство, о которой он очень гордился. Для него, наполненные, как он был с воспоминаниями о древности, Рим все еще был, и не должны быть, в центре мира. "Что еще всю историю", он как-то написал ", но похвалу Риме?" С тех пор он провел большую часть своего времени в Италии, пока он не переехал на постоянное жительство в 1353 году. 

В то же время он познакомился с Кола ди Риенцо и следил за его  замечательную карьеру с большим  интересом. На первый Петрарка с энтузиазмом, надеясь Cola могла бы восстановить что-то из древней славы Рима. Его энтузиазм  показывает, как его чувства к  Риму и его политической navet. Со временем он разочаровался в Cola, так как  его карьера приступил к ее трагическому концу. В 1352, когда Cola был  послан в Авиньон императором, он попросил, чтобы увидеть Петрарки, который отказался с ним встречаться. Однако Петрарка всегда хвалил Cola за то, что он видел, как его попытки  освободить Рим, и выразил сожаление, что ему не удалось. За последние  два десятилетия своей жизни (1353-74), Италия была дома Петрарки. Некоторое  время он жил в Милане, где он был приглашен правителя архиепископа Джованни Висконти, хотя некоторые  из его друзей были недовольны тем, что он примет покровительство тирана. Позже он жил на территории Падуи  и Венеции. С 1370 он жил в Эуганских  холмов, в области правителей Падуе, семьи Каррара. Его смерть наступила 19 июля 1374. 

Он никогда не принимал никаких позиций, которые  могли бы удержать его от его реальной работы, учебы и письма. Он мог  иметь важное место в церкви, возможно, епископство или даже красной  шляпе кардинала, но он отказался  идти на компромисс свою свободу. Это  был его объемной письменной форме, что дал ему огромный авторитет  и сделал его друг и ценят гостей, причем не только правители итальянских  городов-государств, но и короля Франции  и императора Священной Римской  империи, и вызвал меньше мужчин большая  честь получать от него письмо. Его  труды по-итальянски будут обсуждаться  в другом месте, это был его  латинский работы, которые были главной  основой для его позиции среди  великих и уроки. (Он так и не удалось в изучении греческого, и  был не в состоянии сформировать адекватную концепцию греческой  истории и цивилизации.) Одна из главных  целей его литературных усилий было возрождение славы и идеалы древнего Рима, путем передачи его современникам  знания о том, что глубокой старости. У него была практическая цель в  этом: он надеялся, что примеры древнего величия было бы поднять к сожалению  недостаточно стандарты своего возраста. Его оборудование для этой задачи включены знаниями римской истории  и литературы отличается период, в  котором он жил. Может быть, не менее  важно, или даже более того, была его замечательная способность  к творческой реконструкции и  сочувствие людей и событий древнего Рима. Он чувствовал присутствие великих  деятелей античности, а не как символы  или абстракции, а как живой, отдельных  личностей. В соответствии с большим  авторитетом, Пьер де Nolhac, Петрарка был  первым человеком в веках, чтобы  понять характер Цицерона. Он написал  чрезвычайных серии писем в классических авторов, в том числе не только Цицерон, но Вергилий, Гомер и другие, хваля их достоинств и достижений и бранить их за их недостатки и  слабые стороны. Он должен рассматриваться  как один из справочников по современной  исторического сознания, которое  стремится видеть прошлое, как живой и узнать и испытать его, насколько это может быть, на своих условиях.