Francis Petrarch: Leader of the Humanistic Movement and Father of the R

Francis Petrarch Leader of the Humanistic Movement and Father of the RenaissanceBefore the civic spirit and individuality straightforward and necessary to the Renaissance came to fruition, there had to have been something to trigger a change in the mentality of the medieval civilization. The medieval manorialism fostered illiteracy and ignorance and a very finalise view of the outside world, people did not question their place, the church, or the need to prepare for the after life. The awakening of the Renaissance came after the dawn of a overbold Roman Empire way of thinking.. Humanism is the intellectual, literary and scientific movement of the 14th to the 16th centuries without which the Renaissance would never have evolved. Humanism is a rediscovery and reevaluation (analysis) of sheer civilization and the application of the aspects of this civilization to intellectual and social culture in the current time. It is a blend of concern for the history and actions of human b eings, mainly the antediluvian patriarch Greeks and Romans, such as, Cicero, Ceaser, and Augustine, with the belief that man was at the center of the universe. Contrary to Christian teachings, humanist believe that man is subject and creator of his own destiny, governed by ideals of beauty, grace, and harmoniousness and the glorification of individual freedom. These ideas provide the vehicle, in which the transition from medieval thinking of vassalage (servitude) and the afterlife to a return to the principles of the Pax Romana occurred. Christian humanism came to humble individualism and the value of life in the present.Italy, and specifically Florence, is said to have been the birthplace of humanistic thinking and the Renaissance for a variety of reasons. Geography, more ... .... Petrarch and His World. Bloomington inch University Press, 1963.Donadoni, Eugenio. A narration of Italian Literature, Volume 1. New York New York University Press, 1969.Hollway-Calthrop, Henry . Petrarch His Life and Times. New York Putnams, 1907.Lawall, Sarah, ed. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Seventh Edition, Volume 1. New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1998. Musa, Mark, ed. Selections from the Canzoniere & Other Works by Francesco Petrarch. New York Oxford University Press, 1999.Robinson, James Harvey, ed. Petrarch The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters New York G.P. Putnam, 1898.Symonds, John Addison. Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance History of the World, 01-01-92 (obtained online). Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. A History of Italian Literature. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1974.