Renaissance humanist in the context of "Body proportions"

Leon Battista Alberti (Italian: [leombatˈtista alˈbɛɾti]; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. He is considered the founder of European cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius.

He is often considered primarily an architect. However, according to James Beck, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts". Although Alberti is known mostly as an artist, he was also a mathematicianand made significant contributions to that field. Among the most famous buildings he designed are the churches of San Sebastiano (1460) and Sant'Andrea (1472), both in Mantua.

Prima [et Secunda] pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. (transl. 'The First [and Second] Part of the Storehouse of Images of the More Notable Men from the Beginning of Time, with Their Biographies Subjoined, Taken in Abbreviated Form from the Most Approved Authors.') is a compilation of woodcut portraits published in 1553 by Guillaume Rouillé, a French bookseller-publisher active in the early modern book trade of Lyon. Originally issued in Latin, French, and Italian editions, the book presents the portraits in a medallion format, largely arranged in a supposed chronological order. The subjects range from figures of the Old Testament and Greco-Roman mythology to contemporary individuals of the mid-16th century. Many of the portraits are imaginative rather than historically grounded, shaped by Rouillé's interest in physiognomy—the study that sought to relate facial features to character and personality—and by the engraver's artistic license. Although the engraver is unnamed in the text, the 19th-century bibliographer Henri-Louis Baudrier attributed the work to Georges Reverdy [fr].

The book is divided into two sections: Prima pars ('First Part'), covering figures predating Christ, and Pars secunda ('Second Part'), documenting individuals from the Christian era onward. Typically bound as a single volume, these sections maintain separate pagination systems. The earliest editions contained 828 portraits each, with accompanying biographical summaries; the authorship of these biographies remains debated. The book's commercial success led to subsequent editions in multiple languages, which included a Spanish edition in 1561. The 1577 French edition expanded the collection with approximately 100 additional engravings and placed greater emphasis on Renaissance humanist scholars. The portraits mimic the style of ancient coinage but lack the numismatic precision required for scholarly reference. Rouillé simplified complex histories through standardized imagery and concise narratives so that the past would be more accessible to a general readership. His compilation influenced how individuals were depicted in European iconographic collections from the late 16th century into the 17th.

Marcus Fabius Calvus (Italian: Marco Fabio Calvo; c. 1440 – 1527) was a Renaissance humanist from Ravenna. His translation of the Hippocratic Corpus into Latin was published at Rome in 1525.

Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state.

More opposed the Protestant Reformation, directing polemics against the theology of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and William Tyndale. More also opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason on what he stated was false evidence, and was executed. At his execution, he was reported to have said: "I die the King's good servant, and God's first."

Neostoicism was a philosophical movement that arose in the late 16th century from the works of Justus Lipsius, and sought to combine the beliefs of Stoicism and Christianity. Lipsius was Flemish and a Renaissance humanist. The movement took on the nature of religious syncretism, although modern scholarship does not consider that it resulted in a successful synthesis. The name "neostoicism" is attributed to two Roman Catholic authors, Léontine Zanta and Julien-Eymard d'Angers.

Willibald Pirckheimer (5 December 1470 – 22 December 1530) was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, imperial counsellor and a member of the governing City Council for two periods. One of the most important cultural patrons of Germany in his own right, he was the closest friend of the artist Albrecht Dürer, who made a number of portraits of him, and a close friend of the great humanist and theologian Erasmus.

The Donation of Constantine (Latin: Donatio Constantini) is a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope. Composed probably in the 8th century, it was used, especially in the 13th century, in support of claims of political authority by the papacy.

In many of the existing manuscripts, including the oldest, the document bears the title Constitutum domini Constantini imperatoris. The Donation of Constantine was included in the 9th-century Pseudo-Isidorean decretals. Lorenzo Valla, an Italian Catholic priest and Renaissance humanist, is credited with first exposing the forgery with solid philological arguments in 1439–1440, although the document's authenticity had been repeatedly contested since 1001.

Guarino Veronese or Guarino da Verona (1374 – 14 December 1460) was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. In the republics of Florence and Venice he studied under Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1350–1415), renowned professor of Greek and ambassador of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, the first scholar to hold such courses in medieval Italy.

Prima [et Secunda] pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. (transl. 'The First [and Second] Part of the Storehouse of Images of the More Notable Men from the Beginning of Time, with Their Biographies Subjoined, Taken in Abbreviated Form from the Most Approved Authors.') is a compilation of woodcut portraits published in 1553 by Guillaume Rouillé, a French bookseller-publisher active in the early modern book trade of Lyon. Originally issued in Latin, French, and Italian editions, the book presents the portraits in a medallion format, largely arranged in a supposed chronological order. The subjects range from figures of the Old Testament and Greco-Roman mythology to contemporary individuals of the mid-16th century. Many of the portraits are imaginative rather than historically grounded, shaped by Rouillé's interest in physiognomy—the study that sought to relate facial features to character and personality—and by the engraver's artistic license. Although the engraver is unnamed in the text, the 19th-century bibliographer Henri-Louis Baudrier attributed the work to Georges Reverdy (fr).

The book is divided into two sections: Prima pars ('First Part'), covering figures predating Christ, and Pars secunda ('Second Part'), documenting individuals from the Christian era onward. Typically bound as a single volume, these sections maintain separate pagination systems. The earliest editions contained 828 portraits each, with accompanying biographical summaries; the authorship of these biographies remains debated. The book's commercial success led to subsequent editions in multiple languages, which included a Spanish edition in 1561. The 1577 French edition expanded the collection with approximately 100 additional engravings and placed greater emphasis on Renaissance humanist scholars. The portraits mimic the style of ancient coinage but lack the numismatic precision required for scholarly reference. Rouillé simplified complex histories through standardized imagery and concise narratives so that the past would be more accessible to a general readership. His compilation influenced how individuals were depicted in European iconographic collections from the late 16th century into the 17th.