o speak well, but
to write well." Under him Dante became familiar with all of the great
Latin poets, with philosophy, history, and theology. Dante always spoke
of his teacher with great affection. Those were times of revolution and
political disturbance, and Dante was readily drawn into politics. This
caused his banishment and even endangered his life.

Dante's greatest work is the "Divine Comedy," which has made his name
immortal. His was the first great name in literature after the long dark
period of the Middle Ages. It is said of him that "he was not the
restorer of classic antiquity, but one of the great prophets of that
restoration." He brought the Italian language into use in literature and
gave to it a dignity that it has never lost. Dante prepared the way for
the humanistic movement and was therefore an important factor in this
great revival.

PETRARCH (1304-1374)

The father of Petrarch was an eminent jurist, and he desired his son to
adopt his profession, but Petrarch had neither taste nor capacity for
Roman law. He was determined to be a man of letters. Like Dante, he too
mixed in politics, and several important diplomatic positions were given
to him. Though he succeeded in learning a little Greek late in life,
Petrarch was not a Greek scholar. This did not hinder him from being a
warm advocate of the claims of the Greek language as an important
element of a liberal education. Although he possessed a manuscript of
Homer, "Homer was dumb to him, or rather he was deaf to Homer."

Petrarch was the real founder of humanism. Being enthusiastic for the
works of antiquity himself, he inspired the Italians with a remarkable
zeal in the pursuit of classic lore; nor was his influence confined to
the limits of his native country. He was the first to make a collection
of classic works, and to bring to light the literary treasures which the
monasteries had so carefully preserved for centuries. He inaugurated
that great movement which "restored freedom, self-consciousness, and the
faculty of progress to human intellect." He recognized that the most
wonderful thing in the world is the human mind, the emancipation of
which can be brought about only through its own activity. He was the
first to appreciate the importance of Greek in human culture. Unlike
Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine, he believed that classic authors,
together with the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Church
Fathers, produce the broadest inte