Boucquey Thierry (General Editor). Encyclopedia Of World Writers. 3 volumes

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The work features the character of a lover who

begs Venus, the goddess of love, for relief from

Cupid’s fiery dart. His plea for her “pity and

mercy” requires the lover to confess to Genius, a

“worthy priest.” In so doing, a dialogue between

Genius and the lover begins, and stories including

those of Nauplius and the Greeks (Benoit de

Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie) and Jason and

Medea (from Ovid’s Metamorphoses) are told. Fol-

lowing the lover’s lengthy confession, Venus pres-

ents him with a rosary, declares him “a lover never

more,” and commends him to “go where moral

virtues dwell.” Released from her hold and forgiven

for his sins, the lover returns home to devote him-

self to prayer.

In these well-told stories within Confessio, read-

ers find examples of how and how not to live, and

as Terence Tiller observes, details “of medieval life

as it really was.” For these and other merits found

in Gower’s Confessio and his other writings, Gower

continues to be praised and recognized as one of

the period’s finest writers.

An English Version of a Work by

John Gower

Tiller, Terence, trans. Confessio Amantis: [The Lover’s

Shrift]. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin, 1963.

A Work about John Gower

Fisher, John H. John Gower: Moral Philosopher and

Friend of Chaucer. New York: New York Univer-

sity Press, 1964.

Graffigny, Madame Françoise de

(Françoise d’Issembourg

d’Happoncourt Grafigny)

(1695–1758) novelist, playwright

Françoise de Graffigny, who spent much of her

early years in Lunéville and was a great-niece of the

engraver Jacques Callot, entered the literary scene

at age 43, when she moved to Paris. Before that, she

spent nine weeks at VOLTAIRE’s Chateau de Cirey in

1738 and 1739, apparently escaping ill treatment

from her husband. While there, she wrote several

letters each day to various friends, letters appar-

ently filled with gossip and innuendo about the life

of the famous writer and his wife. These letters

gained her some notoriety and were later pub-

lished in her Vie privée de Voltaire et de Mme du

Châtelet in 1820.

In Paris Graffigny was a frequent guest in var-

ious literary circles. An early short story she wrote

met with harsh criticism, so she decided to “learn

her craft” before publishing again (Niklaus, 356).

The result was her greatest and best-known work,

Lettres d’une péruvienne (1747). The epistolary

NOVEL is the sentimental tale of an Inca princess,

Zilia, kidnapped and brought to France. In France

she is protected by a nobleman named Déterville,

who falls in love with her. The novel is composed

of the letter she writes to her brother, Aza, who

was also to have become her husband. It was one

of the first French works to portray a foreigner’s

view of French society. The novel blended “ro-

mance, feminist protest, and social satire”

(France, 354) and was a phenomenal and lasting

success, going through at least 10 reprints in

Graffigny’s lifetime.

Graffigny also wrote a comedy, Cénie (1750),

which was successful on the stage and admired by

DIDEROT. Another play, La Fille d’Aristide, was not

so well received. Still, her literary legacy rests

mainly on the merits of her novel, which remains

in print.

An English Version of a Work by

Françoise de Graffigny

Letters from a Peruvian Woman. Translated by David

Kornacker. New York: Modern Language Associa-

tion of America, 1993.

Works about Françoise de Graffigny

Calder, Martin. Encounters with the Other: A Journey

to the Limits of Language through Works by

Rousseau, Defoe, Prevost and Graffigny. New York:

Rodopi, 2003.

Showalter, English. Madame de Graffigny and

Rousseau: Between the Two Discours. Oxford:

Voltaire Foundation, 1978.

Graffigny, Madame Françoise de 107

Guicciardini, Francesco (1483–1540)

historian, writer

Francesco Guicciardini was a member of an influ-

ential Florentine family, close to the Medicis. He

studied law, developed a political career, and wrote

numerous works of great historical value. His first

political appointment was in Spain, as the ambas-

sador of the Florentine Republic (1512–13). He later

held numerous political posts, many of them

fraught with danger, upheaval, and the struggle for

power in Florence. When Guicciardini retired, he

began working on his historical writings, which he

had been composing throughout his political career.

In his Considerations on the Discourses of Machi-

avelli (ca. 1530), Guicciardini reveals his concept of

history, which was centered on the idea that self-

interest inspires action, which must be governed by

law. This concept conflicts with the ideas set forth

by MACHIAVELLI, who claimed that the conflict was

what made ancient Rome great.

Guicciardini’s earlier works include, among

others, the Florentine Histories (1508–09), which

covers the years 1378 to 1509; Discourse on Order-

ing the Popular Government (1512), in which he ar-

gues for gradual, rather than radical, change; and

Ricordi (1528), his reflections on politics.

His main work, The History of Italy, analyzes

Italy’s history between 1494 and 1534. In The His-

tory (published between 1561 and 1564), Guiccia-

rdini attempts to explain the decline of Italy and

the general failure of Italian statesmanship. It is an

important work because it sets Italy within the

larger framework of European history and because

Guicciardini innovatively presents his characters,

showing “how events were moulded by the chance

interplay of different personalities” (Brand and

Pertile, 196). The History of Italy found a large

reading audience across Europe and was translated

into numerous languages, including French, Latin,

German, and English.

English Versions of Works by Francesco

Guicciardini

The History of Italy. Edited by Sidney Alexander.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli’s Discourses & Guic-

ciardini’s Considerations. Translated by James B.

Atkinson and David Sices. DeKalb: Northern Illi-

nois University Press, 2002.

Works about Francesco Guicciardini

Bondanella, Peter E. Francesco Guicciardini. Boston:

G.K. Hall, 1976.

Brand, Peter, and Lino Pertile. The Cambridge History

of Italian Literature. New York: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press, 1999.

Philipps, Mark. Francesco Guicciardini: The Histo-

rian’s Craft. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

1977.

Gustavas Vassa

See EQUIANO, OLAUDAH.

108 Guicciardini, Francesco

109



H¯afiz (H¯afez, Shams ud-D¯ın Mohammad)

(1326–1390) poet

Shams ud-D¯ın Mohammad grew up in the town of

Shiraz, in Persia, the son of Bah¯a’ud-D¯ın, a mer-

chant. Shiraz was a thriving center of Islamic cul-

ture renowned for its wines and gardens, and it is

where the poet later known as H¯afiz (also H¯afez)

spent his life. H¯afiz acquired a thorough educa-

tion in both the Persian and Arabic languages and

traditions and earned the title Khajeh H¯afiz, an

honor assigned to those who had memorized the

Koran (Qur’an) and were thus qualified to teach it.

H¯afiz worked for a time as a baker’s apprentice and

copyist but became known for his lectures and

commentaries on religious texts.

During H¯afiz’s life the politics of the region

were quite unstable and violent. In an age when

poets were dependent on patrons, H¯afiz relied on

his wit to keep favor throughout the changes in

leadership. One story explains how he gained favor

with Timur Lang, who consolidated power in Cen-

tral Asia and began his conquest of the old Il-

Kh¯anid empire around 1380. When Timur entered

Shiraz, he scolded H¯afiz for the following verses:“If

that Turk of Shiraz would take my heart in his

hand, I would give for his Hindu [i.e., black] mole

both Bukhárá and Samarqand.” Timur was angry

because he had worked hard to build both these

places and could not believe that anyone would

trade them for the affections of a slave. H¯afiz is said

to have replied, “Sir, it is because of such prodigal-

ity that I have fallen into poverty and hard times.”

Timur was charmed, and H¯afiz was rewarded in-

stead of imprisoned.

H¯afiz is considered the finest and most popular

lyric poet of the Persian language, variously re-

ferred to as Sun of the Faith, Tongue of the Hid-

den, and Interpreter of Secrets. His poetry has both

deeply spiritual and sensual aspects. His Diwan

(which simply means a collection of poems) was

gathered after his death and has been widely trans-

lated and enormously influential. Aside from being

admired for their technical ability and depth of ex-

pression, the poems of the Diwan have even been

used to foretell the future.

The 500 poems of the Diwan are in the form of

a ghazal, a series of between five and 12 couplets

often unified by a single image or theme. Ghazals

were often set to music. The complexity and rigid-

ity of the ghazal defeated lesser poets, but the form

helped H¯afiz create intensely beautiful poetry.

One of H¯afiz ’s trademarks is his use of descrip-

tions of earthly love to explore the mystical mean-

ing of divine love. Like his predecessor R¯um¯ı, H¯afiz

was a practitioner of Sufi, which has its roots in In-

dian mysticism and Islam. The highest goal of Sufi

practice is union with the divine, which H¯afiz

imagines as a sort of spiritual intoxication. Sufi wis-

dom teaches that the essence of God and indeed all

things is love, and many of H¯afiz ’s verses address

the beauty and freedom of true devotion. These

lines translated by Elizabeth Gray, for example, use

layered imagery to portray both the teaching of

God and the love of God as nourishing water:

O beggar at the cloister door, come to the

monastery of the Magi,

for the water they give makes hearts rich.

Since the ghazal is not a narrative form, mean-

ing it does not tell a story, H¯afiz ’s poems are instead

deep contemplations on faith, love, and longing. A

famously complex poet, H¯afiz uses contradicting

metaphors that puzzle and fascinate readers, such

as these lines from Gray’s translation: “Since the

kohl of our insight is the dust of your doorway, /

Please tell us, where do we go from this threshold?”

As these lines suggest, H¯afiz also uses questions

within his poems to engage the reader in his

thoughts. His deeply personal meditations, his sen-

sual descriptions of love and unity, and the opti-

mism of his faith make reading his poetry a

universally beautiful experience, which perhaps

explains why H¯afiz has been one of the most fa-

mous and best-loved Persian poets, and still has

devoted followers to this day.

English Versions of Works by H¯afiz

Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved: Poems of Hafiz.

Translated by Thomas Rain Crowe. Halifax, Nova

Scotia: Shambhala, 2001.

Hafiz of Shiraz: Thirty Poems. Translated by John

Heath-Stubbs. Kincardine, Scotland: Handsel

Books, 2003.

New Nightingale, New Rose. Translated by Richard le

Gallienne. Oregon House, Calif.: Bardic Press,

2003.

The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. Trans-

lated by Daniel Ladinsky. New York: Penguin,

1999.

Works about H¯afiz

Cloutier, David. Hafiz of Shiraz. Translated by Muriel

Rukeyser. Greensburg, Pa.: Unicorn Press, 1988.

Loloi, Parvin. Hafiz, Master of Persian Poetry: A Crit-

ical Bibliography. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.

Pourafzal, Haleh, and Roger Montgomery. The Spiri-

tual Wisdom of Hafez: Teachings of the Philosopher

of Love. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions Interna-

tional, 1998.

haiku

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that is struc-

tured in three lines of five, seven, and five sylla-

bles, respectively. Haiku is often used to express the

poet’s emotional or spiritual response to a natural

object, such as a frog or a blossom. It became pop-

ular in Japan around the 17th century and is simi-

lar to the much older tanka form, though shorter

in length.

Originally, haiku was meant to be part of longer

verse, called linked poems, to which additional

lines of poetry were added. Eventually, poets began

to write the haiku as stand-alone poems.

The structure of haiku relies on imagery and re-

quires concise expression. The focus is often on an

impression of an instant, a moment captured in

time, as in these two haiku:

My hut, in spring:

true, there is nothing in it–

there is Everything!

(by Yamaguchi Sod¯o, 1642–1716)

Eaten by the cat!

perhaps the cricket’s widow

is bewailing that.

(by Enomoto Kikaku, 1661–1704)

Haiku is notoriously difficult to translate into

English because its structure is built around sylla-

bles rather than rhyme schemes. Translators are

challenged to keep the original structure and re-

main true to the original meaning of the poem.

110 haiku

One of the first practitioners of haiku was

BASH¯O, who wrote the following poem:

Octopus in a trap

Its dreams are fleeting under

The Summer moon.

The simplicity of Bash¯o’s haiku made the form at-

tractive to later Zen poets, who used it to express

their meditations.

Another haiku master was KOBAYASHI ISSA,

whose prolific writing produced some of the finest

Japanese poetry of all time, including these lines:

In its eye

the far-off hills are mirrored—

dragonfly!

Haiku is still written today by many poets, in-

cluding children. One of the beauties of the form is

its versatility of subject matter, which can range

from the seasons to rice, or from stones in a stream

to tears on a child’s cheek. Few verse forms provide

such classic imagery, inherent with meaning and

mood, as haiku.

Works of Haiku

Bash¯o Matsuo. The Complete Basho Poems. Edited by

Keith Harrison. Minneapolis, Minn.: Black Willow

Press, 2002.

Cobb, David, ed. Haiku: The Poetry of Nature. Uni-

verse Books & Publishing, 2002.

Kobayashi Issa. Spring of My Life. Translated by Sam

Hamill. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1997.

Simmons, Fred. Contemporary Urban Haiku.

Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2003.

Ueda, Makoto. Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese

Women. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.

Washington, Peter, ed. Haiku. Westminster, Md.: Al-

fred A. Knopf, 2003.

Works about Haiku

Aitken, Robert. A Zen Wave: Basho’s Haiku and Zen.

Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker and Hoard, 2003.

Yasuda, Kenneth. Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature

and History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press, 2002.

Hammon, Jupiter (1711–ca. 1806) poet,

religious writer

Jupiter Hammon was born a slave on October 17,on

the estate of Henry Lloyd, near Oyster Bay, on Long

Island, New York. His father was a slave whom the

Lloyds called Opium, while his mother, possibly

named Rose, was sold when Jupiter was quite young.

The Lloyds were relatively kind masters, and

Hammon was educated alongside some of the

Lloyd sons, who had private tutors. In 1733 he was

swept up in the “Great Awakening” religious re-

vival and bought his first Bible from Henry Lloyd

(Johnson, 210). The poems and prose tracts that

he wrote and later published are all heavily reli-

gious in nature and filled with biblical imagery.

On Christmas Day, 1760, Hammon published

his first poem, An Evening Thought, Salvation by

Christ, with Penetential Cries. The 22-stanza poem

is written in the style of a Negro spiritual and fo-

cuses on salvation after death. Some of Hammon’s

other works include A Winter Piece, a sermon that

compares black slaves with the Samaritans in

Palestine, and an essay titled An Address to the Ne-

groes in the State of New-York (1787), his most

widely circulated work.

Although he was never directly outspoken in

his opposition to slavery, Hammon found his own

unique way of arguing for equality for all people.

He wrote in An Address: “I should be glad if oth-

ers, especially the young Negroes, were to be free.”

Many critics debate the artistic merit of Hammon’s

works, and some criticize him for using Christian-

ity to justify his lot in life. But O’Neale argues that

Hammon “couched his antislavery protests in bib-

lical symbols because the Bible was the cultural ref-

erence of his times and because slave supporters

contorted a few of its verses to justify the enslave-

ment of blacks.” Hammon’s is an important

voice—not only in the past and the slave society

Hammon, Jupiter 111

in which he lived, but also today in American and

world literature.

Works by Jupiter Hammon

America’s First Negro Poet: The Complete Works.

Edited by Stanley Austin Ransom. New York: As-

sociated Faculty Press, 1983.

Works about Jupiter Hammon

Clark, Margaret Goff. Their Eyes on the Stars: Four

Black Writers. New York: Garland, 1973.

O’Neale, Sondra A. Jupiter Hammon and the Biblical

Beginnings of African-American Literature.

Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1993.

Wegelin, Oscar. Jupiter Hammon. Miami, Fla.:

Mnemosyne, 1969.

Hariot, Thomas (Thomas Harriot)

(1560–1621) nonfiction writer

Thomas Hariot was born in Oxford, where he later

studied at St. Mary’s Hall. Primarily known as a

scientist and mathematician, he became the math-

ematics and science tutor in Sir Walter Raleigh’s

household. Not only did he build a telescope at the

same time that Galileo GALILEI built his, he also dis-

covered the law of refraction, sunspots, and Jovian

satellites. In addition, he included inventions in his

Artis analyticae praxis ad aequationes algebraicas

resolvendas (1631) that established the modern

form of algebra.

Hariot also wrote A Briefe and True Report of the

New Found Land of Virginia (1588). This report

was written during his expedition to America with

Richard Grenville in 1585–86. Hariot helped

Grenville with navigation, astronomy, study of the

native people and lands, and the supervision of

mapping. The report first appeared in 1588 and

was reissued two years later in another edition with

illustrations by John White. In addition, the report

appeared with other chronicles of exploration in

Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations (1589).

In A Briefe and True Report, Hariot pays careful

attention to the land’s economic possibilities. He lists

resources as commodities with brief descriptions of

them, mentioning how they are currently used and

how they might be exploited further or exported

for use by the English. For example, he discusses the

healthful properties of tobacco, which became a

profitable export for the British colonies:

[T]hey use to take the fume or smoke thereof

by sucking it through pipes made of claie into

their stomacke and heade; from when it pur-

geth superfluous fleame and other grosse hu-

mors, openeth all the pores and passages of the

body...wherby their bodies are notably pre-

served in health, and know not many greevious

diseases wherewithall wee in England are of-

tentimes afflicted.

The report reads as factual and scientific but also

borders, as this passage does, on promotion. Pri-

marily, Raleigh and his associates, including Har-

iot, were interested in assuring their ventures in

America would succeed. While none of Hariot’s

scientific work was published during his lifetime,

his report is important for the unique glimpse it

provides into merchant mentality and the explo-

ration of early America.

Works by Thomas Hariot

A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of

Virginia. Edited by Paul Hulton. Mineola, N.Y.:

Dover, 1972.

The Greate Invention of Algebra: Thomas Harriot’s

Treatise on Equations. Edited by Jacqueline Stedall.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Works about Thomas Hariot

Shirley, John William. Thomas Harriot: A Biography.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.

Fox, Robert, ed. Thomas Harriot: An Elizabethan Man

of Science. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2000.

Henryson, Robert (1424?–1506?) poet

Nothing beyond his poetry is known of Robert

Henryson, who wrote in Middle Scots. One of

Henryson’s major works is The Morall Fabillis of

112 Hariot, Thomas

Esope the Phrygian (1568), a collection of 13 ani-

mal fables based on those of Aesop. One of the

finest is Henryson’s telling of the story of the coun-

try mouse and the city mouse. This tale, like all the

others, ends with a moral:

Great abundance and blind prosperity

Often make an evil conclusion.

The sweetest life, therefore, in this country

Is security with few possessions.

Henryson wrote a third long poem, Orpheus

and Euridice, based on the classical myth about

two lovers, Orpheus, a musician, and his wife Eu-

ridice. When Euridice dies, Orpheus plays the lyre

so beautifully the gods are moved to allow him to

bring her back, but they stipulate that he must not

look at her until they reach the upper world. Or-

pheus forgets the condition and looks at Euridice,

thereby losing her again to death.

Henryson is best known for his poem The Tes-

tament of Cresseid, a 616-line sequel to Geoffrey

CHAUCER’s Troilus and Criseyde (ca. 1385). Set dur-

ing the Trojan War of classical antiquity, Troilus

and Criseyde tells of the love of the Trojan prince

Troilus for Criseyde, who swears to be true, only

to betray him after she has been captured by the

Greek warrior Diomede. In his sequel Henryson

follows Cresseid’s fate after Diomede abandons

her: She becomes a prostitute and eventually a vic-

tim of leprosy. Though the disease is presented as a

fitting punishment for Cresseid’s sins, Henryson is

sympathetic as well as stern. Here is Cresseid’s fa-

ther’s reaction to her disease:

He looked on her ugly leprous face,

Which before was as white as a lily; . . .

he knew well that was no cure

For her sickness, and that doubled his pain.

Thus was their care enough between the

two of them.

Henryson’s poem is a great work in its own

right, as the poet parallels the physical degenera-

tion of Cresseid with her spiritual redemption. The

20th-century poet and critic Tom Scott wrote that

Henryson is Scotland’s “supreme poet”: “No other

Scottish poet, before or since, has given us so com-

prehensive a view of life.”

Works by Robert Henryson

Selected Poems of Robert Henryson and William Dun-

bar. Edited by Douglas Gray. New York: Penguin,

1998.

A Work about Robert Henryson

Kindrick, Robert L. Robert Henryson. Boston:

Twayne, 1979.

Herder, Johann Gottfried (1744–1803)

philosopher

Among the great thinkers and writers who

emerged from Germany during the late 18th and

early 19th centuries was Johann Herder. He played

an important role in the development of the Ger-

man intellectual movement known as Romanti-

cism, which emphasized human emotion (over

pure reason) and nature. In addition, Herder con-

tributed greatly to the rise of nationalism, the feel-

ing of intense loyalty to one’s nation or ethnic

group, which would have a tremendous impact on

the political events of later centuries.

Herder was born in the town of Mohrungen, in

a part of Germany known as East Prussia. He spent

most of his life as a preacher in the German city of

Weimar, but it seems clear that his intellectual ac-

tivities, rather than preaching, absorbed him

throughout his life. He would develop an intense

pride in being culturally German, and his reflec-

tions on national culture would be the basis of his

most important ideas.

Herder is considered one of the founders of the

movement known as Sturm und Drang (1771–78),

which roughly translates as “storm and stress” and

was derived from F. M. Klinger’s play by the same

name (1777). This movement stressed the power

of German literary and artistic culture and gradu-

ally evolved into Romanticism. One of Herder’s

works from this period is his manifesto Von

Herder, Johann Gottfried 113

deutscher Art und Kunst (On German Character

and Art, 1773), which celebrates the uniqueness of

German literature, art, and architecture, and was

influenced by ROUSSEAU.

In his Materials for the Philosophy of the History

of Mankind (1784) Herder advocates the political

ideal known as Vol k , roughly translated as “people”

or “nation.” Herder used the term in reference to

people united by shared linguistic and cultural ties.

In Materials, he expresses his ideas about Vol k in

relation to his ideas of progress, presenting a cycli-

cal view, rather than a linear view, of how civiliza-

tions are born, grow, and die.

Herder had enormous influence on German cul-

ture and literature. He influenced numerous writ-

ers, including GOETHE; contributed to the Sturm

und Drang movement; and developed the concept

of Volk, which contributed to the nationalism that

dominated European politics for centuries.

An English Version of Works by Johann

Gottfried Herder

Herder: Philosophical Writings. Translated and edited

by Michael N. Forster. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2002.

A Work about Johann Gottfried Herder

Koepe, Wulf. Johann Gottfried Herder: Language, His-

tory and the Enlightenment. Columbia, S.C.: Cam-

den House, 1990.

Huh Joon (Ho Chun) (1546–1615)

medical scholar

Born into the Moogwan, or military class, in the

middle of the Chosun dynasty, Huh Joon was des-

tined to compile Tongui pogam (Exemplar of Ko-

rean Medicine). For its time, this encyclopedia was

the most comprehensive medical work of its kind

in all Asia. Today it is still highly regarded as a

standard text of traditional medicine, although

English translations are not in print.

Despite the later success of Tongui pogam, Huh

Joon’s early scholastic aspirations were thwarted

because of his status as an illegitimate child; this

automatically excluded him from sitting for the

civil service exam generally reserved for the schol-

arly class. Instead, he was forced to study medicine,

as doctors in Korea were then considered inferior

to literati.

Huh Joon’s reputation gradually spread, and in

1575 he became a physician in the royal court. Not

long after, his extraordinary medical skills got him

a promotion as personal physician to King Sun Jo

himself.

It was also in this period that the king commis-

sioned the compilation of a new medical text to

bring up to date two previous encyclopedias that

had been instigated by K

ING SE-JONG. This work

had not long commenced when it was halted by a

Japanese invasion in 1592. During this crisis, how-

ever, Huh Joon continued to see after the king’s

health. In 1597 the work of compiling the medical

text was assigned to him, and he was duly given ac-

cess to the royal archives. On the death of the chief

court physician, Huh Joon replaced him.

In 1608 the work of compilation still incom-

plete, the king, Huh Joon’s staunchest supporter,

died. Thereafter jealous court officials had him

wrongfully imprisoned. Fortunately, a prince

whom Huh Joon had previously treated interceded

on his behalf and obtained his release. He was then

able to complete his medical research, which re-

sulted in a 25-volume work of 3,137 pages.

Tongui pogam had taken 16 years to compile

and was published in 1610. It is especially notable

for stressing the medicinal value and dangers of al-

cohol. In addition to this work, Huh Joon also

translated five important medical texts from Chi-

nese into Korean.

In 1615 Huh Joon retired with the rank of Sun-

grokdaebu, second only to the highest. Given the

rigid class structure of Chosun society, this was in-

deed singular recognition of his medical genius.

humanism (1300–1600)

Humanism describes a trend of thought taking

place during the European RENAISSANCE that origi-

nated as a literary movement and developed into a

114 Huh Joon

philosophy. Humanism was closely related to CLAS-

SICISM, as much effort was directed toward recov-

ering the works of writers of ancient Greece and

Rome. Characterized by an interest in classical

forms and subjects of poetry, spawning revolu-

tionary ideas about education and scholarship, and

aided by the diffusion of printing, humanism

spread quickly from its origins in Italy to France,

Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Germany, and the

Low Countries.

The writer most responsible for introducing

humanistic ideals in Italy was PETRARCH, who self-

consciously offered Greek and Roman works as

models for poetry. In his treatise On His Own Ig-

norance and That of Others (1368), Petrarch

summed up the works of his authorities, Aristotle,

Cicero, and Seneca, while emulating their style. His

recovery of the classical tradition, his appreciation

of the individual, his quest for earthly fame and

achievement, and his sense of a dawning new age

became hallmarks of the new modes of thought

that spread throughout Italy. In Florence, politi-

cian Coluccio Salutati recovered Quintilian and

revolutionized the teaching of rhetoric; Vergerio

wrote the first modern educational tract, On Noble

Customs and Liberal Studies of Adolescents

(1402–03); and Leonardo Bruni’s translations

made Plato, Plutarch, and Xenophon available to a

broader reading public.

While Petrarch and others like him advocated a

solitary life of contemplation as the scholarly

ideal, second-generation humanists felt it their

duty to actively contribute to civic life, resurrect-

ing the classical age’s republican ideals along with

its literary sensibilities. At the same time, artists

showed a new interest in realistic representations

of the human body, as seen in the works of

MICHELANGELO. Humanistic values spread rapidly

among the elite, including women scholars like

Alessandra Scala and Isotta Nogarola. Works like

the histories of BOCCACCIO show the humanists’

perceptions that their age was witnessing a revival

of learning, rather than participating in the con-

tinual decline that had marked the philosophy of

the Middle Ages.

Thinkers in Spain, inheriting from both the

Italian innovations and the works of the Dutch

philosopher

ERASMUS, used and elaborated on the

gifts of humanism, including the new poetics and

a revised system for historical inquiry. Humanistic

scholarship reached Germany and the Low Coun-

tries through the marriage of Maximilian and

Mary of Burgundy in 1473, which brought Ger-

many into the Hapsburg Empire. Though drawing

on Italian sources, humanism in these countries

took on a distinctly Christian character, revitaliz-

ing interest in the landmarks of Christian antiq-

uity, like the works of Augustine. The educational

philosophies developed in these circles showed a

strong belief in the human potential for self-im-

provement, a belief shared by English educators

John Cheke and Roger Ascham. Sir Thomas MORE

is probably the best representative of British hu-

manism, though his belief in freedom of thought

and expression led to his beheading by Henry VIII.

Also in England, Latin translations of Galen influ-

enced medical thought as well as literary concep-

tions of personality.

In France, humanist thought reached its peak

in the works of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples on reli-

gion and philosophy, ideas reflected in the litera-

ture of MAROT and RABELAIS. Other humanist

figures in France include Budé, who is credited

with the rise of legal humanism, bringing lawyers,

magistrates, and public administrators under the

influence of humanist thought; and

MONTAIGNE,

whose works perhaps mark the outer limit of the

extension of humanism. In his Essays he admits

to an appreciation for the classical past but en-

courages forward vision and new ideas rather than

a return to old ideals.

Though in the Renaissance humanism was es-

sentially a program of study rather than a formu-

lated philosophy, it came to encompass not only

teachings in grammar, rhetoric, and history, but

also ideas about moral philosophy. In the present-

day sense, humanism refers to any viewpoint that

is human-centered. In its own time, the humanist

interest in and regard for the individual set the

stage for the early modern period in Europe.

humanism 115

English Versions of Works of Humanism

Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly and Other

Writings. Edited by Robert M. Adams. New York:

W.W. Norton, 1989.

Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. Edited by Carol

V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Binghamton, N.Y.:

Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1989.

More, Thomas. Utopia. London: Everyman’s Library,

1992.

Petrarch. Selections from the Canzoniere and Other

Works. Translated by Mark Musa. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1999.

Works about Humanism

Fubini, Riccardo. Humanism and Secularization:

From Petrarch to Valla. Translated by Martha King.

Raleigh, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003.

Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance Thought and Its

Sources. Edited by Michael Mooney. New York:

Columbia University Press, 1979.

Nauert, Charles G., Jr. Humanism and the Culture of

Renaissance Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press, 1995.

Hus, Jan (John Huss) (1370–1415)

theologian

Jan Hus was born in the village of Husinec in Bo-

hemia (now in the Czech Republic), from which he

took his name. Although the son of poor peasants,

he graduated from the University of Prague in

1394. He became dean of philosophy there in 1401,

one year after becoming a priest, and became

renowned for giving his sermons in the Czech ver-

nacular, rather than in Latin, for the benefit of the

common people.

The writings of the English religious reformer

John

WYCLIFFE on the abuses of the Roman

Catholic clergy greatly influenced Hus, who allied

himself with a pro-reform and strongly-Czech na-

tionalist faction at the university. The Bohemian

Church was very wealthy and powerful, and the

ideas of Hus and his allies met with much opposi-

tion. In 1409 he became rector of the university,

following a mass exodus of the conservative Ger-

man faculty. In 1412, however, the church excom-

municated Hus for his criticism of its sale of papal

indulgences, a corrupt practice that the reformers

despised. He fled Prague and lived in the castles of

several aristocratic supporters, writing many trea-

tises in Latin and Czech, as well as a collection of

sermons and many letters. Many of these docu-

ments were widely distributed in Prague. Two

years later, Hus was treacherously taken prisoner at

the Council of Constance in Switzerland and tried

for heresy. He heroically refused to renounce his

beliefs and was burned at the stake.

In his writings, most written during his two-

year exile, Hus espoused the doctrines of predes-

tination over indulgence and biblical over

clerical supremacy, holding Christ to be the true

head of the church rather than the pope. In these

beliefs, he followed Wycliffe. His most famous

work is the massive De Ecclesia (The Church),

which comprehensively outlines his religious be-

liefs. His treatises in Czech are considered mas-

terpieces of that nation’s literature and language,

the most famous being Exposition of the Faith,

of the Ten Commandments and of the Lord’s

Prayer. Today, Czechs remember Hus as one of

their greatest national heroes. The world re-

members him as a landmark religious thinker

whose writings foreshadowed the Protestant Re-

formation.

English Versions of Works by Jan Hus

The Church. Translated by David S. Schaff. Westport,

Conn.: Greenwood, 1974.

The Letters of Jan Hus. Translated by Matthew Spinka.

Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press,

1972.

Works about Jan Hus

Didomizio, Daniel. “Jan Hus’s De Ecclesia: Percursor

of Vatican II?” Theological Studies (June 1999):

267–280.

Spinka, Matthew. John Hus: A Biography. Princeton,

N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.

116 Hus, Jan