У статті проаналізовано значення розуміння власної освіти для побудови ідентичності на
прикладі італійських гуманістів першої половини XV ст., які позиціонували себе як автодидакти
(самоучки). Автор вважає, що саме в цей час унаслідок дії цілого комплексу причин формуються
передумови для виникнення явища автодидактів, яке остаточно виокремилося вже у Новому часі.
Гуманісти у такий спосіб ставали в опозицію до тогочасних знання, освіти, пізнання, реалізовуючи
самопрезентацію. Гуманістів приваблювали певні особливості статусу автодидакта, які
давали їм змогу почуватися незалежними від усталених на той час норм, поглядів, інтелектуальних
традицій, водночас використовуючи як підстави для консолідації гуманістів як окремої соціальної
групи.
Cases of autodidactism, though sporadically, have been occurring during the whole course of history.
They could be considered as a specific feature of Italian Renaissance culture and since that time became
a part of real life. The spread of autodidactism in the XVth century was caused by a wide range of social,
economic, and cultural processes.
Italian humanisis of the second generation declared themselves as autodidacts either in direct or in
indirect ways, but the correctness of such declarations is rather discussable (the same tendency applies
also to artists). In fact, each of them had his own teacher (maestro) who taught Latin; many studied in
universities, their predecessors, i.e. humanists of the first generation, were not very distant in time. The
declarations of autodidactism were grounded on the change of the education pattern and introduction
of a new and actual one which humanists promoted. They rejected dialectic as a method of cognition
and argumentation and placed eloquence exactly as humanists saw it in the center of new knowledge
and education. Perhaps they really needed someone who could perform a role of preceptor (precettore),
but, bearing in mind theatricality as a known feature of humanists’ activity, it looks possible to
presume that humanists’ autodidactism was rather a kind of self-presentation then self-identification.
It was status of autodidacts that let humanists to make their fame wider and allowed them to position
themselves as discoverers and pioneers, do not notice own amateurism, do not pay tribute to older colleges
and pretend they would not like to be acclaimed as a “well-educated persons”. One’s desire to
be perceived as an autodidact could be considered as a marker of the person' idea of his or her own
exclusiveness, a position among others, that is higher than average, and pretension to impress others,
to be treated in a right way. All these point to one’s, in particular humanists’ indirect attempts to state
their own personality.
In addition, autodidactism was the means to strengthen and consolidate humanists’ group, which initially
was a really miscellaneous one.
