Recently in class, we received our packets for our Revolutions Unit. As an introduction, we read part of Leon Batista Alberti’s biography. Leon Batista Alberti lived during the 1400s and is considered to have been a “Renaissance man.” A “Renaissance man” is someone who has interest and knowledge regarding many different subjects.

Something that I noticed was how the first page of the reading was mainly about Alberti’s skills and areas in which he excelled. He mentioned horseback riding, archery, mathematics, physics, canon and civil law and much more. Later he transitioned into stories that show many positive character traits such as dedication, loyalty, and self-control. The word choice is also different from many books and literature I have previously read. Usually when a person is being complimented, the person gets time to shine, but it is not in a way that might come across as bragging. Alberti’s autobiography, however, has some sort of a compliment about himself in almost every sentence. Maybe society was different during the Renaissance, and it was acceptable for someone to show such little humility. As a class, we thought it was definitely coming across as boastful, but I think the writer and receiver of such compliments plays a large role in how we perceive the writer of the compliments.

In the instance of Alberti’s autobiography, the compliments are written by him and directed towards him. This is likely why it comes across as egotistical and braggadocious. If he were writing these same exact things about someone else, would we still think of him in the same way? I tend to think we would not. People who compliment others are commonly seen as kind and uplifting rather than thinking highly of themselves. Even if Alberti wrote these same compliments about a group of people that included himself, the positive remarks would not be so concentrated solely on him. This could give the tone of the writing more of a “group effort” feeling and still not lead readers to infer that the author is self-centered and arrogant.

Alberti’s writing also led me to think about the differences between how people were during the Renaissance and how people are today involving professions and areas of study. Based on the term “Renaissance man” and the contents of Alberti’s autobiography, people living during the Renaissance had a goal of becoming a master of almost everything. Now, people may have hobbies and interests on the side, but they commonly hone in on one specific area of expertise and/or skill set for a given profession. People still change careers, but to me it does not seem like people are trying to be an expert in everything all at once like it appears to have been during the Renaissance.

Another point that was mentioned during class was that people did not think of themselves as living during the Renaissance. That is only a term people have given to the time period after it ended. I decided to look up the time period of the Renaissance and word history of the Renaissance. I found that the Renaissance time period refers to the 14th century to the 17th century, but the word Renaissance did not start to be used until 1837. This goes to show the separation of when the Renaissance ended and when people started to call it as such.