Italy lay where an ancient society had prospered and triumphed, and thus, Italians looked to Ancient Rome for answers of how to improve their own society. Italy was full of ancient monuments and documents and thus Italians had easy access to the past. The Latin language of Ancient Rome was also easily learned by Italians, which gave them a unified tool to open the past. So, it was the special circumstances of Italy that provided the Italian people with their great enthusiasm to learn and understand the ancients and their way of life.

With their new knowledge of the past, a ne

Although Italy was undoubtedly the spearhead of this 'revival of antiquity,' and the New Learning that followed, it did catch on throughout Europe. Germany, who had political ties with Italy, caught on rather quickly, and developed their own Renaissance and their own humanists. In Germany, however, humanists were concerned with antiquity for a different reason than their Italian counterparts. Germans were more concerned with finding a way to reform the Church to become more moral and ethical. The German-speaking areas of Europe did not have the same special circumstances that Italy had, and therefore, the Renaissance they experienced focused more on the Church and ecclesiastical studies. This bred much religious discontent and social disorder.

As mentioned earlier, the humanists played a vital role in the 'revival of antiquity'. Many people participated, but a few stand out above the rest, as their contributions to the knowledge of ancient literature, ideas and history, were great.

Lorenzo Valla (1407-57), too was a strong contributor to the Italian humanist movement. Valla took a very critical approach to the classics, in order to understand them better. He used this critical approach to examine some Church documents as well, and along with proving some of them falsities, he also was very unimpressed with the style in which they were written. Therefore, with his Elegancies of the Latin Tongue (1444), he attempted to improve the Church's level of Latin translation and style. This eventually became the model for critical method across Italy.

One man who stands out is Francesco Petrarca (1304-74), who has been termed by many as the father of humanism. Petrarca found in the Latin classics, valuable lessons about life, literature and scholarship. He also believed the classics offered lessons on morality and virtue that could lead people to be good. Petrarca w

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1264
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)