incomplete work
Document 1
So far we have touched upon studies (grammar, rhetoric, geometry, music) by which we may attain enlightenment of the mind. However, we have not yet directly considered how we may most surely distinguish the true and the just from the base and degrading. Need I then impress upon you the importance of the study of Philosophy and of Letters…our guide to the true meaning of the past, to a right estimate of the present, to a sound forecast of the future. Where Letters cease, darkness covers the land; and a Prince who cannot read the lessons of history is a helpless prey of flattery and intrigue.
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Italian humanist who later became pope, On the Education of Free Men, 1450
Document 2
Learning and training in Virtue, which the ancients called the “Humanities,” are peculiar to man, for they are the pursuits and the activities proper to mankind.
Battista Guarino, Italian humanist educator, On the Method of Teaching and Learning, 1459
Document 3
The courtier should be passably learned in the humanities, in the Latin poets, orators, and historians, and should also be practiced in writing verse and prose, especially in our own vernacular. In this way he will never want for pleasant entertainment with the ladies, who are usually fond of such things and even if his writings should not merit great praise, at least he will be capable of judging the writing of others.
Baldassare Castiglione, Italian diplomat and author, The Book of the Courtier , 1528
Document 4
When once the simpler rules of composition, in prose and verse, and the commoner figures of speech have been mastered, the whole stress of teaching must be laid upon a close yet wide study of the greater writers. The student devotes his attention to the content of the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome because with slight qualification the whole of attainable knowledge lies therein.
Desiderius Erasmus, northern humanist and theologian, On the Art of Learning, 1511
So far we have touched upon studies (grammar, rhetoric, geometry, music) by which we may attain enlightenment of the mind. However, we have not yet directly considered how we may most surely distinguish the true and the just from the base and degrading. Need I then impress upon you the importance of the study of Philosophy and of Letters…our guide to the true meaning of the past, to a right estimate of the present, to a sound forecast of the future. Where Letters cease, darkness covers the land; and a Prince who cannot read the lessons of history is a helpless prey of flattery and intrigue.
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Italian humanist who later became pope, On the Education of Free Men, 1450
Document 2
Learning and training in Virtue, which the ancients called the “Humanities,” are peculiar to man, for they are the pursuits and the activities proper to mankind.
Battista Guarino, Italian humanist educator, On the Method of Teaching and Learning, 1459
Document 3
The courtier should be passably learned in the humanities, in the Latin poets, orators, and historians, and should also be practiced in writing verse and prose, especially in our own vernacular. In this way he will never want for pleasant entertainment with the ladies, who are usually fond of such things and even if his writings should not merit great praise, at least he will be capable of judging the writing of others.
Baldassare Castiglione, Italian diplomat and author, The Book of the Courtier , 1528
Document 4
When once the simpler rules of composition, in prose and verse, and the commoner figures of speech have been mastered, the whole stress of teaching must be laid upon a close yet wide study of the greater writers. The student devotes his attention to the content of the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome because with slight qualification the whole of attainable knowledge lies therein.
Desiderius Erasmus, northern humanist and theologian, On the Art of Learning, 1511