Renaissance humanism and the recovery of classical texts

Humanism was an intellectual movement centered on the close philological study of classical Greco-Roman texts and on the dignity and capacities of the human being. Francesco Petrarch is considered its founder, through works such as "Africa," his epic poem on Scipio Africanus, and his letter collection "Rerum familiarium libri." Giovanni Boccaccio, author of the "Decameron" (1349-1353), worked alongside Petrarch in recovering Greek and Latin manuscripts, and Coluccio Salutati collected classical texts of his own while defending the compatibility of pagan learning with Christian faith.