Mann's scholarly works consider problems in the study of Petrarch and of the early Italian humanists.

The resolution of the arguments of the Cosmologists came from a new direction entirely, from a group Phædrus seemed to feel were early humanists.

It was also an attempt by early humanists to challenge clerical authority.

Benzo d'Alessandria, who ended his career as head of the chancery of Cangrande Della Scala, 1325-1333, was among the earliest Italian humanists.

Albrecht von Eyb (born in 1420 near Ansbach in Franconia; died in 1475) was one of the earliest German humanists.

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch in English; July 20, 1304 - July 19, 1374), was an Italian scholar and poet, and one of the earliest humanists.

The Metamorphoses remained unknown in the 13th century, but copies had begun to circulate in the mid-1300s among the early humanists in Florence.

It also expanded the view of historical "data" found in earlier humanists, with the immediacy of its concerns for the social side of human life.

De inventione dialectica was very influential in creating a proper place for logic in rhetorical studies, and was of great significance in the education of early humanists.

He concentrated his energies chiefly on the economic and intellectual development of Bohemia, where he founded the university in 1348 and encouraged the early humanists.