The humanist rebirth was felt in the whole of Western Europe, especially in the Italian peninsula, France, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Being the cultural climax of all that has been done in the Middle Ages, the humanist wave of erudition superbly retrieved the Latin, Greek and Christian classical literature, with its proper techniques, methods, forms and tastes. It developed sciences, such as philology, palaeography, epigraphy, archaeology, numismatics, textual criticism and literary criticism, geography and history. It also gave rise to the printing press, the libraries, to new universities, paternities and literary associations, such as the renowned "Academic Platonica" of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). In other words, a true "renaissance" with its proper philosophy which recognises the value and dignity of man and makes him, as Protagoras would have it, the “measure of all things”, somehow taking human nature, its limits and delimits, together with its interests, as it main theme.