Umanistas is the term from which we get the word “humanist.”
Derived from 15th-century Italian universities – it was slang for one that advocated for teaching the humanities.
Teachers of law (jurisprudence) were known as “juristas” – so this began naturally.
It’s a study of the classics that focuses on grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and – of course – moral pilosophy.
The umanistas were doing something unprecedented in keying the search for wisdom—including specifically Christian wisdom—to the study of literature.
-Alan Jacobs, The Year Of Our Lord 1943 (Amazon)
