At the beginning of the Renaissance, humanist educators revived the study of the classics and humanities to help students attain salvation. Humanist educators rejected medieval scholasticism, a system of thought in which clerics applied reason to theological and philo

sophical questions. Humanists believed that the study of humanities was essential for the education of a good citizen. During the classical era, the Romans had placed great emphasis on the values of wisdom and virtue, a concept which they referred to as humanitas. Eventually, the term humanities came to refer to the seven liberal arts of antiquity which included arithmetic, grammar, logic, astronomy, geometry, music and rhetoric. Early Renaissance Italian humanists such as Battista Guarino and Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini asserted that a man must study the humanities to acquire virtue and to attain enlightenment. Likewise, Baldassare Castiglione, an Italian diplomat and author, instructed modern Renaissance gentleman in The Book of the Courtier to become learned in a wide variety of subjects including the humanities, classical poetry, and in writing verse and prose. These Italian humanist views were echoed by northern Christian humanists such as Desiderus Erasmus who wrote in his book On the Art of Learning that students should study the classics because “the whole of attainable knowledge lies therein.” Each of these Renaissance humanists affirmed the key role of the classics in attaining knowledge. Despite this emphasis on the pagan classics, a Renaissance education was designed to help students acquire knowledge so that they could attain salvation. Reflecting the northern Christian humanist perspective, German school ordinances from this period instructed that a child should learn the liberal arts but tempered with the fear of God and learning virtue and discipline which will be useful in life, as well as for attaining salvation. Quite clearly, the early Renaissance humanist fascination with the classics was reflected in the educational values and goals of that time.

As the Renaissance progressed, humanist educato

Some topics in this essay:
Middle Ages, Art Learning, French Jesuit, Anne Higginson, Amos Comenius, Guicciardini Italian, Throughout Renaissance, England Renaissance, Eve Renaissance, Montaigne French, renaissance education, humanist educators, renaissance period, educational system, classics humanities, knowledge practical purposes, study classics, moral philosophy, renaissance humanist, practical purposes, knowledge practical, renaissance humanist educators, humanist educators revived, educators revived study, revived study classics,