Humanism means the attitude that emphasizes the respect and dignity given to an individual human. It thinks of man as a rational being with the capacity for truth and goodness.

The Greek were the first to focus on humanism. They used mimesis (imitation of nature) as a guiding principle in their art to produce beautiful things. The nude human figure associated with Greek art and culture shows “Man as a measure of all things”, in the words of great Greek philosopher Protagoras.

However, more often this word is used to describe a revolutionary movement during the 14th and 15th centuries. Francesco Petrarca, known as Petrarch, was the first great humanist and is regarded as the first modern poet. He was born in Arezzo, near Florence, Italy and was disgusted of his contemporary world. He used to wander far and wide, and explore Nature.

He was much more interested in old writings and collected them. He wished he could get that old world back. He translated a lot of old text into Latin at that time. He tried to extend them to as many people as possible to spread his thoughts. He was in exile himself but he produced a lot of disciples. One of his disciples was a very popular humanist. His thoughts actually reached Florence through his friend Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer. This is how humanism started to grow.

In the beginning of the 15th century, Milan attacked Italy again and again. Humanists found great text of patriotism in Roman literature. It was translated to feed patriotic feelings in people. They were quite successful in doing so. This helped to spread humanism. Thus, a huge amount of old text was translated and conveyed to the people. Also, classical literary standards were applied to writings.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 supported the movement indirectly as the Byzantine scholars poured into Italy. The invention of the printing of the movable type also accelerated its growth. During the 15th Century, many humanists learned Greek and for the first time Greek texts were being read in the original form.

The famous Platonic Academy (Florentine Academy), which supported the views of great Greek philosopher Plato (as the scholastic thinkers supported Aristotle), was established. Thus Florence became the scientific capital. Every scholar was connected with it one way or the other.

But what actually did humanists think and why did it rise? Humanists believed that traditional education based on scholasticism had failed to deliver good people to society, which mainly prepared students for careers of medicine, law and above all theology. Humanism believed that people should be given intellectual knowledge as well as knowledge connected with society so that they can become good and patriotic citizens.

Scholasticism, on the other hand, dealt with intellectual knowledge only. Humanists thought that people had outgrown old concepts. But it was never only about antiquity, it was popular because of its flexibility and openness to all possibilities of life, not just a few careers.

Thus, humanism tried to change the system of education at that time. Humanism helped to interpret Christianity in a different way. With the development of humanism people developed knowledge of Latin, Greek and at last Hebrew, that helped to understand Bible directly. Thus, townsfolk raised suspicions about the proceedings of the Church which controlled education and consequently the minds of the people.

However, humanism never directly supported the views of Martin Luther, who condemned the teachings of the Catholic Church. Humanism only asked its followers to read the books of the Bible directly rather than following the interpretations.

Humanism spread its wings beyond the Alps firstly due to people who came to Italy and then went back influenced by humanism and also by sending scholars from Italy. It spread everywhere — France, Germany and Britain. In Britain it was finally responsible for the nourishment of the great Elizabethan literature.

Northern Europe is not as associated with Rome as Italy. So patriotic feelings were not there. This affected the subjects of humanism. Here humanism was rather Christian Humanism, asking it followers to read the books by themselves rather than going through the medieval interpretations. By directly studying the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, suspicions were raised about the proceedings of the Church. By the end of 15th Century, the Reformation Movement had gained momentum and humanism was an active stimulant. Thus, the Protestants were created.

The effects of humanism were numerous, in the field of arts as well as sciences. In arts, it translated old Greek and Latin manuscripts and helped the artists through it. Greek architecture was revived and new buildings in old Greek style were constructed. In sciences, it translated Latin and Greek texts which helped the learned understand the thinking of people in the past about science. Humanists’ study of Plato contributed to thinking in a mathematical way. Nicholas Copernicus was one of those scientists inspired from old texts. This led to some advancement.

Humanism, no doubt, has done a good deal of services to man but it was never all good and nothing bad. This is mainly due to the emphasis on polished style and the flashy characteristics of it which became more and more prominent gradually. Even in sciences it did a lot of harm by its dislike for ordered thought. It was scholastic thinkers and not humanists who did major developmental work.

Scholastic thinkers were those who supported the experimental and observational view of the scientists of the Renaissance. In arts, too, humanism was destructive. Humanists had become too ostentatious. They had reached such an extent that some humanists would only use pure Latin words used by the ancient Roman orator Cicero. As a result the 16th Century humanists were a group of people employed by the government to write official history and speeches so as to impress people. That is why humanism is accused of killing Latin by isolating it from general public. This was the dark side of humanism, which was then replaced and it was no more the talk of the day.