Renaissance Man
Part One: The Beginning

What I want to do here is have a look what it really takes to qualify as an RM. Let me start off with a disclaimer. I do not pretend to qualify (even close) to being an RM. Very few of the people I know well do, either.

Of course, the Editor of The Mediadrome qualifies as an RM, of the female persuasion (how would I get published, otherwise!). This might be the best place to say that for most of this article I shall use the word ‘man’ to indicate a human being, in the sense that Alexander Pope does:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.

It will become clear that our subject has nothing to do with sex, or race, or religion, or age!

In this first part, we will see how the concept arose, and the kind of ‘qualification list’ that emerged during the Renaissance; in the second part we will try to translate this into terms that might be appropriate today.

First, a definition. The word renaissance means rebirth, and ‘Renaissance’ in the sense we use it here refers to the rebirth of the classical cultures and philosophy as Europe emerged from the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the classical literature (for example) of the Greeks had been ignored or lost in Europe. This was in part because much of the academic studies as existed were in religious institutions such as the monasteries, and the early universities were also primarily concerned with studies which related to Christian theology. Fortunately, the Arab civilizations (this is a rather loose term as I use it here) had collected and preserved as much as they could get of the Greek classical works, and these started to flow from Byzantium into Europe by way of Florence and Rome in the late fourteenth century. This was some time later than the flow of mathematics and science from the Arabs into Europe had started; this can be dated to the middle of the twelfth century; an important figure in this was Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (1092 –1167), who was born in Spain when it was ruled by the Moors but who spent a significant part of his later live traveling in Europe. He was the Rabbi Ben Ezra named in Robert Browning’s poem.

At the same time as the reappearance of the Greek cultural archive, there was an increasing philosophical belief in the ability of human beings to use their intellects to solve their problems, without necessarily requiring divine intervention: this is called humanism. “The effect of humanism was to help men break free from the mental structures imposed by religious orthodoxy, to inspire free inquiry and criticism, and to inspire a new confidence in the possibilities of human thought and its creations.” (This from The Encyclopedia Britannica 2001 Standard Edition).

The Renaissance
The Renaissance can thus be regarded as the transitional period in Europe between medieval and modern times. While it began in the 14th century in Italy, its development continued and spread into the rest of Europe over a period extending into the 17th century, marked by a humanistic revival of classical influence expressed in a flowering of the arts and literature, and by the beginnings of modern science. In literature, medieval forms continued to dominate the artistic imagination throughout the 15th century. The 16th century saw a true renaissance of national literature.

Hurry! We burn
For Rome’s so near us, for the phoenix moment
When we have thrown off this traveller’s trance
And mother-naked and ageless-ancient
Wake in her warm nest of renaissance.
                     Flight to Italy, Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972)

The original of what we now call Renaissance man can be traced to an idea expressed by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) who said that “a man can do all things if he will.” This idea was also called Universal man, in Italian Uomo universale. Alberti was one of its most complete representatives, an accomplished architect, painter, classicist, poet, scientist, and mathematician, who also boasted of his skill as a horseman and in physical feats. Another perhaps better-known example, to us at least, was Leonardo da Vinci, whose gifts, according to the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature “were manifest in the fields of art, science, music, invention, and writing”. However, Jacques Barzun (1907- ), in From Dawn to Decadence (2001) disagrees strongly with this view of Leonardo. He points out that a key requirement is “the good letters” which means a pretty good understanding of Latin and Greek; Leonardo himself notes that he cared for neither. He never wrote poems or orations. He had little to say about philosophy and theology. He took no interest in history. Nor was he an architect or sculptor. Worst of all, Barzun said that he had no use for music – “contemptible” was a word he apparently used (or at least, the Italian equivalent!). However, I think that this must have been on a bad day – elsewhere da Vinci says that music is a true art, of a higher order than poetry, for example.

Music was a topic that did not seem to have a major importance during the Renaissance, so far as the contemporary discussions go, and as we will see later, the Courtier in a noble house apparently was not expected to be familiar with anything beyond songs, religious music, and what I suspect was fairly simple instrumental ensemble music. However, in fact the Renaissance represented the birth of the sort of orchestra with which we are now familiar. In The Pelican History of Music, edited by Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens, it is said that “If Richard Loqueville (d. 1418) who taught the young Dufay, could have returned to earth a century later, he would hardly have recognized a single familiar feature in the late works of Josquin des Prés (d. 1521).” “The practising musician … occupied quite an inferior rung on the social ladder …. and did not meet with the sort of respect which a writer like Aretino or an artist like Michelangelo could command.” … “The most important single innovation of the early Renaissance was undoubtedly the creation of choral polyphony. This was the essential prerequisite form from which all later developments stemmed.” … “Erasmus, for example, liked music well enough in the proper place: his friend Glareanus gives us a list of his favourite tunes. Yet it made him uneasy. … ‘What would Plato have said’, he wrote in a letter of 1526, ‘to the noisiness of modern music?’ ” (All of these quotations are from The Pelican History.) So perhaps Leonardo’s reported disdain for music as performed was not quite so surprising. I wonder what Erasmus would have thought of a modern heavy metal band?

We value Leonardo so highly because of his clear involvement with the principles of engineering, as evidenced by his notebooks. This should indeed have been regarded as an important component of the Renaissance, because we have good records of the capabilities of the classical Greeks in these areas, and the accomplishments of the Romans in Civil Engineering underpinned their empire to at least as great an extent as their military skills. One could also point to the skills of the Greeks in the associated branches of mathematics, particularly geometry, which enabled the engineering. However, one does not find much discussion in the usual histories of the Renaissance of matters relating to these aspects! However, although it is not extensively discussed, in fact many of the key figures in the Renaissance who are remembered for their artistic works were also distinguished architects; and this would have involved not simply the artistic design of the structures for which they were responsible, but also the engineering aspects of their realization.

The concept embodied a very basic tenet of Renaissance humanism, which considered humans “the center of the universe, limitless in their capacities for development, and led to the notion that all knowledge should be embraced and natural capacities developed as fully as possible”. (This quote is also from the Encyclopedia of Literature).

However, I think (just for balance) one should consider this: Orson Welles (1915-1985) (no mean contender for consideration as an RM himself) wrote into The Third Man (1949), (otherwise written by Graham Greene and Carol Reed) the following speech:

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did they produce? The cuckoo-clock.”

Job Description for a Renaissance Man
Now, this is leading us to the requirements expected for someone to be thought of as a Renaissance Man in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some aspects are obvious: because so much depended on the reading of the classical texts, a good knowledge of classical Latin and Greek were essential; one would also expect that the RM would have read many of the classical philosophers and poets in the original. But how relevant is this to the 21st century aspirant to this title?

Not very, really. The reasons for a good knowledge of the classical languages have largely disappeared, because of the work done in the earlier period. The rediscovery of the classical culture that had been lost during the Dark Ages is essentially complete, and in the intervening period the cultures of Asia and even those of Central and Southern America are part of our readily accessible knowledge in our own language, whatever that may be. The other argument for a good knowledge of other languages is that it helps to understand how patterns of thought may be related to the language in which they are expressed, and that is perhaps even more true now than in Alberti’s time. The range of specialist knowledge required in one’s own area is enormously greater than it was then, and the rate at which it is expanding – and changing! – is far greater. Later, we will try to produce a modern Alberti prescription, more as a basis for debate than as an absolute.

However, let us first consider an interesting guide book for the would-be candidate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The Courtier
The guide book for what you are supposed to be able to do is The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano) by Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529). This was written over the period 1513-1518, although not published until 1528. It was translated into many languages; the English translation by Sir Thomas Hoby (1530-1566), The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio (1561), was one of the most influential prose works of the day.

Actually, the courtier is not really a RM, in the sense that (say) Alberti was. His primary function was as a warrior, and it was expected that he would have a high level of professional skills in that area. However, the courtier, as a member of a nobleman’s entourage, was expected to have a variety of social skills, and the interesting nature of the book is the discussion of these. The version of it that I refer to here is the translation by Charles. S. Singleton, and was published in 1959.

Castigliano was educated in Milan, and eventually entered the service of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino (1472-1508), in 1507; he continued in the service of Duke Guido’s successor, Francesco Maria della Rovere (1490-1538), until 1513.

The book describes discussions held in the rooms of the Duchess, Elizabetta Gonzaga (1471-1526), where it was the habit of the court to retire after dinner. Duke Guido was at that time in poor health, and went to bed immediately after dinner.

It was the custom for someone to choose an activity for the evening. The discussions reported in the book followed a visit of Pope Julius II, who was returning from bringing Bologna under the rule of the Apostolic See in 1506. After the Pope left, a number of his entourage stayed on, and signora Emilia Pia was asked by the Duchess to begin the games. After a number of exchanges between the participants, messer (this is a title like the French ‘Monsieur’ although the title ‘Signor’ is also used for other people: I am not clear on the exact difference between these terms – perhaps someone will tell me) Federico Fregoso was asked to suggest a game. He noted that “In all Italy it would perhaps be hard to find an equal number of cavaliers as outstanding and as excellent in different things, quite beyond their principal profession of chivalry as are found here………..I would have our game this evening be this, that one of this company be chosen and given the task of forming in words a perfect Courtier…….and that everyone be allowed to speak out against those things which seem not right………….”.

The discussions thus started continued for four nights, and the book is presented as a verbatim transcript of the various discussions. These days, we would find it difficult to believe that someone would be capable of reporting a long and detailed series of discussions of this sort, but it is worth remembering that prior to the development of audio recording this skill was not uncommon.

In his presentation of the book to the Bishop of Viseu, Castiglione notes comments made by other readers: “Others say since it is so difficult, and well-nigh impossible, to find a man as perfect as I wish the Courtier to be, it was wasted effort to write of him, because it is useless to try to teach what cannot be learned.” However, Castiglione invokes the ancients, and specifically Plato, comparing the concept of the ideal Courtier with that of the ideal Republic. It is not explicitly discussed in our introduction above, but in addition to the importation of Greek literature, the Greek philosophers were also studied, and humanism itself was a philosophical school; it is interesting therefore that he adduces not only a classical source, but also a philosopher!

Now, as I wrote before, it has to be remembered that the Courtier was first and foremost a private soldier, and it was expected that he would be skilled in a wide range of appropriate skills – fencing, jousting, and so forth. Count Ludovico says: “I judge it his first duty to know how to handle every kind of weapon, both on foot and on horse, and know the advantages of each kind; and be especially acquainted with those arms that are ordinarily used among gentlemen, because, apart from using them in war there often arise differences between one gentleman and another, resulting in duels, and quite often those weapons are used which happen to be at hand.” He goes on to argue for a high level of skill in exercises related to these military skills in times of peace used in public spectacles, suggesting that the perfect Courtier should aim to be just a little better at everything than anyone else.

Other skills, not necessarily directly war related, but often using some related abilities were advocated: hunting, wrestling, swimming, jumping, running, and throwing stones. “Another noble exercise and most suitable for a man at court is the game of tennis which shows off the disposition of body, the quickness and litheness of every member, and all the qualities that are brought out by almost every other exercise.” However, it was also thought desirable to show ability in more peaceful exercises: “…let him laugh, jest, banter, frolic and dance, yet in such a manner as to show always that he is genial and discreet; and let him be full of grace in all that he does or says.”

The discussion moved on to the spoken language and the written language, and this is certainly relevant to today’s concerns. On one side, the argument was for speaking the language in general use, and avoiding the use of ‘antique’ words that had fallen out of use, or words from another language brought back from foreign travels. However, it was pointed out that there were different dialects in every city in Italy, all of which by this argument had equal validity. A more specific point was made about the written language: one group thought the written language should be the same as the spoken, but others argued that the ideal models of the past should be used as guides: the models adduced were Petrarch and Boccaccio (1313-1375). This would be something like us drawing our models for writing from Charles Dickens – not a bad thing, but by and large not what we would all regard as the right way to go.

I have mentioned above the somewhat ambivalent attitude to music in the Renaissance. In The Courtier, there is an initial discussion of the virtue of having the Courtier be a musician, led by Count Ludovico da Canossa (1476 – 1532). Signor Gasparo Pallavicino (1486 – 1511) remarked: “I think that music, along with many other vanities, is indeed well suited to women, and perhaps also to others who have the appearance of men, but not real men; for the latter ought not to render their minds effeminate and afraid of death.” This caused the Count to launch into what can only be called a diatribe on how mistaken this view is, remarking that he had heard that “… both Plato and Aristotle wish a man who is well constituted to be a musician ….. Have you not read that music was among the first disciplines that the worthy old Chiron taught the boy Achilles, whom he raised from the age of nurse and cradle; and that such a wise preceptor wished the hands that were to shed so much Trojan blood to busy themselves often at playing the cithara?” The cithara or kithara was one of the two forms of ancient Greek lyres. It is thought to be the same as the instrument that Homer refers to as the phorminx.

Nevertheless, the seeds that were planted by Dufay and those who came later have grown into the modern art of music in all its sophistication, and there is no doubt now that an RM would have to be capable of a good awareness of music in its various manifestations. Notice here that ‘awareness of’ does not mean necessarily ‘liking for’ any more than the kind of familiarity we have been arguing for in these pages for the understanding of the different forms of poetry means that you have to like all of it!

The overall discussion in The Courtier is really interesting, and I recommend it to all of you who are interested in this topic, but I have decided not to go into any more detail here.

Hoby, in his translation, presents a long list of the items identified during the discussions. I have extracted some of these items, modernizing and editing the language a little; and these are listed below. The order in which Hoby lists them is not entirely logical, but I have retained it!

I have eliminated the items that refer to the Courtier’s skills as a soldier (in the main), and to those that refer to his manners as a servant within the court. The remaining items below are intended to give an idea of the skill set expected of the educated, cultured, and well-rounded person at the time.

Hoby’s list:

• Whatever he does, to have it seem as though it is natural and easy to him.
• To speak well with a good vocabulary.
• To be wise and well versed in current affairs.
• To be able to accommodate himself to the manners of whatever community or country that he is in.
• To be able to discuss issues, able to propose reasonable explanations for things.
• To have some ability in foreign languages, and especially in Italian, French, and Spanish (note here that English was not on the list!).
• To be able to manage issues towards a favorable outcome.
• To play games such as dice or cards for pleasure, not just to make money; and not to complain at his bad luck if he loses.
• To be able to play a reasonable game of chess, without being too fancy!
• To be capable of interacting well in company.
• To speak and write the language that is most in use among the ordinary people, without inventing new words, using fancy specialist terms (‘jargon’), or strange phrases, or using old-fashioned words and phrases that are no longer in common use.
• To be an honest man, and of an upright conscience.
• To have the virtues of the mind, as justice, manliness, wisdom, temperance, noble courage, etc.
• To be more than adequately competent in classical learning, and particularly in Latin and Greek.
• Not to be rash, nor pretend to know things that he doesn’t.
• To confess his ignorance in those qualities that he knows himself to have no skill in.
• To have to be persuaded to show his feats and qualities at the desire and request of others, and not rashly show off himself.
• To have an ability in drawing and painting.
• To dance well, without over-nimble steps or fancy tricks.
• To sing well from a song-book.
• To play a guitar, and sing a song along with it.
• To play the violin, and other stringed instruments.
• To delight and refresh the listeners’ minds in being pleasant, and a merry talker, appropriate to the time and place.
• To be nimble and quick at playing tennis.
• To be a good horseman for every saddle.
• To swim well.
• To run well.
• Not to serve a wicked person.
• To consider well what it is that he does or says, in relation to those people who are present.
• The final end of a Courtier, where to all his good conditions and honest qualities tend, is to become an Instructor and Teacher of his Prince or Lord, inclining him to virtuous practices: and to be frank and free with him, always putting him in mind to follow virtue and to flee vice, and to shut his ears against flatterers.

So there we are. The concept of the Renaissance Man has been described, and although the idea of a ‘job specification’ is perhaps a little inappropriate, we have available to us a list of the sort of qualities that might be expected.

In the second part, we will try to see how this might be translated into modern terms, and we will have a brief look at candidates who might indeed qualify as models for a twenty-first century Renaissance Person!

Coming Soon: Part Two - Are You A 21st Century Renaissance Person?