Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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In Reply to: PLEASE POST YOUR SECOND REQUIRED POSTING AS FOLLOWUPS TO THIS POST posted by Tom Bacig on January 13, 1999 at 21:59:54:
:Alberti, Castiglione, and Machiavelli all had ideas of what man shoud be and how he should behave. In "On the Family" Alberti stated his ideas on education to become the ideal Renaissance man. Alberti believed that fathers should "see to it" that their sons become well educated. They were to strive for perfection in their reading and writing. Besides that, he believed that sons should study aritmetic, geometry, poetry, oratory, and philosophy. They were to learn from skilled teachers and study "good" authors. ALberti also stated his ideas on idleness. He said that a man who wished to have dignity and honor would not and should not be idle or lazy, for idleness to him was a "deadly enemy of good customs and the cause of every vice." He comopared the idle man to tree trunks, statues, or putrid corpses...a man who was idle and neglected good deeds was dead.
Castiglione's ideas on the true profession of the Courtier, that of arms, were similar to Alberti's ideas on education. Castiglione stated that a Courtier should exercise his profession of arms with "vigor". He was to be "bold, energetic, and faithful" to his master(s). He was to never be a coward or a disgrace because that would stain his reputation for good. The better the Courtier was at his profession, the more praise he deserved. Castiglione did not think it was necessary for the Courtiers to be perfect in their knowledge of "things and qualities that befit a commander," rather, he thought that the Courtiers should be loyal and have great spirit. Castiglione is basically saying that to be a Renaissance man one needed to try, to have spirit and courage, and to be loyal to his duty/duties. Alberti felt basically the same way about education...sons should pursue learning and knowledge with great spirit and desire.
In "The Prince" Machiavelli stated his edeas on what the Renaissance prince should be like. While he recognized that qualities such as generosity, rapacioudness, cruelty, compassion, faithfulness, faithlessness, boldness, bravery, cowardice, femininity, etc were desirable in a prince he realized that it was/is not humanly possible to posses all such qualities. Therefore, he stated that the prince shoud be "sufficiently prudent." In other words, the prince should watch his back and do what the had to do and be how he had to be in order to "keep the state."
Alberti, Castiglione, and Machiavelli all agreed upon the idea that the Renaissance man should strive for what he wants and should have spirit, bravery, and ambition. Alberti and Castiglione preached goodness and virtue in order to succeed. Machiavelli was the opposite in that he preached that men were "thankless, fickle, false, greedy, dishonest, and simple" by nature. His prince would/should keep the sorry breed in check by being ruthless, cruel, and feared. The basic idea...to have spirit and passion, to strive to learn all (Alberti), to do what one is suposed to to the best of abilities (Castiglione), and to posses all power through vice over virtue (Machiavelli).