Humanism
The Renaissance movement that recovered, edited and taught Greek and Latin classics, and the scholars, libraries and academies behind it.
Category: Culture, Knowledge
- 799 – 801Alcuin revises the Vulgate text at Tours
Around 799–801 Alcuin of York, abbot of Marmoutier at Tours under Charlemagne, has Bibles prepared from a corrected Vulgate. The aim is to recover Jerome's text, though his changes were probably modest.
- 1397Manuel Chrysoloras begins teaching Greek in Florence
Invited by the chancellor Coluccio Salutati, the Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras starts teaching Greek in Florence, reviving the study of Greek literature in the Latin West. He stays until 1400.
- c. 1406Jacopo d'Angelo translates Ptolemy's Geography into Latin in Florence
Jacopo d'Angelo, a pupil of Chrysoloras, translates Ptolemy's Geography in Florence (c. 1406-07), opening its coordinate-based map-making to Latin readers. The first printed edition with maps followed in Bologna in 1477.
- January 1417Poggio Bracciolini finds Lucretius' De rerum natura
The humanist Poggio Bracciolini discovers a manuscript of Lucretius' poem De rerum natura in a German monastery, probably Fulda. Poggio never named the place, and the find became a landmark of Renaissance manuscript hunting.
- 1444Cosimo de' Medici founds the Library of San Marco in Florence
Founded in 1444 and designed by Michelozzo, the Library of San Marco is the first public library in Florence. It was built with Cosimo de' Medici's support.
- c. 1462Cosimo de' Medici sets Marsilio Ficino to translate Plato
Cosimo de' Medici gives Marsilio Ficino Greek manuscripts of Plato, and Ficino begins translating the whole corpus into Latin (published 1484). His circle is later called the Platonic Academy, though the name is debated.
- 1468Cardinal Bessarion gives his Greek manuscripts to Venice
Basilios Bessarion, a Greek refugee cardinal, donates his library of Greek and Latin manuscripts to the Republic of Venice (letter of 31 May 1468); it becomes the core of the Marciana library and a hub for Greek learning in Italy.
- June 15, 1475Sixtus IV formally establishes the Vatican Library
By the bull Ad decorem militantis ecclesiae of 15 June 1475, Sixtus IV formally founds the Vatican Library. It grew from the Greek, Latin and Hebrew codices that Nicholas V gathered from 1451.
- April 8, 1492Death of Lorenzo de' Medici, 'the Magnificent'
Lorenzo de' Medici dies at the family villa of Careggi on 8 April 1492. He had patronised Botticelli and the humanists Ficino, Landino and Poliziano; his son Piero succeeds him, and the Medici are expelled in 1494.
- 1494Aldus Manutius founds the Aldine Press in Venice
The scholar-printer Aldus Manutius founds the Aldine Press in Venice. Its first publication, in March 1495, is Constantine Lascaris' Greek grammar Erotemata with a Latin translation.
- 1495Aldus prints Aristotle in Greek
The Aldine Press issues the first printed Greek edition of Aristotle in five volumes: the Organon first, dated 1 November 1495, and the rest by 1498. It includes works of Theophrastus and ancient commentators. Sources differ on when volumes two to five appeared.
- 1498Aristotle's Poetics reaches print
Giorgio Valla's 1498 Latin translation is the first printed Poetics, and the Aldine Press prints the Greek text in 1508. Medieval readers had known the work through Averroes, whose reading made tragedy the art of praise. Castelvetro's Italian editions follow in 1570 and 1576.
- 1514 – 1520The Complutensian Polyglot, the first printed polyglot Bible, is produced in Alcalá
Funded by Cardinal Cisneros, the six-volume Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin is printed at Alcalá de Henares in 1514–1517 and issued in 1520–21. It holds the first printed Greek New Testament.
- 1516Erasmus publishes the first Greek New Testament on sale
In 1516 Desiderius Erasmus's Novum Instrumentum, with the Greek text beside his own Latin, is printed by Johann Froben in Basel. Its Greek became the basis of the Textus Receptus used by Luther and the King James Bible.
- 1516Pomponazzi argues from Aristotle against the soul's immortality
Pietro Pomponazzi's On the Immortality of the Soul (1516), following Alexander of Aphrodisias, holds that Aristotle's soul cannot exist apart from the body. The Venetian Senate orders it burned in 1517; Leo X's admonition is revoked in 1518 after Bembo intervenes.
- September 1524 – December 1525Luther answers Erasmus on free will with On the Bondage of the Will
Erasmus defends human free will in On Free Will (September 1524). Luther replies in December 1525 with On the Bondage of the Will, arguing that sin leaves people unable to save themselves and that salvation is God's act alone.
- 1535Olivétan's French Bible is printed at Neuchâtel
In 1535 Pierre Robert Olivétan, a cousin of Calvin, publishes at Neuchâtel the first French Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek rather than Latin. Calvin writes its Latin preface; it is the first French Protestant Bible.
- July 6, 1535Thomas More is beheaded for refusing the Oath of Supremacy
Thomas More, the humanist author of Utopia, is beheaded on Tower Hill on 6 July 1535. He had refused the Oath of Supremacy, which recognised Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England.
- 1551Robert Estienne numbers the verses of the New Testament
In his 1551 Greek–Latin New Testament, printed in Geneva, Robert Estienne first prints verse numbers, and does so for the Hebrew Bible in 1553. They complete the chapter-and-verse system still used to cite Scripture.
- January 14, 1573The Florentine Camerata meets at Count Bardi's house
The earliest recorded meeting of the Florentine circle of humanists and musicians, patronised by Count Giovanni de' Bardi, took place on 14 January 1573. Its debates on ancient Greek drama led to the first operas.
- 1670Spinoza's Tractatus questions the Bible's authorship
Published anonymously in 1670 with a false Hamburg imprint, Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise urges reading the Bible critically like any text and denies that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Banned in 1674.
- 1678Richard Simon's critical history of the Old Testament is suppressed
In 1678 the French priest Richard Simon publishes his Histoire critique du Vieux Testament, questioning Moses's authorship of much of the Pentateuch. Royal authorities seize and destroy the printing.
- 1878Wellhausen's Prolegomena gives the documentary hypothesis its classic form
In 1878 the German scholar Julius Wellhausen argues that the Torah was compiled from four originally independent sources written centuries after Moses. His formulation dominates Old Testament scholarship for generations.
- 1898Eberhard Nestle publishes his Greek New Testament
In 1898 Eberhard Nestle issues the first edition of the critical Greek New Testament that, as the Nestle–Aland text (now NA28), underlies most modern translations and biblical scholarship.