Italian Renaissance

Beginning of Period 1: 1350-1648

Outline:

  • What’s up with Europe?

  • What is “Renaissance?”

  • Why Italy?

  • Political and Social Developments

  • Wrap Up

Europe in 1350— Still in Middle Ages

Life:

Most people were peasant farmers. Small minority were the rest: Church, merchants, and nobility

Europe is agriculture based until the 1800s. Most people are farmers.

Peasant Farmers- tied to the land and lock to the bonds of feudalism. Most likely married young, “family economy”. Your health is very questionable, most do not live into 60s. Even the nobility and monarchs are dying young from pretty minor illnesses. Most people are looking to the Church, mainly because of the health uncertainty. Christianity is very popular. Most people do not know how to read, the middle ages are miscommunicated that they weren’t educational…. It was, just not in Europe.

Major Changes

1/3 of Europe dies because of Black Death, has massive economic issues for Europe after. The Hundred Years War is also during the same time period as the Black Death. There are a lot of big changes, so it makes sense about the Renaissance.

Renaissance

“Rebirth”. 3 Characteristics: A return to Greek and Roman thinking, Renewed interest in secular matters, a greater appreciation of the self and the worth of the individual. The title Renaissance was given by historians to the time period. The Renaissance takes place over centuries, and is very slow moving. Only going to impact a small part of Europe. Shakespeare didn’t start the Renaissance and he didn’t even start writing until the 1600s. Renaissance is not into looking forward, more as returning to the past and the classics of Greece and Rome. Big social and educational changes. Secular means non-religious and non-secular means religious. Religious in the middle ages is why the Catholic Church was so powerful, and why the Crusades happened. Some people start criticizing the Catholic Church during the Renaissance.

Greater appreciation of the self is very new for this tiem period, but will be a central focus. These main characters is also the main characters of the northern Renaissance.

Why is the Renaissance the beginning of the Modern Era?

  1. Renewed intrest in secular matters is the start of the modern era

  2. Educational becomes more modernized

  3. The economics is a key part of why the Renaissance started, and the emergence of the Middle Class

Why Italy?

Economic Superiority: International Trade and Banking Center

Close proximity to Greece and Rome: Byzantine Empire falls, results in Greek scholars feel to Italy

The Italian city-states are where the Renaissance starts. Italy is the first to be hit with the Black Death and they are the first to recover. When all those people died, there is so many opportunities that opened. Luxury goods flow through the ports of Italy, still in high demand with less people to supply them with. High demand and low supply = money money money! With money comes more avaliability for education. Education becomes the central point for the Renaissance. When people have money, they can afford to send their kids to school. Banking in Floerence, the banking center of Europe until the Dutch over do them. Italy is also very close to the ancient cities and the Greek, Rome is in Italy! Really close to scholars, scholars are leaving Greece because of the Ottoman Empire presure. Fall of Constantinople is a key part of this. After the fall, key scholars moved to Italy and helped propel the Renaissance. 

The Printing Press and Print Culture

Printing Press: Invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. 

Allowed for printed work to spread quickly, Developed “print culture”. Besides the invention of the internet, the printing press is the most important invention of the modern times. Increased literacy rates and allowed people to print what they want.

Individualism and Secularism

Major intellectual and social changes during the Renaissance.

Individualism: Stressed individual personality, greatness, and achievement, contradicted medieval idea of Christian humility.

Secularism: See life as opportunity rather than a painful pilgrimage towards God, Things of this world have value in themselves.

Key intellectual changes of the Renaissance. These key ideas are how people strated questioning the Catholic Church. Religion is the most important thing during the Middle Ages. The idea is Christians can appreciate themselves while still giving credit to God. The Italian and Catholic Church are starting to notice these ideas. People and even scholars in the middle ages were blind and were not looking at what was around them. Italian Renaissance scholars are basically like. look around and take advantage of the world around them.

Humanism- YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS

Renaissance art and ideas were msotly impacted by humanism.

Humanism: philosophy focused on the man and his world; attempt to understand human nature

This is the idea that impacted Renaissance art and ideas. This is different than the philosophers of the Enlightenment, they were inspired by the humanists. Humanists were not wanting to discover more of the world, but to look into the past and rediscover the world. Not concerned with progressing with science and math, but concerned to looking at the Italians and Greeks to learn more about the world. The Age of Exploration opens their eyes even further, showing that the world is not fully discovered.

Humanists Thinkers

Petrarch: Father of humanism, considered the first modern writer, wrote literature that was focused on secular themes, collects copies and catalogs Latin and Greek manuscripts.

-He is considered the guy that started the movement. He is also the first one that had the idea of collecting ancient manuscripts. He also talks a lot about the vlaue of understanding the classics and what they were tryig to do, especially with their education. His big thing is that he writes a lot about the world and the classics.

Leonardo Bruni:

Wrote abou the history of Florence, first to use the term “humanism”

-This is the guy we can credit of getting the humanists

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