Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Groom, and I'm so excited that you're joining me again to learn all about the role of humanism within the Renaissance today.

I'm sure we're gonna find out a lot together.

So let's get started, shall we? Today's lesson is called the Italian Renaissance: Humanism, and it's from the unit, the Renaissance, what do the architects of the Renaissance tell us about it? Now by the end of today's lesson, we're going to be able to describe the context of Renaissance humanism.

Here are our key words for the lesson.

Let's have a look and see what they mean.

From a French term for rebirth, the Renaissance was a period of revival in European art and literature under the influence of classical ideas.

The printing press was a machine used to print words.

Humanists were people who were interested in the classical world and the potential of the human race.

And humanism was the revival of interest in Greek and Roman thought that took place during the Renaissance.

We're going to start today's lesson by looking at the printing press.

Now, when Poggio Bracciolini discovered a copy of Lucretius's "De Rerum Natura", which was once thought to be lost forever, one of the first things he did was send it to his friend, Niccolo Niccoli, to have it copied.

Now, Niccoli would've copied it by hand.

But by 1500, there were tens of thousands of copies of the poem around Europe.

These copies had not been produced by hand, by scholars like Niccoli, or by monks as books usually had been.

You can see that process taking place in the image here.

Here, monks in the scriptorium are copying manuscripts.

No, something incredible had happened, a new invention that had made the copying of books and poems much faster.

You can see that new invention here.

This new invention was helping to spread challenging ideas like those found in "De Rerum Natura" at a lightning pace.

This invention was the printing press.

The press was a collection of changeable metal letters on wooden frames.

Ink was applied to them and paper was pressed down on top of great printed sheets.

A single page could be printed in the time it might take a month to copy several words, a word.

This was invented by Johannes Gutenberg around the year 1436.

Soon printing presses all over Europe were able to print the sort of classical works that Petrarch and Bracciolini rediscovered.

These classical works had been ignored by the Church for years, and until now, the Church had been able to decide which manuscripts should and should not be copied.

But now the church had less power over the knowledge that could be shared.

Just to check our understanding of what we've learned, I want you to think about this question.

How did the printing press change the copying of books in Renaissance Europe? I want you to try and think of at least two ways in which it did this.

Pause the video and play it when you are ready to compare your answers to the ones we'll see.

Yes.

So the printing press made copying books much quicker.

That was one of the changes that it brought about.

But it also ended the Church's control of what could and couldn't be copied.

Now, fueling this expansion of printing was the interest of men known as humanists.

Petrarch was one of the earliest, Bracciolini and Niccoli coming after him.

They were interested in the classical texts of Greece and Rome, the sorts of texts written before the Catholic church had come to dominate Western Europe.

Now, these texts dealt with the natural and human worlds rather than the religious.

For the humanists, the printing press offered access to the riches of the past.

Scientific explanation of theories written by Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Euclid among others were now circulating across Europe in large numbers.

Using these texts, the humanists wanted to improve their own Greek and Latin, but they also wanted to test and perfect the ancient theories about how nature worked, and even to make a somewhat dark, cruel, and imperfect world a little better through a greater scientific understanding and a belief that humans could achieve great things.

So I want to assess your knowledge of what we've just heard.

Have a look at this statement.

I want you to decide whether it's true or false.

Humanists believed that classical knowledge could make the world a better place.

Have a think about that, pause the video and play it again when you're ready.

Of course the answer is true.

Humanists did believe that classical knowledge could make the world a best place.

But why is it that they believed that? We need to look at the two justifications there and decide which of them is correct.

Was it because they believed it would help people to follow the Church's teachings better? Or was it because they believed it would improve scientific understanding? That would make the world a better place.

Have a think, choose your answer, pause the video and then when you are ready, play it again to see if you are correct.

That's right.

Humanists believed that classical knowledge can make the world a better place because they believed it would improve scientific understanding, and that would unlock human potential.

So I'd like you to take your knowledge from this first learning cycle now and apply it to this task.

What I want you to do is I want you to think about everything you've heard about the printing press, and its invention and the impact it had.

And I'd like you to pick one of the words below in those boxes to complete the statement.

The statement is the invention of the printing press was.

So you either need to decide whether it was important, challenging, or transformative.

And those words get harder as you move from left to right.

So if you really want to challenge yourself, look over to that word towards the right, transformative.

Make sure that you explain why you chose this word.

Pause the video.

Start it up again when you want to check your answer.

So we've got some examples here of all three words that you could have used, and an explanation for each of them.

So you could have said the invention of the printing press was important.

This is because it made it much quicker to copy books.

That, we can agree that that made it very important.

You might have chosen the word challenging, in which case you might have explained why you chose that word somewhat like this.

The invention of the printing press was challenging.

This is because the Church no longer controlled the copying of books.

It challenged the Church's control of book copying.

You might've really challenged yourself and picked transformative.

The invention of the printing press was transformative.

This is because it completely changed which books were copied and the way in which it was done.

So you can see that that final explanation has recognised both the fact that the printing press completely transformed the speed in which books and other written things were copied, but also the fact that that transformed the control over who was copying books.

It's no longer that of the Church.

So I also want you to check your understanding of humanism with this second part of the task.

Right, so we've encountered quite a few humanists, some of their beliefs in that first learning cycle.

So what I want you to do is I want you to write one paragraph that describes humanism.

And what I'd like you to try and do is I'd like you to include as many of the following words and phrases as possible in your paragraph that describes humanism, Petrarch, classical texts, scientific, understanding, a better place, and humanists.

So have a think how you can incorporate all of those words in one paragraph that describes humanism.

Pause the video while you do it, and press play when you're ready to compare your answer.

So your paragraph might have looked like this.

Humanism was a revival in interest in Greek and Roman classical texts.

Petrarch was one of the earliest humanists.

They wanted to make the world a better place by gaining greater scientific understanding from these classical texts.

Let's move on to our second learning cycle of today's lesson, where we're going to explore the life and work of Erasmus, and look at humanism in a little bit more detail.

And we're gonna look at the role of Europe's universities in the spread of humanism.

Now fueling, one such humanist scholar was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who travelled widely throughout Europe to study and teach.

Now thanks to the skill of a painter named Hans Holbein, we have an excellent idea of what he looked like.

From this painting that you can see, produced in 1523, we are given an insight into the workings of his mind and a clear sign of what he wanted to be remembered for.

Now, some have described this painting of Erasmus as possibly the most important portrait in England because of its accuracy.

They argued that portraiture, the painting of a person in a highly accurate and detailed manner, really began in England with this painting.

You could see that if you look at all the details in here, the details of the hands, Erasmus' face, creases and wrinkles, details of the background, books up to his shoulder, the flask, what he has clasped in his hand, the detail of the fur, these rich furs that he's wearing.

For Europe, Renaissance painters were creating incredibly detailed portraits like this one.

As your eyes move past the almost photograph-like depiction of Erasmus' face, you may well wonder how such an accurate and detailed likeness was produced by oil painting brushes.

There's more to this painting than accuracy.

It's full of details that Erasmus wanted people to see.

So before we look at those details, I want you to answer this question to check your understanding.

Who painted Erasmus' portrait in 1523? Is it a, Michelangelo, b, Hans Holbein, or c, Leonardo da Vinci? Pause the video.

Once you think you've got the answer, press play and we'll check whether you were right.

Yes, the answer was Han Holbein.

Well done.

So if we look at these highly detailed elements of Hans Holbein's portrait of Erasmus, we should look closely at his hands.

They rest on a book decorated with Greek and Latin words, which read "The Herculean Labours of Erasmus of Rotterdam".

With this detail, Erasmus was ensuring that his humanist beliefs were clear to all who saw this painting.

He's comparing his life's work studying the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome to the great tasks of Hercules.

To Erasmus, his studies represented a similarly difficult undertaking.

He was saying that his time spent studying, teaching, learning, spreading humanist ideas had been just like the mythical tasks that Hercules had to carry out to prove his strength and bravery.

And maybe there's something to that because Erasmus had travelled widely throughout Europe from one university to the next, reading, teaching, and learning.

He'd travelled far and done an awful lot of these scholarly activities.

I just wanna check a little bit more your understanding of that portrait of Erasmus that was produced by Hans Holbein.

So Jacob and Sam here are discussing Holbein's portrait of Erasmus, and Jacob says this.

"Erasmus wanted his portrait to show how wealthy and powerful he was." And Sam is saying that "Erasmus wanted his portrait to show what an important humanist scholar he was." So I want you to think.

Whose opinion do you think is correct and why? Who's right, Jacob or Sam? So take a minute to look at those opinions again.

Have a think about what your answer is, pause the video, and when you want to check whether you got it right, play the video again.

So yeah, Sam's opinion is correct.

Erasmus wanted the portrait to show what an important humanist scholar he was.

In the portrait, his hands rest on a book called "The Herculean Labours of Erasmus of Rotterdam".

Erasmus wanted people to think that his work as a scholar had been just as hard as the tasks of Hercules.

Erasmus' successful career as a humanist scholar was underpinned by the growing network of European universities that had begun to embrace the movement's ideas and aims. As the Renaissance flourished and humanist thought spread, the usefulness of these centres of learning became clear to the towns and princes that often supported them.

The number of universities grew as new ones were founded.

They educated lawyers, doctors, clergymen and teachers, and taught the men who worked in the growing governments of empires, kingdoms, and smaller states.

Let's check that you understand what was happening with Europe's universities during the Renaissance.

Which of these statements best describes them? Was it that they were declining in number and importance and were focused on the Church's teachings? Or were they growing in number and importance but focused on the Church's teachings? Were they growing in number and importance, but focused on humanist teachings? So take a look at options a, b and c.

Decide which one you think is right while you have the video paused, and when you want to check your answer, press play.

That's right.

They were growing in number and importance and were focused on humanist teachings.

I also want you to think about this.

Why were universities growing in importance during the Renaissance? I want you to focus on who was taught at them and why these particular sorts of people were useful.

Have a think.

While you do so, pause the video.

Press play when you want to compare your answer.

That's right.

Universities were growing in importance during the Renaissance because of the sorts of people they educated.

They educated lawyers, doctors, clergymen and teachers.

They were all taught at universities, and these people were important in running growing governments across Europe.

Now in Italy, universities in Florence, Padua, Rome, Sienna and Venice were important centres of Renaissance humanism.

Erasmus himself studied and tutored at four of them.

These were not the only universities at which Erasmus had studied or taught, however.

He actually made three visits to England, spending time at the universities of both Oxford and Cambridge, whilst also teaching in France, Flanders, an area of Northern Europe in the modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.

Throughout Europe, humanists like Erasmus spent their time at these great centres of learning, seeking to make the world a better place.

They focused on the capability of mankind to act properly, which they believed was modelled so well by the classical writers and thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome.

Now, the influence of humanism did not stop at the broad open doors of the university, however.

To see how far it spread, we must turn our attention to a painting of a mysterious woman in a future lesson.

So let's check your understanding of Erasmus and his relationship with the European universities of the day.

So I want you to consider this question.

Erasmus taught and studied at universities in many European countries.

You heard some of them just now.

Can you list as many of these as you can? While you're doing it, pause the video, and when you're ready to see how many you got, press play.

So some of the countries that Erasmus taught and studied at, Italy, France, Flanders, Switzerland and England.

What I'd like you to do now is I'd like you to think about the way that these different things were connected in Europe during this Renaissance period.

So we've got four factors or ideas or things, humanism, Erasmus, European universities and the printing press.

What I'd like you to do is I'd like you to try and make as many connections as possible between these things.

Now, I've completed an example here.

You can see that humanism and Erasmus were connected because Erasmus was a humanist scholar.

So I made that connection and then I've described the connection.

What I want you to do now is to try and connect these ideas in other ways and describe those connections just like I've done there.

So while you're attempting this task, pause the video and then you can check how you did when you play it again.

So you might have made some of the following connections.

You might have connected the printing press with humanism by saying that humanists, the books they liked were copied using the printing press, or the idea that humanist ideas were spread using the printing press.

You might have connected the printing press to European universities because of course, where did universities get their books from? They got them from the printing press.

The humanist books that were used in European universities were printed on printing presses.

You might have connected Erasmus and European universities because as we've just seen, Erasmus taught at many European universities.

Maybe you connected humanism and European universities because it was through these European universities that humanist ideas spread.

I'm sure if you didn't get those connections, you got lots of similar ones or even some of the ones that aren't up there.

So well done.

Now what I want you to do is I want you to think about those factors that you've just looked at, and I want you to think about what you've just completed in part one of this task and everything you've learned about today.

And that diagram from task one will really help.

And I want you to write one paragraph to explain why humanist ideas spread across Europe during the Renaissance.

So you should focus on the role played by the following and think about how these were linked, so the printing press, universities and scholars like Erasmus.

So I want you to write one paragraph to explain why humanist ideas spread across Europe during the Renaissance.

Make sure you consider those three factors in the bullet points and how they're linked, and use that diagram from task one to help you.

Pause the video while you're having a go.

Press play when you want to see how you did.

So here's an example of what you might have written.

Humanist ideas spread across Europe during the Renaissance because of the printing press.

Many classical books that humanists liked were copied by the printing press, meaning the humanist ideas in them could spread widely.

These ideas were also spread by universities which taught humanist ideas.

Scholars like Erasmus moved from university to university, meaning that humanism spread widely across Europe.

Hopefully your answer looks something like this and has some of the same ideas.

If it did, well done.

Regardless, super effort.

Really pleased with you.

But let's summarise our learning from today's lesson, the Italian Renaissance: humanism.

So firstly, we learned about how the printing press helped to spread the classical knowledge that humanists had rediscovered.

It made printing books faster and removed the control of the Church from book copying.

Now, these Renaissance humanists wanted to make the world a better place with this knowledge that could be spread using books printed by the printing press.

They thought that it could make the world a better place and unlock mankind's potential.

As a key humanist scholar, Erasmus travelled widely and taught at many European universities, so many in fact, that he wanted to compare his scholarly works to the tasks of Hercules, as we saw from that painting.

And humanism spread across this growing network of universities.

I hope you've had as much fun learning about humanism in the Italian Renaissance as I have done about guiding you through it.

Excellent work today, and I look forward to seeing you again in another lesson all about the Renaissance.