Renaissance man: a universal individual

The man of the Renaissance, or "polymat" (universal man) - is a comprehensively developed personality, which has a lot of knowledge and is an expert in several scientific disciplines.

Definition pretty much appearedthanks to outstanding artists, great thinkers and scholars of the era of the European Renaissance (starting around 1450). Michelangelo Buonarroti, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, Miguel Servet, Leon Battista Alberti, Isaac Newton - these are the most important names of people who were researchers in several fields of science and art. But perhaps the brightest representative, the true man of the Renaissance, is Leonardo da Vinci. He was an artist, engineer, anatomist, was interested in many other disciplines and achieved great success in his studies.

The term "polymate" precedes the Renaissance,it comes from the Greek word “polymathes”, which can be translated as “owning a lot of knowledge” - an idea that was extremely important for Plato and Aristotle, the great thinkers of the Ancient World.

Leon Battista Alberti said:"People can do anything if they want." This idea embodied the basic principles of the humanism of the Renaissance, which determined that the individual is limitless in his abilities and development. Of course, the concept of “Renaissance man” should be referred only to gifted individuals who tried to develop their skills in all areas of knowledge, in the arts, in physical development, unlike other people who lived in that era, mostly representing a poorly educated society.

Many educated people aspired to the position of "universal man."

They were constantly engaged in self-improvement,development of the opportunities they received, the study of foreign languages, conducted research, could understand and explain philosophical problems, appreciated art, played sports (improved their body). At an early stage, when the concept was generally defined, educated people had access to many knowledge - the works of Greek thinkers and philosophers (many works were lost in subsequent centuries). In addition, the man of the Renaissance was the successor of knightly traditions. Knights of the early Middle Ages, as you know, were literate people, versed in poetry and the arts, had good manners, had personal independence (excluding duties to the feudal ruler). And the human right to freedom is the main theme of true humanism of the Renaissance.

To a certain extent, humanism was notphilosophy and research method. Humanists believed that a person in the Renaissance should come to the end of his life with a beautiful mind and a magnificent body. All this could be achieved by constantly learning and improving. The main goal of humanism was to create a universal person who would unite in himself intellectual and physical superiority.

Re-discovery of ancient texts and inventiontypography democratized learning and allowed ideas to spread faster. In the period of the early Renaissance, the humanities received a special development. At the same time, the works of Nikolai Kuzansky (1450), which preceded the heliocentric worldview of Copernicus, laid the foundations of the natural sciences to a certain degree. Still, the science of the Renaissance and the arts (as disciplines) were very mixed at the beginning of the era. A vivid example of this is the great genius Leonardo da Vinci, who is an outstanding painter, he is also called the father of modern science.