172 humanism in Europe comparison They also made the classics public, eventually through print The birthplace of the humanist movement was Italy, and the earliest prominent humanist was an Italian, Francesco Petrarch Italy possessed the strongest connections to pre-Christian culture in its buildings, art, and manuscripts, and the most developed civic life Humanism was not initially connected with the universities and often flourished in towns without universities such as Florence The first few generations of humanists were definitely not university scholars and attacked the Scholastic Latin inherited from the Middle Ages and used in the universities as nonclassical and barbaric Humanists supported writing a Latin based on ancient authors, particularly Cicero Some university professors denounced humanists as neopagan or heretical, although some university scholars and humanists got along well Rather than being university scholars connected to an institution, early humanists formed an international body, or “republic of letters,” linked by a common Latinity and later by Greek TransFormation of Humanism Humanism was transformed by two 15th century events, the decline of the Byzantine Empire and the European invention of printing The decline of Byzantium, which had been apparent for decades before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, led Greek scholars to make their way west to enjoy greater security These scholars took Greek manuscripts with them, as well as knowledge of the classical Greek language Humanists now had direct access to ancient Greek writings, rather than medieval Latin translations and adaptations (and even these were often adapted from Arabic versions, rather than the original Greek) Greek and Greek authors began to supplement and to some degree even displace Latin ones in humanist study The revival of Greek studies led to new interest in the works of Plato, which had been largely lost in the Latin Middle Ages Humanists influenced by Plato sometimes broke with the political involvement of early humanists to exalt the contemplative life removed from civic affairs The revival of Plato, usually seen through the lens of mystical Neoplatonism, was often accompanied by an interest in ancient magic, such as the writings of “Hermes Trismegistus.” Magic was seen as a secret discipline known only to the elite Although only a small proportion of early printed texts were humanist, printing had a great impact on the movement and enabled it to institutionalize itself in a way that previous classical revivals during the Middle Ages had not Printing standardized the classical Greek and Latin texts, and for the first time it was possible for humanists to be sure that they were all working with the same text and the same pagination, as opposed to manuscripts, all of which are different Early printing was not error-free by any means, but to some extent it was possible to correct for this by issuing lists of errata Manuscripts also physically decayed Printed books did, too, but fact that printing produces thousands of copies for the same outlay as a scribe producing one or two meant that much less information was lost Print enabled learning to survive a series of disasters, ranging from the sack of Constantinople to the destruction of the library of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, the sack of Rome in 1527, and the ravaging of the English monastery libraries during the Reformation Members of Humanism Many humanists were members of the clergy (including some popes), but humanism also provided a way for European men to be professional intellectuals without having to be in the church Humanists could support themselves by founding schools to teach ancient languages and writing Humanists developed the idea that learning was necessary to the fullest development of the person Particularly in its earlier phases humanism emphasized rhetoric, the study of persuasive speech, a discipline with a large classical literature but one that had been largely overlooked in the medieval university in favor of logic As did teaching, rhetoric opened career possibilities to humanists, who found employment in courts writing and giving formal Latin orations praising the prince or writing formal Latin letters as diplomatic communications The early humanists had often presented their skills as useful in the urban republics of northern Italy, but by 1450 humanists mainly adapted to the Italian princely order (Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the most radical humanists, wrote both The Prince, a manual for autocrats, and Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, an analysis of republics.) Humanists also rediscovered history as a subject worthy of study, which it had not been during the Middle Ages, when it was not a part of the school or university curriculum Humanists revived the idea that the “great men” of history could serve as models for emulation, and also that history was a useful stockpile of examples for making rhetorical arguments There were a few women humanists, who often faced great difficulties entering humanist professions However,