The Renaissance and Education

FOCUS How have recent events brought renewed interest in Islam and Muslim peoples? What do you know about the Islamic religion and culture, and how have you learned it?

Islamic scholars translated the texts of ancient Greek authors such as Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and Hippocrates into Arabic. These translated works became important in Islamic education and, through contacts between Arabs and Europeans, were reintroduced into Western education.56 In some cases, these ancient texts had been lost in the early Middle Ages. In particular, Ibn-Rushd, or Averroës (1126–1198), wrote important commentaries on Aristotle that influenced scholastic educators.

Islamic scholars contributed to astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. In mathematics, Arab scholars adopted the number system from the Indians but added the crucial number zero. This innovation made it possible to replace the cumbersome Latin system.

In the twenty-first century’s global economy, there is increasing interaction between the Arabic and Islamic and European and American societies. The numbers of Muslims have increased in many European countries such as France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, as well as in the United States. Some of these interactions have been clouded by suspicion and hostility because of terrorist attacks, such as that of 9/11, and persistent tensions in the Middle East. However, abroad and in the United States, there have been positive efforts at dialogue and mutual understanding, especially through multicultural education. Today, more Americans are learning more about Arabic civilization and Islam. Many American schools and colleges now include units and courses on the Arabic language and culture.

3-9 the renaiSSance and educatiOn

The Renaissance, a transitional period between the medieval and modern ages, which began in the fourteenth century, reached its zenith in the fifteenth century. It signaled a revival of the humanist aspects of the Greek and Latin classics. Like the

56John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and Henry Laurens, Europe and the Islamic World: A History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).

timeline

middle ageS (medieval PeriOd)

a n d Pho tog raphs Division s t n P r i Lib rar y of C on gress 910 CE Founding of Abbey at Cluny

500 600 700 800 900

529–534 CE Justinian I publishes Code of Civil Law 529 CE benedict establishes monastery at Monte Casino 800 CE Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

classical humanists The leading

theory and general method of education during the Renaissance; the study of the classical Greek and Roman texts with an emphasis on their humanistic (humancentered) meaning. medieval Scholastics, Renaissance classical humanist educators still looked to antiquity rather than the future but emphasized literature’s earthly rather than supernatural themes.57

In Italy, the center of the southern Renaissance, humanists acted as critics and custodians of culture, especially in literature, art, music, and architecture. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the great writers of their age, wrote in Italian rather than in Latin. Italian nobles established humanist schools to educate their children in revived classical learning.58

From their study of the Greek and Latin classics, humanist educators rediscovered models of literary excellence and style and portrayed the courtier as the ideally educated person. Wealthy aristocrats employed courtiers as counselors, secretaries, and tutors. In The Book of the Courtier, Baldesar Castiglione (1478–1529) wrote a guide about educating courtiers in the liberal arts and the classical literature.59 Castiglione’s courtier was to be culturally sophisticated, tactful, and diplomatic.60

The Renaissance humanist educators were literary critics—writers, poets, translators, and editors. As artist-teachers and cultural critics, they brought wit, charm, and satire as well as erudition to their work. They sought to educate a critically minded elite who could challenge conventional thinking and expose and correct mediocrity in literature and life. In northern Europe, humanist scholars, by critically examining medieval theological texts, prepared the path for the Protestant Reformation.

As critics, humanists wrote for an elite, like themselves, rather than a popular audience. They often kept a distance between themselves and the mass of people, distilling their conception of human nature from a carefully aged literature. As a vintage wine is used to grace an elegant dinner, humanist education was for the connoisseur rather than for the masses.

The Renaissance did not dramatically increase school attendance. Humanist preparatory and secondary schools educated children of the nobility and upper classes. Elementary schools served the commercial middle classes. Children in lower socioeconomic classes received little, if any, formal schooling.

57Charles G. Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006). 58Robert Black, Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 59Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2005). 60Peter W. R. Albury, Castiglione’s Allegory: Veiled Policy in the Book of the Courtier (1528) (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014).

1117 CE Founding of university of oxford

1225 CE Aquinas born at Roccasecca 1209 CE Founding of university of Paris

1381 CE John Wycliffe translation of English bible

1000 1100 1200

1209 CE Founding of university of Cambridge

1216 CE Pope recognizes Dominican order

1300 1400

1386 CE Founding of university of Heidelberg

1274 CE Aquinas’s Summa Theologica published