New
New
Year 7

The Italian Renaissance: humanism

I can describe the context of Renaissance humanism.

New
New
Year 7

The Italian Renaissance: humanism

I can describe the context of Renaissance humanism.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The printing press allowed humanists to share rediscovered knowledge more easily.
  2. Humanism was promoted by the universities of Europe.
  3. New universities were founded in this period.
  4. Humanism represented a desire to study the classical world.
  5. Erasmus was an important humanist scholar.

Keywords

  • Renaissance - from a French term for ‘rebirth’, the Renaissance was a period of revival in European art and literature under the influence of classical ideas

  • Printing press - the printing press was a machine used to print words

  • Humanist - humanists were people who were interested in the classical world and the potential of the human race

  • Humanism - humanism was the revival of interest in Greek and Roman thought during the Renaissance

Common misconception

Pupils might think that because printing presses were mechanical, they were as fast and efficient as modern machinery.

Explain to pupils that even though printing presses were much quicker than copying by hand, it could still take a relatively long time to print books.

When discussing the map of European universities, have pupils discuss where these appear to be concentrated, and which areas appear to have had the most.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these were Renaissance humanist?
Correct answer: Petrarch
Correct answer: Bracciolini
Cicero
Lcretius
Q2.
The Renaissance takes its name from the French term for...
reformation
research
Correct answer: rebirth
Q3.
Lucretius' De rerum natura argued that the universe was made up of tiny things called...
Correct Answer: atoms, Atoms
Q4.
Which ancient civilisations were humanists mostly interested in?
Egypt
Correct answer: Greece
Correct answer: Rome
Mesopotamia
Q5.
Starting with the earliest, put these events in chronological order.
1 - Petrarch rediscovers Lucretius' letters.
2 - Bracciolini rediscovers De rerum natura
3 - Bracciolini sends his copy of De rerum natura to Niccoli
4 - Many copies are made of De rerum natura
Q6.
Humanists like Petrarch and Bracciolini found classical documents in the libraries of religious buildings such as cathedrals, abbeys and...
Correct Answer: monasteries, Monasteries

6 Questions

Q1.
Before the printing press, most book copying was controlled by the...
Correct Answer: Church
Q2.
What impact did the printing press have on the speed of book copying?
It made it slower
It had no effect
Correct answer: It made it faster
Q3.
Holbein's portrait compared Erasmus to which figure from a classical myth?
Romulus
Achilles
Correct answer: Hercules
Paris
Q4.
What happened to the number of universities in Europe during the Renaissance?
Correct answer: It grew
It shrank
It stayed the same
Q5.
ideas spread through Europe's universities during the Renaissance.
Correct Answer: Humanist, humanist
Q6.
Which of the following did not help to spread humanist ideas during the Renaissance?
Correct answer: The Church
Universities
Scholars like Erasmus
The printing press

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