Humanismus

Humanismus, the aspect of the Renaissance which sought, by renewal and extension of knowledge of the Ancients, and by an unprejudiced examination of their works, to exalt and ennoble man. Its impetus came from Italy, and it found a more fruitful soil in the countries of western Europe than in Germany. The history of humanism in Germany begins with Johann von Neumarkt c.1400 at the court of the Emperor Karl IV at Prague, and the contemporary Johannes von Tepl, also a Bohemian, is one of the earliest to show humanistic influences. The most brilliant figure in the early phase of German humanism appeared some forty years later, and was not a German, but the versatile, learned, and dynamic Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who was for a few years a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Friedrich III at Vienna. His exclusive use of Latin in his numerous learned works set the pattern for German humanism; for the German language, in contrast to French and English, seemed at that time to be recalcitrant to the spirit of the classical tongues.

The German humanists were masters of the principal classical verse forms, as well as of Latin oratorical and expository prose. Apart from Prague and Vienna, small groups arose in flourishing cities such as Nuremberg, Strasburg, Augsburg, and Heidelberg, and notably in the universities of Erfurt, Tübingen, and Ingolstadt, all of which were visited by C. Celtis, the most elegant poet and most energetic propagandist of German humanism. Its heyday is in the last decades of the 15th c. and the first decade of the 16th c. Apart from Celtis, the principal German humanists were R. Agricola, J. Aventinus, H. Bebel, S. Brant (who also wrote in German), Geiler von Kaisersberg, H. Glareanus, E. Hessus, P. Melanchthon, K. Peutinger, W. Pirkheimer, Regiomontanus, J. Reuchlin, Crotus Rubeanus, Mutianus Rufus, H. Schedel, Ulrich von Hutten (who used German in his late writings), J. Vadianus, and J. Wimpfeling, who made German translations from Latin. Erasmus, the greatest of all humanists, was not a German, though he spent some time in Basel and at Freiburg.