Refashioning Prudence: The Discovery Of The Individual In Renaissance Europe

In the late Renaissance time period, the ability of expressing oneself has grown more frequent. Making individualism spread throughout the world and into the modern years. This article Inventing Sincerity, Refashioning Prudence: The Discovery of the Individual in Renaissance Europe by John Martin has proven the spread of individualism by using Jacob Burckhardt’s publication as a foundation to his topic. “John Martin, who received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in history from Harvard, teaches medieval and early modern European history at Trinity University”(Martin,1997,35). His Ph. D. in history from Harvard University and now currently is Professor and Chair in the Department of History at Duke University.

During the Renaissance, people have started to develop more individualistic characteristics than the past. The prudence of people have increased, meaning the conscious of others are more vivid to their surroundings. Rather than being manipulated or forced into a religion, people can now sincerely worship that religion or anything else of that matter. Marsilio Ficino spoken about this in his Platonic writings as well, "No harmony gives greater delight than that of heart and tongue"(21). Martin wanted to state that the unusually increased mentality
The time period of when the information was written and when the event had happened are very different, meaning the knowledge may been altered in various ways. Martin started thinking of writing this article since the 1970s, therefore the data may be modified. “When I was in graduate school in the late 1970s, for example, one of the four areas I prepared for my general examinations was called "Renaissance and Reformation," a field in which Burckhardt's influence was still strongly felt.”(Martin,1997,3) This shows Martin has based his conflicts with many other secondary works that may also be based off their own opinions, which may result in opinions on top of