Talk:Renaissance humanism

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 29 March 2021 and 12 June 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Hhalpern2412. Peer reviewers: Jdawson1925.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:01, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Elite or widespread perspective?

According to this article

"Humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a small elite, a program to revive the cultural legacy, literary legacy, and moral philosophy of classical antiquity. "

This sentence is not sourced and unfounded, especially considering that the rest of the article discusses primarily academic developments, which, considering the context of Renaissance Italy, was elitist and not something common people participated in. The article talks about many specific individuals who contributed to the movement, but does not discuss any widespread social changes that were a result of the movement. For this reason, I have included a citation needed tag.--Electro blob (talk) 18:55, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Actually, this is mentioned later on in the article. In the "Widespread view" section, it is briefly mentioned in a quote from a historian that "The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with the diverse customs of the East, and gradually permitted expression in matters of taste and dress." Other than this there is no further mention. With this in mind, I will leave it up to the editors as to whether further citations are necessary. I have removed the citations needed tag until then. --Electro blob (talk) 19:06, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

The last part of the lead section, reading, "Renaissance humanism was characterized by a love of learning and "a true love for books" as a result of which "humanists built book collections and university libraries developed."[4] Humanists believed that the individual encompassed "body, mind, and soul" and learning was very much a part of edifying all aspects of the human. This love of and for learning would lead to a demand in the printed word, which in turn drove the invention of Gutenberg's printing press," seems a little irrelevant and poorly placed. I think ending the lead section with the revival of the virtuous legacy of classical antiquity gives a better sense of what Renaissance humanism is about. --Hhalpern2412 (talk) 18:07, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Regarding the "Paganism and Christianity" section: I think that there's still a lot of work to be done on the various Graeco-Roman sects that were studied by Renaissance humanists. Moreover, given that the humanist project necessarily entailed a revival of pagan texts, I think the section's header is a little misleading. I don't really know what to do with this section, to be quite honest; it just needs to be cleaned up. I also think there's a lot of potential in the "Humanist" section, even though it is virtually blank at the moment. Having some sub-sections on key Renaissance humanists and their most important contributions would be really wonderful! I know James Hankins spends quite a bit of time on individual humanists--from Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Bruni to Leon Battista Alberti, Francesco Patrizi, and Machiavelli--in his Virtue Politics (2019) book. There are undoubtedly many great books and articles on individual humanists, though! -- Hhalpern2412 (talk) 05:03, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

Article Evaluation

The lead section or introduction section summarizes the topic of Renaissance humanism including key points vital to the topic such as where it emerged, key contributions renaissance humanism made to the world during this time, and why it emerged. The content of the article is spread out through various sections including subsections that vary in length depending on the topic of that section. All content in the article is relevant to the articles topic and the article was last updated on December 25th, 2023 indicating recent updates. The article keeps a neutral tone simply documenting history and detailing many aspects of renaissance humanism. All information is cited with sources from reliable academic sources by a wide range of authors. All links in article work including vital links to sources. The article is well organized with clear and concise writing with no grammatical errors. All sections are well organized with subsections connecting to sections. All images add relevant information to the topic and are spread out in a visually pleasing and distinctive way. Images are well captioned and adhere to copyright rules and regulations. This article is apart of WikiProjects that discuss how perspectives of renaissance humanism are discussed in the article. In general the article is well developed, cited properly, discussed in a non biased way with easy to understand and concise language, and discusses all relevant aspects of the topic.Summerstorm10 (talk) 05:03, 10 February 2024 (UTC)