Chapter 9 The Renaissance | Oxford Humanities and Social Sciences 8 Australian Curriculum

Renaissance

a period in Europe's history between the late twelfth and sixteenth centuries that saw a revival of culture and learning; a French term meaning 'rebirth'

Crusades

a series of wars fought by Christians and Muslims between 1096 and 1291 CE over control of the Holy Land

secular

not connected to religious or spiritual matters

manuscripts

in the medieval sense, documents written by hand (usually by monks)

mercantile

connected with trade, merchants and commercial or business affairs

Holy Land

territory in the Middle East (now mostly made up of Israel and Palestine) that is important to the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions

Silk Road

a network of trade routes stretching west from China to the Mediterranean Sea; it was the main means by which silk was introduced to the West

artisans

skilled workers in a specialised trade or craft

apprentices

young people who work for an employer for a fixed period of time in order to learn the particular skills needed in their job

lineage

the series of families that a person comes from

guilds

groups of people all working in the same trade (e.g. butchers, tailors, cobblers) who band together in support of their common interests

patrons

people who devote some of their wealth, time and interest to developing the skills of others (usually in the arts)

exiled

expelled from one's place of birth, usually for political reasons

humanism

a group of philosophies centred on the importance of human beings, values and evidence, rather than religion, gods and supernatural matters

commissioning

ordering and paying for the creation of a work of art, building, etc.

pagan

a term sometimes used by people of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths to describe those who do not share their beliefs

perspective

a new approach to painting developed during the Renaissance, which involved making objects larger in the foreground and smaller in the background to suggest distance

heresy

doing or saying something regarded by the medieval Catholic Church (and by some other faiths) as being in serious conflict with its teachings

Reformation

a movement that began in Europe in the sixteenth century when the scholar-monk Martin Luther publicly challenged the Catholic Church; it shifted the balance of power in Europe away from the Church

indulgences

ways that Catholics could shorten their time in purgatory and gain quicker entry to heaven

purgatory

a place where Catholics believed their souls had to suffer for a time, before they were cleansed and pure enough to enter heaven