The Renaissance

The Renaissance comes from the Italian word rinascitá, which means "rebirth". They saw this as a Rebirth of the old Roman and Greek Civilization. The renaissance first began in the fragmented city - states of Italy. These renaissance intellectuals said that the epoch following the fall of the Roman Empire in roughly 500 A.D. until their own times was the Dark Ages - or the more politically correct term, the Middle Ages. Yet these people were kidding themselves. It is a paradox that the cultural and intellectual achievements of the renaissance owed a lot to the medieval world. There were gains in literature, art, philosophy, political, and yes, historical thought. Individualism: people wanted to receive personal credit for what they did, instead of praising God for everything. The invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg (whom A&E's Biography named him the most important man of the millennium), allowed trends and education to spread through out Europe. This resulted in the Northern Renaissance. Now here comes the difference that you need to know. The Italian Renaissance is mainly interested with secular ideas. The Northern Renaissance with religious concerns that eventually lead to the Protestant Reformation. The Renaissance is thought of as having ended in 1527 with the Sack of Rome by Charles V, HRE (Holy Roman Emperor)

The city - states of Italy were the epicenter of Europe's economical, political, and cultural life throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. In the north of Italy, they were under the control of the Holy Roman Empire - which wasn't Holy, wasn't Roman, and wasn't an Empire. But these cities - or towns - were free to do as they please. Now this is why Italy was at the center of all of this. If you look at Italy in a map you would see that Italy is that boot kicking out of Europe. It is right in the Mediterranean Sea. This enabled Italy to be like a stop between Western Europe and the market of the east which was a market of spices and goods in heavy demand in Europe. Italy was in the center of the Trade route. This led to a new type of class: The merchants. Cope with me this is heading somewhere: The old nobility came into conflict with the merchant class. Both groups had to contend with the popolo or the "people", the working class. In 1378 the Ciompi Revolt happened in which the popolo were mad at the political and economic situations, this happened in Florence. This revolt in Florence shook the other city-states. In Milan a tyrant came to power, knows as a signor. Florence and Venice remained republics, but a few wealth families, like the Medicis in Florence dominated everything. There were also a lot of wars. These wars decreased the number of city-states to the powerful ones - Florence, Milan, Venice, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Naples. Back to the merchants. Italian Bankers, thanks to the relative economic superiority of the Italian City-States, became the Bankers of Europe. We see a trend that will come up with Expansion starting here. Wherever the main trade routes are that area will prosper. For example, right now, it's in Italy, thus the Italians are the bankers. In a few Hundred Years with Colonization the trade routes will change, and the North of Europe, especially the Low Countries (Netherlands, etc.) will become the bankers of Europe. The Wealthy Italian merchants were the patrons of the arts and insisted on secular art forms.

Humanism: program of study, including rhetoric and literature, based on the classical world, i.e. Greek and Roman civilization. Francesco Petrarch is considered the father of humanism. He was the one who first used the term Dark Ages. During the middle ages, they used scholasticism - which is the idea that you accept what they tell you. This scholasticism was widely favored by the Roman Catholic Church. Now Petrarch instead of following scholasticism set out to actually read the stuff. So he read Cicero. Petrarch did not reject Christianity, even though he read the Pagan stuff of the Greeks and Romans. He wanted to use the classics to influence Christianity. The humanists wanted to reform Christianity for the better, yet far short of what Luther did. Another guy that these Humanists looked at was Plato. Plato was important for using Reason and good stuff that could be used for the human potential. This good view of man is seen in Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man. Another book, Castiglione's The Courtier, defined the "Renaissance Man": A multilingual person, versed in Classic Literature, and skilled in the Arts. Then comes Lorenzo Valla's Donation of Constantine. He read the stuff, and he uncovered a truth. Back in the day, they believed that Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire, gave the Western half of his empire to the Church. But Valla saw that Constantine could not have written that donation because of Verbiage used. Women learned to read and write thanks to the renaissance. One has to look at this trend which could play an important role in Social History concerning the Essay part of the AP Test.

Some say that in Art we find the most important contribution to the Renaissance. These artists were now considered important people in their own rights. They were funded by their merchant patrons. They wanted a more naturalistic style of people. If you look at examples of comparing and contrasting Medieval vs. Renaissance Art, you would see that in the Medieval the people mostly painted saints and religious themes, they did not present humans like "humans" - meaning that they did not have individual characteristics. The renaissance changed all of that. Artists contrasted between light and darkness, used 3-D images, and used single-point perspective. Then the High Renaissance began. During this time Rome replaced Florence as the place to be. Julius II was greatly interested in art. And now enter the Ninja Turtles: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donnatello.

Raphael died when he was 37. His most important painting is The School of Athens. Which shows Plato and Aristotle standing in a crows, along with Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Leonardo de Vinci was brilliant. He was a military engineer, architect, sculptor, scientist, and inventor. Oh by the way, he also painted The Mona Lisa.

Michelangelo did David, the Sistine Chapel and Final Judgment.

The northern Renaissance was far more concerns with Religious questionings than the Italian Renaissance. The Italians were more secular. Perfect example: Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince which is about politics. The Northerners wanted to deepen their Christian beliefs and understanding. Now back in the day, producing Books was expensive and was very strenuous labor. Monks were the main keepers of Books, and they did Books by copying them by hand. Thus with the pricing and the availability of the books, European people were not well educated. Enter Gutenberg. Between 1452 and 1453 he printed with his movable printing maching approximately 200 bibles and spent a lot of money making his Bibles ornate as the handwritten ones. He went broke. The Printing Press brought upon a new idea of education and literacy throughout Europe. It is one of the most important inventions in History. It is hard to imaging Reformation spreading without the Printing Press - and to a degree happening without the Printing Press. Way back, for example, the Catholic Sermons were given in Latin, and so was the Bible, thus many people never read it, and it didn't matter where you lived. Now thanks to the Printing Press the Bible was translated to the vernacular so more and more people read it, and brought upon change. Change which would lead to Reformation. The Greatest of the Northern Humanists was Erasmus. He wrote In Praise of Folly, in which he satirizes and criticizes the "problems of the Church."  Unlike Luther, Erasmus wanted to reform the church, not abandon it. Another guy was the Englishman Sir Thomas More. He wrote the famous Utopia, which means "nowhere". He was executed by Henry VIII because he did not accept the English Reformation.

These people were not discussed here but it'll be good if you know them: The Medicis (all of them). Borgias (Pope Alexander, Cesare Borgia, and Lucrezia Borgia). Pope Julius II and how he secularized the Church, and that's about it.