In Europe during the Renaissance period Italy was looked as a cultural reference and inspiration. Italians had transformed man's ideas on the universe and of the place they played in it: they started a revolution that will transform Europe in the following centuries.
Young men were sent to Italy to learn how to became perfect gentlemen and I like to quote how
Young men were sent to Italy to learn how to became perfect gentlemen and I like to quote how
Symond described a gentlemen:
"Meant to be a man acquainted with the rudiments at least of scholarship, refined in diction, capable of corresponding or of speaking in choice phrases, open to the beauty of the arts, intelligently interested in archeology, taking for his models of conduct the great men of antiquity rather than the saints of the Church. He also expected to prove himself adept in physical exercises and in the courteous observances which survived from chivalry. To this point the awakened intelligence of the Renaissance, instructed by humanism, polished by the fine arts, expanding in genial conditions of diffused wealth, had brought the Italians at a period when the rest of Europe was comparatively barbarous.”
"Meant to be a man acquainted with the rudiments at least of scholarship, refined in diction, capable of corresponding or of speaking in choice phrases, open to the beauty of the arts, intelligently interested in archeology, taking for his models of conduct the great men of antiquity rather than the saints of the Church. He also expected to prove himself adept in physical exercises and in the courteous observances which survived from chivalry. To this point the awakened intelligence of the Renaissance, instructed by humanism, polished by the fine arts, expanding in genial conditions of diffused wealth, had brought the Italians at a period when the rest of Europe was comparatively barbarous.”
