Imagine that you’re a law student in France in the year 1320. At school you're studying logic, but you find the subject boring. Education should not be all about careers, like law, you think.
It should also inspire us with beautiful poetry, great stories, and the wisdom of philosophy. You like reading books from ancient Greece and Rome. They open your mind with history, politics, and ideas about how to live a good life. Unlike the books at church and school, they are not just about salvation. Your name is Petrarch, and you’re one of the first humanists.
Petrarch’s ideas were very different from those of most medieval thinkers. Let’s see how people’s thinking changed during the course of the Renaissance.
