List of Renaissance humanists
Encyclopedia
Renaissance humanists
The careers of individual humanists throw light on the movement as a whole.- PetrarchPetrarchFrancesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
(1304-1374) (ItalianItalian peopleThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
) - Simon AtumanoSimon AtumanoSimon Atumano was the Bishop of Gerace in Calabria from 23 June 1348 until 1366 and the Latin Archbishop of Thebes thereafter until 1380. Born in Constantinople, Atumano was of Greco-Turkish stock, his surname deriving from the word "Ottoman." He was a famous humanist and an influential Greek...
(?-c.1380) (Greco-TurkishTurkish peopleTurkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
) - Giovanni BoccaccioGiovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
(1313-1375) (Italian) - Coluccio SalutatiColuccio SalutatiColuccio Salutati was an Italian Humanist and man of letters, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence.-Birth and Early Career:...
(1331-1406) (Italian) - Geert GrooteGeert GrooteGerard Groote , otherwise Gerrit or Gerhard Groet, in Latin Gerardus Magnus, was a Dutch preacher and founder of the Brethren of the Common Life and a key figure in the Devotio Moderna movement....
(1340-1384) (DutchDutch peopleThe Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
) - Bernat MetgeBernat MetgeBernat Metge was a Catalan humanist, best known as the author of Lo Somni .He held a position at the court of Joan I of Aragon, and, following some troubles, once more served Martí of Aragon....
(c.1340-1413) (CatalanCatalan peopleThe Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
) - Manuel ChrysolorasManuel ChrysolorasManuel Chrysoloras was a pioneer in the introduction of Greek literature to Western Europe during the late middle ages....
(c.1355-1415) (Greek) - George Gemistos Plethon (c.1355-1452/1454) (Greek)
- Niccolò de' NiccoliNiccolò de' NiccoliNiccolò de' Niccoli was an Italian Renaissance humanist.He was born and died in Florence, and was one of the chief figures in the company of learned men which gathered around the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici...
(1364-1437) (Italian) - Leonardo BruniLeonardo BruniLeonardo Bruni was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman. He has been called the first modern historian.-Biography:...
(c.1369-1444) (Italian) - Guarino da VeronaGuarino da VeronaGuarino da Verona was an early figure in the Italian Renaissance.He was born in Verona, Italy and later studied Greek at Constantinople, where for five years he was the pupil of Manuel Chrysoloras. When he set out to return home, he had with him two cases of precious Greek manuscripts which he had...
(1370-1460) (Italian) - Vittorino da FeltreVittorino da FeltreVittorino da Feltre was an Italian humanist and teacher. He was born in Feltre, Belluno, Republic of Venice and died in Mantua. His real name was Vittorino Ramboldini....
(1378 - 1446) (Italian) - Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) (Italian)
- Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) (Italian)
- Peter, Duke of Coimbra (1392-1449) (PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
) - Flavio BiondoFlavio BiondoFlavio Biondo was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He was one of the first historians to used a three-period division of history and is known as one of the first archaeologists.Born in the capital city of Forlì, in the Romagna region, Flavio was well schooled from an early age,...
(1392-1463) (Italian) - George of TrebizondGeorge of TrebizondGeorge of Trebizond was a Greek philosopher and scholar, one of the pioneers of the Renaissance.-Life:He was born on the island of Crete, and derived his surname Trapezuntius from the fact that his ancestors were from Trebizond.At what period he came to Italy is not certain; according to some...
(1395-1486) (Greek) - Francesco FilelfoFrancesco FilelfoFrancesco Filelfo was an Italian Renaissance humanist.-Biography:Filelfo was born at Tolentino, in the March of Ancona. He is believed to be a third cousin of Leonardo Da Vinci. At the time of his birth, Petrarch and the students of Florence had already brought the first act in the recovery of...
(1398-1481) (Italian) - Íñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de SantillanaÍñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de SantillanaDon Íñigo López de Mendoza y de la Vega, Marquis of Santillana was a Castilian politician and poet who held an important position in society and Literature during the reign of John II of Castile....
(1398-1458) (SpanishSpanish peopleThe Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
) - Theodorus GazaTheodorus GazaTheodorus Gaza or Theodore Gazis also called by the epithet Thessalonicensis and Thessalonikeus was a Greek humanist and translator of Aristotle, one of the Greek scholars who were the leaders of the...
(c.1400-1475) (Greek) - Bessarion (1403-1472) (Greek)
- Niccolò PerottiNiccolò PerottiNiccolò Perotti, also Perotto or Nicolaus Perottus was an Italian humanist and author of one of the first modern Latin school grammars.-Biography:...
(1429-1480) (Italian) - Marsilio FicinoMarsilio FicinoMarsilio Ficino was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin...
(1433-1499) (Italian) - John DogetJohn DogetJohn Doget was an English diplomat, scholar and humanist. He was the nephew of Cardinal Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was born in Sherborne, Dorset, and was probably educated in Bourchier's household before being admitted to Eton College as a king's scholar about 1447...
(c.1434-1501) (English) - Stefano InfessuraStefano InfessuraStefano Infessura was an Italian humanist historian and lawyer. He is remembered through his municipalist Diary of the City of Rome, a partisan chronicle of events at Rome by the Colonna family's point of view. He was in a position to hear everything that circulated in informed Roman circles, for...
(c.1435-c.1500) (Italian) - Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros (1436-1517) (Spanish)
- Giovanni Michele Alberto da CarraraGiovanni Michele Alberto da CarraraGiovanni Michele Alberto da Carrara was a Bergamasque Renaissance humanist and medical doctor. He wrote about philosophy, history, science, and medicine. He was also a Latin poet and orator...
(1438–1490) (Italian) - Antonio de NebrijaAntonio de NebrijaAntonio de Lebrija , also known as Antonio de Nebrija, Elio Antonio de Lebrija, Antonius Nebrissensis, and Antonio of Lebrixa, was a Spanish scholar, known for writing a grammar of the Castilian language, credited as one of the first published grammars of a Romance language...
(1441-1522) (Spanish) - Rodolphus AgricolaRodolphus AgricolaRodolphus Agricola was a pre-Erasmian humanist of the northern Low Countries, famous for his supple Latin and one of the first north of the Alps to know Greek well...
(1443-1485) (Frisian) - Lucio Marineo Siculo (1444-1533) (Italian)
- Janus LascarisJanus LascarisJanus Lascaris , also called John Rhyndacenus , was a noted Greek scholar in the Renaissance.After the fall of Constantinople he was taken to the Peloponnese and to Crete...
(c.1445-1535) (Greek) - William GrocynWilliam GrocynWilliam Grocyn was an English scholar, a friend of Erasmus.He was born at Colerne, Wiltshire. Intended by his parents for the church, he was sent to Winchester College, and in 1465 was elected to a scholarship at New College, Oxford. In 1467 he became a fellow, and among his pupils was William...
(c.1446-1519) (EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
) - Johannes StöfflerJohannes StöfflerJohannes Stöffler was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, priest, maker of astronomical instruments and professor at the University of Tübingen.-Life:...
(1452-1531) (German) - Johann ReuchlinJohann ReuchlinJohann Reuchlin was a German humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew. For much of his life, he was the real centre of all Greek and Hebrew teaching in Germany.-Early life:...
(1455-1522) (German) - Peter Martyr D'AnghieraPeter Martyr d'AnghieraPeter Martyr d'Anghiera was an Italian-born historian of Spain and its discoveries during the Age of Exploration...
(1457-1526) (Italian) - Jacopo SannazaroJacopo SannazaroJacopo Sannazaro was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples.He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic Arcadia, a masterwork that illustrated the possibilities of poetical prose in Italian, and instituted the theme of...
(1458-1530) (Italian) - Johannes TrithemiusJohannes TrithemiusJohannes Trithemius , born Johann Heidenberg, was a German abbot, lexicographer, historian, cryptographer, polymath and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany.-Life:He...
(1462-1516) (German) - Giovanni Pico della MirandolaGiovanni Pico della MirandolaCount Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of...
(1463-1494) (Italian) - Desiderius ErasmusDesiderius ErasmusDesiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and a theologian....
(c.1466-1536) (Dutch) - Niccolò MachiavelliNiccolò MachiavelliNiccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic...
(1469-1527) (Italian) - Henrique Caiado (1470-1509) (PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
) - Aires de Figueiredo Barbosa (1470-1540) (PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
) - Pietro BemboPietro BemboPietro Bembo was an Italian scholar, poet, literary theorist, and cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, and his writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch...
(1470-1547) (Italian) - Ludovico AriostoLudovico AriostoLudovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso . The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions...
(1474-1533) (Italian) - Thomas MoreThomas MoreSir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
(1478-1535) (English) - Baldassare CastiglioneBaldassare CastiglioneBaldassare Castiglione, count of was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:Castiglione was born into an illustrious Lombard family at Casatico, near Mantua, where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo...
(1478-1529) (Italian) - Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) (Italian)
- Alphonsus CiacconiusAlphonsus CiacconiusDon Alphonsus [Francisco] Ciacconius was a Spanish Dominican scholar in Rome. His name is also spelt as Alfonso Chacón and Ciacono. Chacón is known mainly for two of his works: Historia utriusque belli dacici a Traiano Caesaregesti , and Vitae, et res gestae pontificum romanorum et S.R.E....
(1540-1599) (Spanish) - Pieter GillisPieter GillisPieter Gillis , known by his anglicised name Peter Giles and sometimes the Latinised Petrus Ægidius, was a humanist, printer, and registrar for the city of Antwerp in the early sixteenth century...
(1486-1533) (FlemishFlemish peopleThe Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
) - Sigismund von HerbersteinSigismund von HerbersteinSiegmund Freiherr von Herberstein, , was an Carniolan diplomat, writer, historian and member of the Holy Roman Empire Imperial Council...
(1486-1566) (AustrianAustriansAustrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
/Slovene) - MacropediusMacropediusGeorgius Macropedius , also known as Joris van Lanckvelt, was a Dutch humanist, schoolmaster and 'the greatest Latin playwright of the 16th century'.-Biography:...
(1487-1558) (Dutch) - Pietro AlcionioPietro AlcionioPietro Alcionio , the Venetian humanist, was a classical scholar under the patronage of Pope Clement VII, a translator of Aristotle who was hurt in the Sack of Rome in May 1527, and died later that year....
(c.1487-1527) (Italian) - Juan Boscán AlmogáverJuan Boscán AlmogáverJoan Boscà i Almogàver , was a Catalan poet born about the end of the 15th century.The exact date of birth for Boscà is unclear, but there is a consensus that he was born anywhere between 1487 and 1492. Boscà was born in Barcelona and was one of three children...
(c.1490?-1542) (Spanish) - Pietro AretinoPietro AretinoPietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography.- Life :...
(1492-1556) (Italian) - Juan Luis VivesJuan Luís VivesJuan Luis Vives , also Joan Lluís Vives i March , was a Valencian Spanish scholar and humanist.-Biography:Vives was born in Valencia...
(1492-1540) (Spanish) - François RabelaisFrançois RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...
(c.1494-1553) (FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
) - Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) (German)
- Pier Paolo VergerioPier Paolo VergerioPier Paolo Vergerio was an Italian religious reformer.-Life:He was born at Capodistria , then part of the Venetian Republic and studied jurisprudence in Padua, where he delivered lectures in 1522. He also practiced law in Verona, Padua, and Venice...
(1498-1565) (Italian) - Andre de ResendeAndre de ResendeAndré de Resende , the father of archaeology in Portugal, a Dominican friar.He spent many years traveling in Spain, France and Belgium, where he corresponded with Erasmus and other learned men. He was also intimate with King John III and his sons, and acted as tutor to the Infante D...
(1498-1573) (PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
) - Janus CornariusJanus CornariusJanus Cornarius was a Saxon humanist and friend of Erasmus. A gifted philologist, Cornarius specialized in editing and translating Greek and Latin medical writers with "prodigious industry," taking a particular interest in botanical pharmacology and the effects of environment on illness and the body...
(1500-1558) (German) - Damião de GóisDamião de GóisDamiao de Góis , born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 1523 by King John III of Portugal...
(1502-1574) (PortuguesePortuguese peopleThe Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
) - Giovanni della CasaGiovanni della CasaGiovanni della Casa was an Italian poet and cleric.-Biography:He was born at Florence, in Tuscany. He studied at Bologna, Padua, Florence and Rome, and by his learning attracted the patronage of Alexander Farnese, who, as Pope Paul III, made him archbishop of Benevento and later nuncio to Venice,...
(1503-1556) (Italian) - Arnoldus ArleniusArnoldus ArleniusArnoldus Arlenius Peraxylus, , born Arndt or Arnout van Eyndhouts or van Eynthouts, also known as Arnoud de Lens, was a Dutch humanist philosopher and poet....
(c.1510-1582) (Dutch) - Michael ServetusMichael ServetusMichael Servetus was a Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer, and humanist. He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation...
(1511-1553) (Spanish) - Francis RobortelloFrancis RobortelloFrancesco Robortello was a Renaissance humanist, nicknamed Canis grammaticus for his confrontational and demanding manner.-As scholar:...
(1516-1567) (Italian) - Johannes Goropius BecanusJohannes Goropius BecanusJohannes Goropius Becanus was a Dutch physician, linguist, and humanist.-Life:He was born Jan Gerartsen van Gorp in the town of Gorp, situated in the municipality of Hilvarenbeek...
(1519-1572) (Dutch) - Étienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La BoétieÉtienne de La Boétie was a French judge, writer, anarchist, and "a founder of modern political philosophy in France." He "has been best remembered as the great and close friend of the eminent essayist Michel de Montaigne, in one of history's most notable friendships."-Life:"La Boétie was born in...
(1530–1563) (French) - Michel de MontaigneMichel de MontaigneLord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne , February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592, was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and is popularly thought of as the father of Modern Skepticism...
(1533–1592) (French) - Justus LipsiusJustus LipsiusJustus Lipsius was a Southern-Netherlandish philologist and humanist. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatible with Christianity. The most famous of these is De Constantia...
(1547-1606) (Flemish) - Giordano BrunoGiordano BrunoGiordano Bruno , born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited...
(1548–1600) (Italian) - Ignazio CardiniIgnazio CardiniIgnazio Cardini was a Corsican doctor, naturalist and humanist of Italian descent, born in Bastia, Corsica. He wrote a scientific work called “Istoriae Naturales Corsice Insulae”, in which he records the mineralogy and flora on Corsica. An outspoken critic of the Corsican clergy, most of the...
(1566-1602) (Corsican/Italian) - Gian Vittorio RossiGian Vittorio RossiGian Vittorio Rossi, also known as Giano Nicio Eritreo, was an Italian poet, philologist, and historian.- Biography :Rossi was born in Rome to a well-to-do family and lived his entire life in the city of his birth. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collegio Romano distinguishing himself by...
(1577 – 1647) Italian poet, philologist, and historian.