bonae litterae or humane learning (literally "good letters").
In the second century A.D, a Latin grammarian,
Aulus Gellius (c. 125– c. 180), complained:
Those who have spoken Latin and have used the language correctly do not give to the word
humanitasthe meaning which it is commonly thought to have, namely, what the Greeks call φιλανθρωπία (
philanthropy), signifying a kind of friendly spirit and good-feeling towards all men without distinction; but they gave to
humanitas the force of the Greek παιδεία (
paideia); that is, what we call
eruditionem institutionemque in
bonas artes, or "education and training in the
liberal arts [literally 'good arts']". Those who earnestly desire and seek after these are most highly humanized. For the desire to pursue of that kind of knowledge, and the training given by it, has been granted to humanity alone of all the animals, and for that reason it is termed
humanitas, or "humanity".
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