The Renaissance opened to the whole reading public the treasure-houses of Greek and Latin literature.

At the same time the Bible in its original tongues was rediscovered.

Mines of Oriental learning were laid bare for the students of the Jewish and Arabic traditions.

The Aryan and Semitic revelations were for the first time subjected to something like a critical comparison.

With unerring instinct the men of the Renaissance named the voluminous subject-matter of scholarship 'Litterae Humaniores,'-- the more human literature, or the literature that humanizes.
There are three stages in the history of scholarship during the Renaissance.