Short answers, pulled from the story.
Renaissance humanism began in the final years of the thirteenth century. Manuscripts and inscriptions were in high demand as scholars sought to recover forgotten authors during this period.
Petrarch emerged as the central figure who encouraged the study of pagan civilizations. He was dubbed the Father of Humanism by later generations.
Coluccio Salutati popularized the phrase studia humanitatis around 1370. He used the term to refer to culture and learning as a guide to moral life.
Humanism spread northward to France, Germany, and England after large-scale printing began around 1500. Guillaume Budé applied philological methods to antique coinage and legal history in sixteenth-century France.
In 1417, Poggio Bracciolini discovered the manuscript of Lucretius which had been lost for centuries. This discovery contributed to the recovery of forgotten authors during the movement.