It is important to note that although Italy had become independent, the Church still remained powerful and religion continued to be a governing factor. ... One of Petrarch's legacies was his belief that the recovery and study of the works of antiquity could restore virtue, culture, and social order. ... His imitation of Virgil's Aeneid shows the degree to which he relied on Classical literature as a source and guide. ... Literary historian Eugenio Donadoni states that Petrarch was "a precursor of the humanists of the fifteenth century for whom the literature of antiquity was a cul...

• Word Count: 2254
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

As a result, more and more literature was printed devoted to the subject of the nature of the individual, and to not conforming to the traditional ways that were followed during the middle ages. ... All this power was attained in only two years of studies. Grandgousier then rules that Gargantua would now study under the new schoolmaster Ponocrates. ... Under the tutalage of Ponocrates, the young giant "did not waste an hour of the day, but spent his entire time on literature and sound learning" (Cohen, p. 87). ... Rabelais notes, "And notice here that Gargantua's dinner was sober and ...

• Word Count: 2310
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

The Roman poet Virgil, who guides Dante through hell, acts as the symbol of reason and studies the varieties of human sin (Sayre 441). ... Alighieri opted to write Inferno as vernacular literature in order to address and apply its message of conflicting moralities to a wider audience, of and from medieval Italy, and to the world today. ... " The philosophy of Aristotle influenced Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, two of Dante's favorite Christian thinkers, whom, Raffa notes, "strove to validate the role of reason and to sharpen its relationship to faith....

• Word Count: 1365
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School