The Characteristics of Early Italian or Rhetorical Humanism

1) Preoccupation with the classics and classical culture

2) Invention and practice of philology

3) Achievement of true historical perspective

4) Promotion of the curricular ideal of the well-rounded person (l'uomo universale)

5) Promotion of the philosophy of the civil society & civic patriotism*

6) Disprespect for medieval scholasticism

7) Remained Christians, but they emphasized ethics rather than theology; religion as a matter of the heart rather than the intellect.

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* But this was a fleeting political view that would not be shared as the movement aged and spread.