Para uma suma do saber: a cultura do humanismo no renascimento

Analyzing some representative examples this article attempts to show how the historiography of the Renaissance, tied to conceptual theories, has not always given due attention to the large contribution of the humanists concerning the knowledge and dissemination of the recently discovered landscapes and peoples. Despite their appreciation for the Greco-Roman world, the humanists did not keep indifferent to the great changes and news released by the European expansion. In many cases their works were the first to disseminate information on what was called the New World – even when these were reprints of classical texts, carefully completed by those contemporary data and facts. Building an invaluable sum of knowledge, the heirs of classical antiquity were at the same time the main mediators between the old world and the new. Very much aware of the Greco-Roman heritage those humanists looked at the challenges of the contemporary enterprises with the same curiositas that led same to the knowledge of the past.