![['David'_by_Michelangelo_FI_Acca_JBS_086.jpg]] This explosion of new knowledge and ideas into Europe sparked what we call the Renaissance, which literally means rebirth. The infusion of so much new material also democratized knowledge a bit. Young scholars at European universities were seeing these texts at the same time as their teachers, which challenged the scholasticism of the past, when interpretations formed generations or centuries ago carried so much weight. The excitement over these new texts carried a new idea with it, that became known as humanism. A curriculum of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy could now be taught from original Greek and Latin sources instead of medieval commentaries. This laid the foundations for modern scientific and political thinking and created the image of the “universal Renaissance man” who could read Plato in the morning and design a suspension bridge in the afternoon. ----- Next: [[14.18 - Da Vinci]] Back: [[14.16 - Books]]