Question

In The Revival of Antiquity by Jacob Burckhardt,
Burckhardt talks about the humanists

"It's active representatives became influential because they knew what the ancients knew."

Please explain this quote and what Burckhardt meant.

Answer 1

He meant that people admired the humanists who had studied and followed the ancient Greeks. It was believed that their knowledge in many ways surpassed the knowledge accumulated in Europe in the intervening years.