The Italian Renaissance.

Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance for several reasons: Geography, Invention of the printing press, economy, and freedom of speech

Geography: * Italy is in the ruins of parts of the fallen Roman Empire, so they were able to just explore their area and learn about how the people before had lived * Using this to their advantage, they learned many things about the way Romans lived, and they had added it to their own ideas
Invention of the Printing Press * with the church still in charge at this time, it was hard for information to pass through and spread to other places * the printing press would print out information and spread them way faster than verbal communication * besides faster speed, it’s also more accurate than verbal communication as it’s says the same thing but all written down on papers
Freedom of Expression * People were allowed to say what they wanted to, with the exception of the church trying to stop them
Rich Economy * Italy had a pretty big population at that time. * This was a good thing * More people could mean that there’s more geniuses amongst the crowd * It could also mean more people could come together and talk about ideas * Italy also has 2 popular trade cities: Venice and Florence * Since Italy is full of merchants that trade with people coming from everywhere, they have enough money to patronize the arts. * This meaning that they were able to buy from artists, financially supporting them

\n 4 main thinkings that came out of the Renaissance:

Secularism * Secular: meaning real, or “of the earth” * The people had shifted their focus on religion onto the real world * It doesn’t mean that they stopped being religious, just that religion wasn’t the only thing people were living for anymore * examples of this would be the increase of study in literature or science
Humanism: * Humanism: of the humans * This was the thinking that humans weren’t meant to be God’s pawn * They have their own life to live for, and that was glorified * Mankind, anatomy, etc. was basically, was honored through arts * Example: pictures of nudity shows how important the human body was to them
Individualism: * Almost like a subcategory for Humanism, Individualism focuses on each and every person and how important they might be for society * It basically says that every human being is unique, and society shouldn’t drag them down just because they are different
Skepticism: * Skepticism sounds like skeptical, and that’s basically what it was * At the time being, the church had all the knowledge of the world. People were to just accept them without proof (no questions) * Now, they were questioning the information given to them, and this led to them finding answers to their questions themselves, leading to a scientific discovery period as well

Big People from the Renaissance:

Leonardo da Vinci: * Pretty popular artist * Mona Lisa * The Last Supper
Michelangelo * Another artist, but also a sculptor * “David” statue * Painted Sistine Church ceiling
Shakespeare * Literature writer * popular works of literature and plays * Romeo and Juliet
Dante * Philosopher * Poet * Wrote “The Devine Comedy”