Renaissance Literature

Renaissance Literature refers to the time of European literature that had its start in Italy during the fourteenth century, and later extended into a majority of Europe in the seventeenth century. The first major contribution that made Renaissance literature possible was the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg that caused writers to be able to have their works spread our amongst the people. This literature is particularly notable not only for this reason, but also because of the humanism movement which produced optimistic thinking when it came to the potential of human beings. A third explanation for why Renaissance literature was so distinguished was because of people utilizing writing in their own local vernacular rather than the classical languages of Greek and Latin.

The very machine that made literary works possible in book form was the Gutenberg printing press that was established in 1456. It was a mechanical device that applied pressure on an exterior that was covered in ink that was on a piece of paper or cloth. The components that were involved were first accumulated in the Holy Roman Empire by Gutenberg around 1440, centered on the idea of the existing screw presses. It was because of this that the process of bookmaking was possible, and as a result led to the first mass manufacturing of books throughout all of history, as one Renaissance printing press was able to create 3,600 pages a day. This is how the great works of Luther and Erasmus were able to be sold by the thousands.

With the institution of the printing press now being available, more and more people were starting to read books, realizing the depth of the ideas that were contained in them. One of the primary themes throughout these concepts was humanism, which was a movement of both cultural and educational improvement. It was headed primarily by writers, scholars, and civic leaders who would be considered humanists in our modern society. It challenged Renaissance education, as it was designed to be taught to individuals from textbooks that focused on logic, philosophy, theology, medicine, and law. This provided people with an extensive vocabulary, which caused them to write well and have a strong impact on their communities. Although it was taught through textbooks that centered on the above concepts, the foundation of the humanist movement was grounded in the studia humanitatis, or liberal arts curriculum. This consisted of grammar, rhetoric, logic, history, poetry, and moral philosophy, causing the great scholars and writers to emerge.

Society also started becoming aware of the vernacular literature that the humanists were utilizing when producing their writings. It was towards the middle of the fifteenth century that Latin was the primary literary language, but that quickly changed as several common vernaculars starting to occur. The Certame Coronario, which was a poetry contest held in Florence in 1441, had a particular goal in wanting to prove that the spoken language of Italian was not mediocre compared to Latin. It was this event that marked a significant change, which caused works to not only be written in Latin and Italian, but also in French and German, depending on the vernacular language of the region.

In conclusion, it is clearly seen that all three factors had a significant contribution when it came to having an impact on Renaissance literature. They are all interconnected as the Gutenberg printer made it possible for humanism to be portrayed through written works that were comprised using varying vernacular languages. The era of Renaissance literature is marked by written masterpieces comprised by people who took education very seriously. It is the combination of these two intellectual areas that makes the writings of this time so influential to the generations in the past, and also to those in the future.

Lewis, Clive. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1998.

Payne, Michael. Renaissance Literature: an anthology Wiley-Blackwell Publishing: Malden, Massachusets, 2003.