Abstract
he purpose of present paper is to draw attention to some complexities involved in Paul O. Kristeller's classic formulation of nature of Renaissance humanism. According to KristeUer, in a lecture first deUvered in 1954 and reissued most recently in 1979, the humanists of Renaissance were professional successors of medieval Italian didatores, and inherited from them various patterns of epistolography and public oratory, aU more or less deternuned by customs and practical needs of later medieval society. Yet medieval didatores were no classical scholars and used no classical models for their compositions. It was novel contribution of humanists to add firm belief that in order to write and to speak well it was necessary to study and to imitate ancients.' The neat picture of humanism that emerges is of a professional commitment to classicize rhetorical practice of medieval world.