Introduction to Modern Europe

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO MODERN EUROPE
Introduction to Modern Europe
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INTRODUCTION TO MODERN EUROPE
Account for the rise and spread of Renaissance Humanism in Europe and describe the
characteristics that defined it
Introduction
Renaissance humanism is the term used to represent the intellectual movement, occurred
in 13th century and dominated the European thought in the times of renaissance. The
fundamentals of the renaissance humanism were based on the application of the classical texts
for altering and modifying the contemporary thinking, to break the medieval thinking and to
create new ideas (Harmless, 2017). This was a renewal in the study of the classical history of the
8th century BC to 6th century BC, mainly centered on the countries around the Mediterranean Sea.
It was started in Italy and later spread across the Western Europe during the 14th, 15th, and 16th
centuries. This essay will highlight the factors that influenced the rise and spread of the
renaissance humanism in the European countries and will give a vivid description of its
characteristics.
Discussion
Renaissance humanism is the term used to differentiate between the concepts of
humanism and the intellectual movement that dealt with the study of the classical literature that
explored and explained the histories of humanism in the 8th century BC to 6th Century BC. The
period of this intellectual movement is known as the renaissance, which saw a rise in the fields of
arts, literatures, history, philosophy, science, religion, social customs etc. This was a leap from
the medieval times and cultures towards the modern world. According to Robichaud (2018),
humanism represents the major social philosophy and the literary and intellectual movement that
took place around the period between 1400 and 1650. Jacob Burckhardt’s work in 1860 defined

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INTRODUCTION TO MODERN EUROPE
humanism as the study of the classical Roman and Greek literature that affected individuals point
of view towards the world, based on the transition from the ancient world to reform the modern
world, by giving a worldlier and human point of view that focused on the point of view, which
emphasized on the ability of human for acting rationally and not following a religious plan
blindly (Seigel, 2015). The promoters of humanity theory believed that god provided with the
humanity options and potential to the people and the humanist thinkers must act rationally to
utilize the options in the maximum manner. However, the term renaissance humanism was often
criticized with the notion that the term includes a very range of thought, which does not explain
the variations adequately (King, 2014). In the Western Europe, there were many centers for
promoting humanism, such as, Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Urbino, Mantua, Ferrara and
Genoa. Humanism is referred to as the pervasive mode of culture, which is different than
renaissance humanism, which dealt with the promotion of literatures and study of the classical
history of the medieval, mainly the Greek and Roman literature and history, to increase
knowledge about humanity and to modify the thoughts and vision about the world to understand
the modern approach and human’s behavior to adapt the modernity (Struever, 2015). Thus, one
of the fundamental features of renaissance humanism is the rationalism of human beings.
Rise and spread of renaissance humanism in Western Europe
The rise of renaissance humanism dates back to the 13th century. At this time, the
Europeans felt the need to study the classical Roman and Greek texts and the desire to imitate the
classical authors in modern style. The literatures were different but the authors picked up the
vocabulary, intentions, form and styles of the classic texts. To understand the literatures fully, the
authors needed to study and understand the social values and customs of the ancient Rome and
Greece. However, the outcome of this mission was quite different than what was expected by the