ABSTRACT
European humanism, especially in Western Europe, oscillated between an enthusiastic practice of the studia humanitatis and a philosophy of man based on an acute awareness of his dignity. Between 1480 and 1540, French humanism was characterised by two peculiar traits. The first was the existence of a greater degree of continuity between the two periods of European civilisation which are still referred to as the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The second was a critical and even hostile reaction to certain forms of art, thought, and style emanating from Italy which were sometimes seen as constituting an encroaching, and in some cases a paganising phenomenon. Reuchlin, the German Hebraist and humanist, gave a good summation of Lefvres eminent role in the development of French humanism: Marsilio Ficino, he wrote in his De arte cabalistica, gave Plato to Italy; Lefvre dEtaples has given Aristotle back to France.
