Ad fontes

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Ad fontes is a Latin expression which means "to the sources." It is associated with the renewed study of Greek and Latin classics in Renaissance humanism. Similarly, the Protestant Reformation called for the return to the Bible as the primary source of Christian faith. The idea in both cases was that sound knowledge depends on the earliest and most fundamental sources.

This phrase is similar to ab initio, which means "from the beginning." However, whereas the flow of thought "ab initio" is from first principles to the situation at hand, "ad fontes" is a movement toward an origin that is ideally clearer than the present situation.

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• Classics