HUMANISM is a philosophical and ethical idea emphasising the value of humans individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence over acceptance of dogma or superstition. It is a comprehensive world view which embraces human reason, metaphysical naturalism, altruistic morality and distributive justice, and consciously rejects supernatural claims, blind faith based on any premise, including that of religious tenets, pseudoscience and superstition.

There is a more recent movement or extension called ‘transhumanism’ that upholds the right of people to shape their own evolution by maximising the use of scientific technologies to enhance human physical and intellectual potential. While the name is new, the idea has long been a popular theme of science fiction, featured in such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, the Terminator series, and more recently, The Matrix, Limitless and Transcendence. However, as its adherents hint at in their own publications, transhumanism is rooted in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and derived from the Kabala, which asserts that humanity is evolving intellectually, towards a point in time when man will become God. Modelled on the medieval legend of the Golem and Frankenstein, transhumanists believe that humans will one day be able to create life itself, in the form of living machines, or artificial intelligence.

Some Rosicrucians maintain that the great Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was one of them. This cannot have been since the modern Rosicrucian movement appeared in the early 17th Century, nearly 100 years after Leonardo passed through transition. So, if he was not a Rosicrucian was he a mystic or a humanist? Here, I will examine this question. Mysticism has been defined as an experience of union with nothingness or the Void, as a kind of altered state of consciousness which is attributed in a spiritual way as enlightenment or profound insight, and as a way of transformation.

First European Humanists

Some of the first humanists were Italian and great collectors of old manuscripts, including Petrarch (1304–1374), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406), and Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459). Of the four, Petrarch was dubbed the “Father of Humanism” because of his devotion to Greek and Roman scrolls. Many worked for the Catholic Church and were in holy orders, like Petrarch, while others were lawyers and chancellors of Italian cities, and thus had access to book-copying workshops, such as Petrarch’s disciple Salutati, the Chancellor of Florence.

In Italy, the humanist educational programme won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th Century, many of the upper classes had received humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditional ones. Some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion (1403–1472), a convert to the Catholic Church from Greek Orthodoxy, who was considered for the papacy, and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There were several 15th and early 16th Century humanist Popes one of whom, Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, i.e. Pope Pius II (1405–1464), was a prolific author. These subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement which they inspired became known as humanism.

The waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the Crusader sacking of Constantinople in 1204 and the end of the Byzantine (Roman) Empire in 1453 and who migrated to Italy greatly assisted the revival of Greek and Roman literature and science via their greater familiarity with ancient languages and works. They included George Gemistos Plethon (1355–1452/54), George of Trebizond (1395–1472/73), Theodoros Gazes (1398– c.1475), and John Argyropoulos (1415–1487). All can be considered humanists who joined their minds with the greater humanist movement.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance was a transformational period in European history from roughly the 14th to the 17th Centuries. It was a cultural movement that began in Italy and eventually spread throughout Europe and transformed nearly all facets of European culture and society. It saw a resurgence of classical texts, and the development of new scientific techniques and novel and innovative styles of art. Leonardo da Vinci (1450–1519) is perhaps the most famous figure of the Renaissance. His life and work reflected the popular humanist ideals that shaped the Renaissance era. In many ways, Leonardo reflects the fundamental components of the Renaissance, as his interests spanned the fields of art, architecture, music, science, mathematics, anatomy, geology and botany.

By the 16th Century, the Renaissance had spread throughout Europe, impacting the course of literature, science, philosophy, religion, politics, and art. However, the Renaissance initially started in Italy with figures such as Leonardo and Michelangelo, who studied and dabbled in an extraordinary number of intellectual and artistic branches. Many consider Leonardo to be the epitome of the ‘Renaissance man’, a polymath, someone whose intellectual achievements and interests span a wide variety of fields in art, science and literature. Along with Leonardo other Renaissance figures such as Michelangelo (1475–1564), Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), and Mikołaj Kopernik (Copernicus 1473–1543) are considered to embody the qualities and characteristics of a classic Renaissance man. Many of these men, including Leonardo, are also considered humanists, humanism having emerged as a significant intellectual movement during the Renaissance.

Humanism developed as a reaction to the rigid and narrow teachings of medieval Scholasticism, which promoted the education of a small portion of the population in preparation for becoming doctors, lawyers, or theologians. The humanist movement emerged as an alternative path of education and civic engagement. It emphasised the benefits of creating a citizenry equipped with the ability to converse intelligently and participate in civic life toward the betterment of humankind. Humanists believed that the path to this could be found through study of the humanities: rhetoric, grammar, poetry, history and moral philosophy. Humanist education was also deeply grounded in the restoration of classical texts, to be used as guides to moral philosophy.

Leonardo

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

-- Leonardo da Vinci --

Ludovico Sforza also known as Ludovico il Moro (1452–1508), was Duke of Milan from 1494 until 1499. He was famous as a patron of Leonardo and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. He is probably best known as the man who commissioned Leonardo’s painting ‘The Last Supper.’ There are said to be various mystical aspects to this painting: you can see how Leonardo grouped the disciples in four groups of three suggesting the four seasons. Jesus, representing the Sun in the middle of the 12 zodiac signs.

The image is impossible to forget once you’ve seen it. Leonardo’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ (c. 1487) – the bold, outstretched human figure, arms and legs flung wide to the boundaries of a circle and a square; symbol of man in the universe, man as the universe. It is one of the most famous drawings in history. It epitomises the grandeur of art, the power of geometry, the ideals of the Renaissance, the beauty of the human body and the creative potential of the human mind. This drawing, more than any other, reflects his intersecting interests in art and science. It also demonstrates the impact of humanism on his work. Vitruvian Man depicts the image of a man superimposed in two positions.

In addition to the visual representation, Leonardo included detailed notes based on the writings of the ancient classical architect Vitruvius. Vitruvius viewed the human body as the primary source of proportion in the classical style of architecture. Leonardo paid homage to Vitruvius in his illustration of the relationship between ideal human proportions and geometry. The drawing combined Leonardo’s study of art, science, anatomy and geometry with his veneration for the writings of antiquity. In addition to his great work as an artist, Leonardo, drawing his inspiration from the natural world, attempted to create works of science and engineering.

His methods involved an emphasis on observation and detail, as opposed to theory, which was the traditional approach to science during this period. He produced a large number of studies and depictions of plants and animals. He sought to portray the intricacies of horses, the movement of water, and the complexities of the human body. He drafted rudimentary sketches and designs of a wide range of machines, from helicopters to tanks. Leonardo also dabbled in the examination of human anatomy, and at times would obtain corpses from local hospitals and partake in dissection toward the furthering of art and science. Because of this, the church declared Leonardo to be anti-Christian and denounced his work.

Walter Pater, in his book Studies in the History of the Renaissance wrote:

Nature was the true mistress of higher intelligences, so he plunged into the study of nature. He brooded over the hidden virtues of plants and crystals, the lines traced by the stars as they moved across the sky. He also studied the correspondences which exist between the different orders of living things, through which, to eyes opened, they interpret each other; and for years he seemed to those about him as one listening to a voice silent for other men.

Leonardo was said to have been an initiate of the mystery traditions and his adherence to the methods of humanism and his fervent inquiry into a vast array of studies, from science, to literature and art, represent the major transformations of the Renaissance period. He has been a household word for the 500 years since his lifetime. His unique qualities of thought and spirituality, have fascinated people throughout the centuries. As a participant in the primordial tradition later to be manifested in the Rosicrucian Order, Leonardo’s approaches reflect those of Rosicrucian students in every age.