The court of Charles IV (1346-78, crowned emperor 1355) of the house of Luxembourg in Prague was the first to show signs of the Renaissance, even if only briefly and limited to this area of the empire. The Italian humanists Francesco Petrarca and Cola di Rienzo both resided there temporarily. The humanism of the Renaissance actually began to take hold in Germany from the middle of the fifteenth century. The invention of letterpress printing contributed to this, as did the humanists’ dominance in Italy and their contacts with German scholars, and the passing of the title of emperor from the Luxembourg to the Habsburg dynasty (1438). The fall of Constantinople to the Turks (1453) and the subsequent expulsion of Greek scholars brought a deeper understanding of Greek to western Europe, which up to then had been influenced mostly by Latin. The Renaissance was marked by a number of important changes: from a culture of courts and knights to that of an urban citizenry, from the emperor’s and pope’s claims to universal rule to the emergence of the nation state, of geographically based rule, and of different confessions. During the Middle Ages the classical inheritance provided the basis for culture, insofar as it could be reconciled with Christianity. The ‘‘rebirth’’ of antiquity, however, brought a very different, new approach, as illustrated by the increasingly secular nature of people’s lives, the exploration of the globe and of humanity, and the regard for the individual, nature, and the nation. A new, historical perspective on antiquity also emerged, as did the emulation of classical Latin, the development of anticlerical tendencies, and the emergence of modern national literatures in their different vernaculars.
Even though the claim to resurrect the Roman Empire had failed with the disintegration of the rule of the Hohenstaufen, it was renewed by the Habsburg emperor Charles V (1519-56, crowned emperor 1530). Only thereafter did the term imperium Romanum lose its claim to universality and come to designate one empire among many, in which sense it continued to be used as a formal title until 1806.
Philosophy and natural sciences, legal and state theory, the arts and especially literature, concomitant with philology and pedagogy, all now reached back to classical thought. Philosophers left behind the now-mechanistic Aristotelian approach of scholasticism and gave increasing importance to Plato and Neoplatonism.
Even before the main period of German humanism, Nikolaus von Kues (Nicolaus Cusanus, 1401-64) spent many years in Italy where he discovered, among other manuscripts, 12 comedies by Plautus. He strove for a synthesis of scholasticism, mysticism, antiquity, and modern natural sciences. The crucial mediator, however, between Italian and German humanism was Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1458-64, Pope Pius II), who lived in Germany for 21 years altogether, including 10 in Vienna, which became a cultural center under Frederick III (1440-93, crowned emperor 1452). These towns and universities in southern and western Germany were also centers of humanism: Basle, Strasbourg, Schlettstadt, Heidelberg, Tubingen, Augsburg, Ingol-stadt, and Cologne; in the sixteenth century they were joined by Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Leipzig in central Germany.
While early German humanism (up to around 1485) owed much to Italian influence, it soon developed its own national confidence as well. It focused mostly on absorbing what was already available, through collections of models and translations, but began to innovate in lyric poetry, historiography, and rhetoric. Its most significant literary contributors were Albrecht von Eyb (1420-75), Peter Luder (ca. 1410 - after 1474), Heinrich Steinhowel (1412-82), and Rudolf Agricola (1444-85). Albrecht von Eyb composed a number of writings about the city of Bamberg, edited the anthology Margarita poetica (a rhetorical textbook and compendium of classical and humanist quotations and maxims), and translated two of Plautus’ comedies. Peter Luder, the first representative of German humanism at a university, was famous for his 1456 inaugural lecture at Heidelberg and for his Elegia Petri Luderi poetae clarissimi ad Panphilam amicam suam singularem (Elegy of the most famous poet Peter Luder to his most particular [girl-]friend Panphila), which contains many reminiscences of Vergil and other Roman authors. In it Luder shows a considerable poetic self-confidence, introducing the elegiac genre and meter to Germany. The main work of Heinrich Steinhowel is the Esopus, an edition, translation, and commentary of a range of classical, medieval, and humanist fables and stories, which is marked by a distinctly secular perspective. Rudolf Agricola was the first German humanist to win international acclaim with his voluminous and wide-ranging works. His speech in praise of philosophy and the other sciences given at the inception of the academic year at the University of Ferrara in 1476 stands out, displaying an optimistic view of life.
The time between 1485 and 1520 can be described as the high point of humanism in Germany. In addition to the editing and translating of texts, new works were increasingly being created, from plays, a number of lyrical genres, letters, and treatises to a range of satirical and humorous writings. The first significant German poet composing in Latin and the greatest lyrical talent of German humanism was Conrad Celtis (1459-1508). From 1497 he was active in Vienna, which continued to be a cultural center under Maximilian I (1493-1519, crowned emperor 1508). His programmatic ode Ad Apollinem (To Apollo) proclaims the Muses to be at home in Germany forthwith, while his inaugural lecture of 1492 at Ingolstadt asks his audience to strive for fame, virtue, and true immortality following the examples of classical philosophers, poets, and orators. Celtis wrote plays (such as Ludus Dianae [Play of Diana]), elegies (the Quattuor libri amorum secundum quattuor latera Germaniae [Four books of loves according to the four sides of Germany], his greatest work), odes, and epigrams. Sebastian Brant (1457-1521) employed in his Narrenschiff (Ship of fools) countless classical examples; particularly impressive are Odysseus and Heracles. Jacob Locher (1471-1528) translated this work into Latin and wrote poems, speeches, and plays (such as the Iudicium Paridis depomo aureo, or Paris awarding the golden apple). The motif of a contest (judgment of Paris and Heracles at the crossroads) was one of the most popular in the literature and paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first German rendition of Vergil’s Aeneid by Thomas Murner (1475-1537) was a significant achievement. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) received recognition as the undisputed leader of German humanism; the most important among his many and varied writings are the Adagia (a collection of Latin sayings, maxims, parables, examples, and metaphors with a commentary and index), the witty Morias encomion seu laus stultitiae (Praise of folly), and his critical edition of the New Testament.
During the height of humanism, German sculpture, design, and painting developed with particular confidence, taking classical subjects and forms as their guideline and focusing on the secular world. The newly discovered physical nature and beauty of the human form stood at the center of German Renaissance art. Albrecht Dtirer (1471-1528) was the artist whose theory and practice were most strongly influenced by antiquity. The Isenheimer Altar by Mathis Gothart-Nithart (Grunewald, ca. 1460-1528) also deserves to be mentioned.
The polemical and anticlerical phase of German humanism began around 1510. It culminated in the Hebrew controversy between Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) and the converted Jew Johannes Pfefferkorn of Cologne (1469-1521), who called for all Jewish writings to be burned. All major German humanists supported Reuchlin. The satire Epistolae obscurorum virorum (Letters of obscure men), published in 1515 and 1517, attacked scholasticism and its nonclassical Latin as well as the feigned spirituality of the clergy. The main author of the second part of the ‘‘Dark Men’s Letters’’ was Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523), who shortly afterwards started to write in German instead of Latin. His letter of October 25, 1518, to the Nuremberg patrician Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530), one of the most brilliant figures of the humanism of the Renaissance in Germany, includes these words: O saeculum! O litterae! Iuvat vivere (O times! O literature! It is pleasant to be alive). The circle of humanists in Erfurt around Konrad Mutianus Rufus (1471-1526) also gained recognition; it included Crotus Rubeanus (1480-1539), another author of the ‘‘Dark Men’s Letters,’’ Helius Eobanus Hessus (1488-1540), who was noted for his eclogues, heroides, and elegies, and the epigrammatist Euricius Cordus (1486-1535).
From about 1520 German humanism was more or less marked by the Reformation and mirrored the changes and differentiated developments that accompanied it. Even though the Reformation had been prepared for, to an extent, by humanism, and even though Martin Luther (1483-1546) as well as Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) and Johann Calvin (1509-64) had been influenced by it, the studia humanitatis (liberal arts) became the medium and foundation that led to the studia sacrarum litterarum (religious studies). Luther showed concern for ensuring that the Greek and Latin languages, and comedy after the model of Terence, were taught, as well as famously translating the Bible into German. He himself translated 13 of Aesop’s fables in such a way as to emphasize their moral, didactic nature, in contrast to Steinhowel. His friend and fellow reformer Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) wrote textbooks on rhetoric, grammar, and dialectics, as well as publishing editions, commentaries, and his own poetry. Aspraeceptor Germaniae (Germany’s teacher), he founded the new, Protestant range of schools and universities. This period saw the creation of a literature of debate and controversy, often satirical, employing classical elements (e. g., from Aristophanes, Lucian, and the rhetorical tradition). Latin, then German, educational drama developed, as did numerous lyrical writings, now taking the form in particular of learned poetry by scholars and priests, which significantly limited the scope of subject matter covered by humanist poetry. Philology continued to flourish, and a number of translations were published, foremost among them being the rendition of the Odyssey by Simon Schaidenreisser (ca. 1500-72). Animal fables and epic were especially valued. Even passion plays and the songs of Meistersdnger (master-singers) featured classical motifs (Hans Sachs [1494-1576]).
Biblical, classical, and civic-urban elements combined in the visual arts (Lucas Cranach the Elder [1472-1553], Hans Holbein the Younger [1497/8-1543]). Classical elements were used as features in secular buildings such as town halls (e. g., Gorlitz) and palaces (Dresden, Heidelberg), and in Saxony the first Protestant palace chapels were designed (Torgau, Augustusburg).
The humanism of the post-Reformation in particular witnessed major scientific and technological achievements. Georgius Agricola (1491-1555), a geologist and mineralogist, founded the modern science of coal and iron mining utilizing the works of Hippocrates, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, and other classical authors. Influenced by the scientific approach of Hippocrates and Galen, the doctor, chemist, and philosopher Paracelsus (1493-1541) breathed new life into medicine. The mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) took inspiration from the Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristarchus of Samos, and Proclus, and developed his heliocentric view of the universe as a continuation of and improvement on Ptolemy and in critical dialogue with Aristotle’s physics. Even the cosmology of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was still rooted in Renaissance Platonism and in its classical sources, which influenced both the mathematical understanding of the universe and the concept of a universal harmony.
World History
