The source that I found on this scavenger hunt is an article titled “Agricola as a Greek Scholar” by Ijsewijn. As a scholar, Agricola affected the development of logic with his work. Aside from the entirely distinct use of Latin, the most significant difference between Renaissance Humanism and Medieval Scholasticism is likely to be the new understanding of and a new approach to classical Greek literature. This paper will discuss the scholarly source on Agricola, patronage, and mechanical arts during the Renaissance period and the connection of the new source to information literacy.
Agricola’s most distinct contribution is his manual on rhetoric titled “De inventione dialectica,” which is a combination of genealogy and pedagogy. Between the early sixteenth century and the middle of the eighteenth century, Agricola’s “De Inventione Dialectica” was the higher education argumentation text that was specified, purchased, and used the most in schools and universities throughout Protestant Europe. When the curriculum’s stance on logic and dialectic changed and became irrelevant, the book was published. The renowned theologian Martin Dorp’s name appeared on the title page of the first printed version, which was produced in Louvain in 1515. This book remains relevant and helps understand how the Renaissance thinkers viewed the world and, particularly, how they approached knowledge acquisition.
The keywords selected for this research related to patronage art because they showcase the most prominent elements of arts and sciences of the Renaissance period. Agricola was a famous scholar whose book contributed to the development of knowledge. Patronage art and mechanic art were the two commonly used practices to learn and study arts, as best can be understood by studying Da Vinci’s bibliography in depth.
Evidently, the Renaissance period shows a link between arts and sciences, which is the most obvious in Da Vinci’s works. During that time, patronage art has been a routine practice, which is when a patron pays an artist to create a work of art. Many of his best works were created for patrons and combined an intricate scientific knowledge of the author with his excellent artistic skills. For example, he depicted the construction of the Renaissance era’s longest bridge in one of his sketches. A scaled-down version of Da Vinci’s drawing was reproduced by a modern civil engineer to test if it would have been feasible, and it was. This demonstrates that Da Vinci’s artwork wasn’t merely a collection of thoughtless sketches.
Da Vinci was an illegitimate son because his mother was a peasant, and his father was a respectable notary. He missed out on many opportunities since he was an illegitimate son, which might have been possible if his parents were married or if his mother had a different status. Andrea del Verrochio was one of their teachers to, Da Vinci. This was a typical procedure connected to the mechanical arts at the time.
Mechanical art is a medieval word that was adopted during the Renaissance. The mechanical arts can be seen as a form of handicraft that is taught through apprenticeship, much like the liberal arts. It is regarded as an outdated custom that is inappropriate for a man who has the leisure to engage in less strenuous activities. These interns would start to learn from a superior by observation and hands-on experience, as opposed to academic students, who would learn from a superior through a traditional method of learning.
This new source relates to “information literacy” because it helped me enhance my research skills and practice finding sources. For one, I learned about deriving important keywords from a text and using them to look for scholarly sources. Moreover, I was able to evaluate the sources of information and their authors. Finally, preparation for this paper has helped me to build on the knowledge from the lecture and its additional materials.
Bibliography
Decoding da Vinci. Produced by WGBH Boston. Boston: Public Broadcasting Service, 2019.
Ijsewijn, Joseph. “Agricola as a Greek scholar.” In Rodolphus Agricola Phrisius, 21-37. Brill: New York, 1988.
Long, Pamela O. “Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Baltimore.” In Openness and Authorship I Mining, Metallurgy, and the Military Arts, 175-209, Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, 2004.