The Renaissance in Florence does not only mean the obvious – the rediscovery of the classics, research into the authentic sources of Greek philosophy and literature and a renewed interest in the canons of artistic beauty and proportions, but also growing autonomy in terms of supreme theological consciousness by various forms of knowledge, the progressive diminution between learned wisdom, rigidly scholastic teaching and a doctrine of knowledge.
A stay in Florence also means living in contact with this critical, sceptical atmosphere, which then distinguishes philosophical attitude par excellence, hostile to any dogmatic imposition, dissatisfied with any pre-determined and pre-conceived explanation, with any definitive scheme and, as a result, fundamentally creative and inexhaustible, overabundant and original. This is demonstrated by the fertile, lively Renaissance production of the city, which represents its soul and is its guide just as the shepherd leads his flock. Humanism was not philosophical because it liberated itself from tradition and it took its leave of it because it was philosophical.