ABSTRACT
There is nothin g new about the idea of 'rebirth' , althoug h the wor d 'renaissance' was scarcely used unti l the early nineteenth century . Christianit y itself had popularise d the concept of rebirt h throug h the ritua l of baptism whic h created a 'born-again ' person wit h a new, Christia n name. Cicero had already used the wor d renovatio to describe the Stoic theory of the cyclical destruction of the worl d by fir e and its regeneration or rebirt h (De natura deorum II , 46, 118); and throughou t the Middl e Ages thi s wor d remained in use. So when Petrarch (1304-74) suggested the daw n of a new period i n the four - teenth century as men 'brok e throug h the darkness' to 'retur n to the pure , pristin e radiance' of antiquity , i t was not i n itself a novel idea. What was new was that thi s tim e it caught on and became the battlecry for a widespread reform movement.
