Renaissance Humanism and the Rebirth of Plato

During the Renaissance, scholars sought to recover the full range of classical philosophy, especially Plato, who had been known in the medieval West mainly through a partial Latin Timaeus. Petrarch (1304–1374) owned a Greek manuscript of Plato but could not read it. In 1438–1439, at the Council of Florence, the Byzantine scholar Gemistos Plethon lectured on Plato's superiority to Aristotle, impressing Florentine elites.

Cosimo de' Medici later supported Marsilio Ficino, who translated the complete works of Plato into Latin, published in 1484, and the works of Plotinus. Humanists also recovered texts such as Lucretius and Sextus Empiricus, broadening the philosophies available. Raphael's fresco The School of Athens, painted for the Vatican in 1509–1511, celebrated this classical revival by placing Plato and Aristotle at its center. The recovery of ancient philosophy encouraged new debates about human dignity, nature and knowledge.