Renaissance Humanism was an intellectual movement typified by a revived interest in the classical world and studies which focussed not on religion but on what it is to be human. Its origins went back to 14th-century Italy and such authors as Petrarch (1304-1374) who searched out 'lost' ancient manuscripts. By the 15th century, humanism had spread across Europe.
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Timeline
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c. 1319The Italian poet Dante Alighieri completes his epic the Divine Comedy.
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1333The Italian poet and scholar Petrarch rediscovers Cicero's 'lost' Pro Archia in Liège.
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1336The Italian poet and scholar Petrarch compiles an edition of works by Virgil.
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1345The Italian poet and scholar Petrarch rediscovers Cicero's 'lost' Letters to Atticus in Verona.
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c. 1353Giovanni Boccaccio completes his masterpiece, the Decameron.
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c. 1360Giovanni Boccaccio works on his Ancestry of the Pagan Gods (Genealogia Deorum Gentilium).
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1453De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus is published.
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1500Desiderius Erasmus produces his Adagiorum Collectanea, an annotated collection of Greek and Latin adages. It is revised in 1508 and 1515 CE.
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1512The Dutch Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus publishes his On Copia which teaches students how to argue, revise texts, and produce new ones.
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1516Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia' is published.
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1516The Dutch Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus publishes his Latin and Greek translation of the New Testament (Novum instrumentum).
