Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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Sorry about the last message, I screwed up again.
With looking at Albert's, Castiglione's, and Machiavelli's views on what makes a renaissance person, you can see how much their views are the same, yet differ in a lot of ways. Alberti focused a lot on the impotance of school and studying hard. In his book "On the Family", he says "see to it that their sons pursue the study of letters assiduosly and teach them to understand and write correctly. He also says "it is almost the same to know know badly as it is not to know at all". It seems that Alberti not only puts a lot of focus on learning, but learning correctly. Alberti also seems to stress greatly the teaching of something right the first time when he says "They say the same thing happens to the mind as to a bottle: if at first one puts bad wine in it, it's taste will never dissapear. I think he is saying that if you teach something to someone badly, it will always be with them.
Castiglione on the other hand seemed to view exercise and training to be in the military very important. In his book "Book of Courtier", he says "More over I deem it very important to know how to wrestle, for it is a great help in the use of all kinds of weapons. He also says "It is also fitting to swim, to leap, to run, and to throw stones". Castiglione seemed to stress a lot the importance of being fit and trainig to be a soldier. Although he sounds the complete opposite of Alberti at first, he goes on to say "and also proficient in writing verse and prose, especially in this vulgar tongue of ours". You can see he also views grammar and writing very important in a renaissance man, but seems to stress the importance of war more.
In machiavelli's "The prince", it seems like he is making humans out to a lot more negative than they are. In the book, he says "for men, it may generally be affirmed that they are thankless, fickle, false, studious to avoid danger, greddy of gain, devoted to you while you are able to confer benefits upon them, and ready as I said before, while danger is distant, to shed their blood, sacrafice their property, their lives, and their children, but in the hour of need they turn against you. I think this is a pretty harsh, yet powerful quote, it basically says that people will be their for you when there is no danger, but as soon as there is any sign of it, they become selfish and run like hell. Machiavelli seems obssesed with the prince being a total ruler, almost like a dictator.
Although Alberti, Castiglione, and Machiavelli's views differ in a lot of ways, they were all working towards one main goal, to make people be better people in every aspect of their lives, and to make humankind a better educated bunch of people.
Cory