Petrarch and Boccaccio
With the turn of the 14th century—which brought with it Dante's death (1321), the declining power of the Church, and the rise of the Italian city states—a new generation of poets began to redefine language and thought. The most important of these were Petrarch and Boccaccio, who effectively lit the first spark of the Renaissance. It was a century of discovery, with many Roman and Greek manuscripts unearthed; a century of competition, as the city states fought the church and each other; a century of survival, with the black death defining the midpoint; a century of liberal tyranny, with each city state having their own despot but where citizens could move relatively freely between states; a century of saintly corruption, with the papacy spending lavishly in Avignon; a century of hopeless revolution, with chaos in Rome and a failed attempt to bring back the glory of Empire; and a century of artful diplomacy, which was best represented by these two men trying to hold their 'Italia mia' together. Petrarch and Boccaccio were poets on the surface, but underneath they were a new class of Philosopher. Like Dante, they spoke truth to power; but unlike Dante, their influence was felt in their lifetime—giving them renown throughout Italy and effectively turning them into ambassadors for virtually every single city-state. They were also the leaders of the humanist movement—rejecting scholasticism and molding it in the example of ancient Greece—worshipping mother nature and relishing in human imperfection. Nonetheless, it was too big of a leap for humanity to go from the restriction of thought of the Middle Ages (the past) to the era of science (the future). A step of introspection had to happen first. Through this transition, scholars were so fascinated by their discoveries of the ancient world, that erudition became their obsession rather than objective observation and original thought. And so, the humanists emancipated science from theology, but impeded it by worshiping this newfound past. The age of reason would have to wait for humans to fully rediscover themselves, first in government, then in art, and finally in thought. This was the essence of the Italian Renaissance; Petrarch and Boccaccio planted a seed (in the 14th century); a seed that would flower in all its splendor in the mid 15th century with the Rise of the Medici; a flower that would spread its pollen across Europe and die a violent death before the Age of Reason (i.e. the fruit) was ripe enough for the taking.
Source: Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization, Vol. 5: The Renaissance, A History of Civilization in Italy from the Birth of Petrarch to the Death of Titian, 1304–1576. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953.
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Full disclosure, I may occasionally borrow a sentence from Will Durant's Story of Civilization. I absolutely love that collection!