Chapter 12: Recovery and Rebirth — The Age of the Renaissance
MAJOR CONCEPTS
The revival of interest in Greek and Roman classics promoted by humanists and spread by the printing press engendered a more secular and individualistic value system that culminated in the ideal "Renaissance man," the man of virtu. These ideals influenced education, the arts, and the study of science.
Civic humanist culture developed in the Italian city-states, and Machiavelli's work, The Prince, changed the concept of ruling.
In the late Renaissance, new monarchs emerged in England, France, and Spain. Interested in consolidating their power, they used art to enhance their prestige.
Wealthy patrons commissioned works of art, literature, and architecture that were classically derived and influenced by geometric perspective.
Writers modeled their works on classical literary forms and wrote in the vernacular.
Artists invoked a more realistic naturalism that was centered on man instead of God.
(Key Concepts 1.1, 1.2)
AP® THEMATIC QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT AS YOU READ
Why did Renaissance ideals first take hold in the city-states of northern Italy?
How did the development of Renaissance humanism encourage study of the classics, promote secularism, and lead to the ideal of virtu?
How did emphasis on the classics affect the art, literature, and architecture of the period?
How did individualism and secularism affect the arts of the period?
How did new theories of government affect the relationship between the governing classes and the governed?
How did the growth of cities and commerce lead to changes in social structure?
What obstacles to royal power hindered the New Monarchs in their consolidation of power in England, France, and Spain, and what methods did they use to overcome these problems?
Analyze the ways in which the printing press, vernacular literature, and the spread of Renaissance ideals contributed to the development of national culture.
How did the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks lead to changes in trade, diplomacy, and society after 1453?
Did women experience the Renaissance in the same way men did?
WHAT IS THE RENAISSANCE? MEANING AND CHARACTERISTICS
Renaissance means “rebirth.” Italians (1350–1550) believed they witnessed a rebirth of Greco-Roman civilization, viewing the intervening centuries as a “Middle Ages” of darkness lacking Classical culture.
Jacob Burckhardt (1860) popularized the modern concept of the Renaissance, portraying it as birthplace of the modern world with revival of antiquity, emphasis on individual achievement, and secular worldliness. Contemporary historians note continuity with the Middle Ages but still recognize distinctive Renaissance elements.
Renaissance Italy was largely urban; independent city-states dominated surrounding countryside by mid-14th century.
A secular spirit developed as wealth grew, enabling worldly enjoyment and a broader cultural life.
The Renaissance was an age of recovery from the calamitous 14th century (Black Death, political disorder, economic recession) with rediscovery of Classical antiquity.
Humanists emphasized Greco-Roman culture and sought to reconcile pagan philosophy with Christian thought; this included new ways of viewing human nature.
A revival of individual ability emerged, expressed by Leon Battista Alberti: “Men can do all things if they will.”
The social ideal of the well-rounded personality, or virtù, emerged; the concept of uomo universale (LWOH-moh OO-nee-Ver-SAH-lay) described a person capable of achievements in many areas.
Renaissance ideas were initially limited to the wealthy elite; impact on ordinary people was mostly indirect, visible in urban centers.
Focus question: What characteristics distinguish the Renaissance from the Middle Ages?
FOCUS: RENAISSANCE IN ITALY — SOCIETY AND ITS MAKING
The making of Renaissance society addresses major social changes during the period.
Renaissance Banquet: symbolism of status and power; menus from a grand banquet for Pope Pius V illustrate abundance and ritual.
Economic Recovery after the 14th-century crisis: manufacturing and trade increased; the economy gradually recovered from the plague and recession.
EXPANSION OF TRADE
Northern German Hanseatic League (Hansa) formed in the 13th century; by 1500, >80 member cities.
Bruges and Lübeck as key trading hubs; Venice remained a wealthy commercial empire despite Ottoman pressures.
Trade recovered dramatically; Italian city-states, especially Venice, maintained wealth; sixteenth century saw competition from Atlantic powers.
INDUSTRIES OLD AND NEW
Woolen industries in Flanders and northern Italy were hit; Florentine wool industry recovered by early 15th c.
Luxury industries (silk, glass, metalwork) expanded; new industries (printing, mining, metallurgy) rose to rival textiles.
Advances in mining and metalwork increased production of copper, iron, silver; firearms improved.
BANKING AND THE MEDICI
Florence regained banking prominence in the 15th c due to the Medici family; branches in Venice, Milan, Rome, Avignon, Bruges, London, Lyons.
Medici also controlled alum mining and wool/ silk industries; major bankers for the papacy for large profits.
Bank decline at century’s end due to poor leadership and bad loans; 1494 French expelled Medici from Florence and confiscated property, causing collapse.
SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE RENAISSANCE
Estates system persisted: First Estate (clergy), Second Estate (nobility), Third Estate (peasants and urbanites); clergy examined in Chapter 13 later.
THE NOBILITY: urban wealth and military/political dominance persisted; 2–3% of population; by 1500, aristocracy reconsolidated; education became more common among nobles in the 16th c. (Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, 1528) establishing standards for nobles: native endowments, accomplishments (military, classical education, arts), and conduct.
PEASANTS AND TOWNSPEOPLE: majority of Third Estate; 85–90% rural; urban poor increased (30–40% of city populations unemployed or impoverished); decline of manorial system and serfdom; peasants gained more freedom but remained subject to rents.
SLAVERY IN THE RENAISSANCE: agricultural slavery declined; slavery reappeared in Spain; Italian cities saw a slave trade in the 15th century with slaves from Tartary, the Black Sea region, Africa; by 16th century slavery persisted mainly at princely courts as curiosities; 1400s–1500s saw African slave imports to Portugal for southern markets; many slaves freed by owners later; Latin term for slave ownership and the practice of concubinage were features of elite households.
THE FAMILY IN RENAISSANCE ITALY: extended households; dominance of male heads; dowries; arranged marriages for business/family alliances; male authority over children remained until emancipation; women managed households, but upper/middle-class women mostly remained within the home; high childbirth mortality (up to ~10% of mothers died in childbirth); large families sought male heirs; wet nurses common; marriage contracts formalized with dowries and property arrangements; social rules governed sexuality and extramarital relations; communal brothels regulated prostitution in cities like Florence.
THE ITALIAN STATES IN THE RENAISSANCE (MAP 12.1)
FIVE MAJOR POWERS: Milan, Venice, Florence, Papal States, Naples. Also independent city-states such as Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino.
MILAN and the SFORZA; VENICE as a maritime power and oligarchy; FLORENCE under Medici influence; PAPAL STATES in central Italy; NAPLES in the south (later destabilized by French and Aragonese struggles).
URBINO and other small principalities under Montefeltro and Este families; notable rulers: Federigo da Montefeltro; Battista Sforza; Isabella d’Este of Ferrara who influenced Mantuan culture.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE COURTS
Isabella d’Este (1474–1539): educated, politically savvy, letters reveal negotiation prowess; governed Mantua with administrative and cultural influence; engaged in diplomacy with major powers; example of ruling women in Renaissance courts.
The Letters of Isabella d’Este show resistance to coercive hostages and assertive diplomatic posture.
Other women (Isotta Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele, Laura Cereta) contested views of women’s education; Cereta’s Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women argued for female intellectual potential and programming for women.
WARFARE IN ITALY AND DIPLOMACY
Balance of power: a concept to prevent any single state from dominating; Peace of Lodi (1454) created a 40-year pause in large-scale conflict in Italy.
The growth of powerful monarchies outside Italy caused conflict for Italian states; Italian Wars began when Charles VIII of France invaded in 1494; sack of Rome 1527 by Spanish troops ended a phase of the Italian wars; Spain dominated afterward.
Diplomacy emerged as a modern practice: permanent resident ambassadors, state-focused diplomacy, and professional diplomatic practices; ambassadors were now agents of their state, not universal envoys.
MACHIAvelli AND THE NEW STATECRAFT
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527): secretary in Florence; wrote The Prince (1513) in a time of political turmoil; analyzed practical power dynamics beyond medieval moralism; emphasized that rulers must sometimes act immorally or harshly to secure the state.
Cesare Borgia as a model for ruthless statecraft; the idea that rulers must be prepared to act against moral norms if necessary to secure power and order.
Lessons: conquest and stability often require pragmatic, sometimes harsh measures; stabilization of state is the end goal.
THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE IN ITALY
HUMANISM: study of the studia humanitatis (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, ethics, history); most humanists were lay and secular; they shaped education, politics, and history.
Petrarch (1304–1374) often called father of Italian Renaissance humanism; promoted classical Latin and sought forgotten manuscripts; his work helped initiate a shift toward secular classical studies (Cicero as model).
CIVIC HUMANISM: in Florence, humanists tied to civic life; Cicero as model of educated statesman; education served the state; humanists served in chancelleries and courts.
GREEK INTEREST: Bruni learned Greek and promoted the study of Plato; Manuel Chrysoloras taught Greek in Florence; translations of Plato by Marsilio Ficino and the emergence of Neoplatonism under Ficino.
PLATONIC AND HERMETIC THOUGHT: Ficino synthesized Christian and Platonic thought; Hermeticism viewed divinity as immanent in all things; Renaissance Hermeticism offered a new view of humanity’s divine potential and its relation to nature.
PICO DELLA MILANDOLA: Oration on the Dignity of Man (1463–1494) celebrated unlimited human potential; produced a synthesis of classical and Christian thought; argued for human freedom and the centrality of human potential.
EDUCATION IN THE RENAISSANCE
HUMANIST EDUCATION AND LIBERAL STUDIES
Vittorino da Feltre founded a famous school at Mantua (1423); education based on classical authors (Cicero, Quintilian); combined classical studies with physical education (javelin, archery, dancing, running, wrestling).
The liberal studies: history, moral philosophy, eloquence, letters, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music; Vergerio’s Concerning Character argued liberal studies lead to virtue and wisdom and a free person.
The aim was to prepare complete citizens for civic life; education was practical for life in public life; classically informed but guided by Christian principles.
Women’s education: limited; few female pupils in Vittorino’s school; some women (e.g., Isotta Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele) pursued classical studies and public orations, challenging norms.
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Humanist education tended to serve the ruling elite; not widely available to lower classes; education as a social ladder but still limited by gender and class.
WOMEN AND LEARNING IN THE RENAISSANCE
A WOMAN’S DEFENSE OF LEARNING
Laura Cereta’s Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women argued for women’s intellectual equality and the right to study; asserted that women possess natural gifts and that education is essential to virtue and rational decision-making.
Cereta confronted male critics about women’s capacity for reason, arguing that the will and the mind can equalize opportunities and that education bears the responsibility to cultivate virtue and knowledge.
WAS THERE A RENAISSANCE FOR WOMEN?
Historians debate whether Renaissance widened women's options or tightened them; some argue courtly/elite environments allowed educated women to contribute to literature and intellectual life; others argue most women remained constrained by male authority.
Examples of educated women: Isotta Nogarola, Cassandra Fedele, Laura Cereta; these women wrote and spoke publicly, challenging traditional gender roles.
HUMANISM AND HISTORY
HUMANISM LED TO SECULARIZED HISTORY
Historians shifted away from miracles and divine causation; emphasized human causes and political forces; used documents and critical sources.
Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People as an example of secular, civic history.
Guicciardini’s History of Italy and History of Florence marked modernization of historiography: analytical, evidence-based, and focused on political/military history; stressed the role of individuals and political events rather than divine intervention.
CHRONOLOGICAL SHIFT AND PERIODIZATION
Humanists divided past into ancient world, the dark ages, and their own age—an emergent chronology.
THE PRINTING REVOLUTION
INVENTION AND SPREAD
Printing with movable type developed around 1445–1450 by Gutenberg; Gutenberg’s Bible completed 1455–1456.
By 1500, >1000 printers in Europe; ~40,000 titles; roughly half religious, with significant numbers of Latin/Greek classics and humanist works.
IMPACTS ON SOCIETY
Facilitated scholarly research, standardization of texts, and dissemination of ideas.
Expanded lay reading publics and enabled rapid spread of religious and secular ideas, contributing to the Reformation and broader cultural shifts.
THE ARTISTIC RENAISSANCE
FOCUS: CHARACTERISTICS OF RENAISSANCE ART; ITALY vs. NORTHERN EUROPE
EARLY RENAISSANCE (Italy)
Masaccio’s Brancacci Chapel frescoes introduced monumental figures, realistic relationships between figures and landscape, and perspective; regarded as beginning of Early Renaissance painting.
Two major experimental directions:
Geometric perspective and mathematical organization of space and light (Paolo Uccello).
Investigation of movement and anatomy; human nude realism (Pollaiuolo).
Growth of portraiture and the depiction of powerful urban patrons (e.g., Urbino portraits by Piero della Francesca).
LATE/ HIGH RENAISSANCE ARTISTS
Botticelli’s Primavera embodied classical themes with mythic figures; later pivot to religious works.
Donatello’s David: first freestanding bronze nude since antiquity; symbolic of Florentine virtues.
Brunelleschi’s Dome of the Florence Cathedral (Duomo): engineering breakthrough; Church of San Lorenzo’s architectural style emphasized harmonized, human-centered spaces.
The High Renaissance (c. 1480–1520): Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo; focus on idealized human beauty, balanced composition, and a synthesis of naturalism with classical ideals.
Leonardo: Last Supper exemplary for space organization and psychological depth; moved toward idealized rather than purely natural forms.
Raphael: School of Athens; harmony, balance; Madonna paintings with ideal beauty.
Michelangelo: David; Sistine Chapel ceiling (Creation of Adam); Neoplatonist influences; a drive for grand, heroic physical forms.
ARCHITECTURE AND THE HUMAN CENTER
Bramante’s Tempietto: summary of High Renaissance architectural ideals; Doric columns, hemispheric dome; unity of columns, dome, and space.
San Lorenzo: classical columns, rounded arches, coffered ceiling; architecture as a human-centered space.
ARTISTS AS GENIUSES AND SOCIAL STATUS
Rising status of artists: seen as geniuses rather than mere craftsmen; patrons elevated artists’ social status; artists integrated with political and intellectual elites; “Il Divino” Michelangelo as an emblem of this shift.
NORTHERN RENAISSANCE ART
Different approach: detail-oriented realism; emphasis on everyday objects and careful observation; landscape in religious contexts; richer devotional art.
Van Eyck introduced oil painting, enabling nuanced color and detail; Arnolfini Portrait as exemplar of detail and realism, though perspective shown as less certain.
Albrecht Dürer: studied Italian art; brought perspective and proportion to Northern art while maintaining detailed realism.
MUSIC IN THE RENAISSANCE
Burgundian courts nurtured a rich musical culture; Guillaume Dufay helped shift sacred music toward secular tunes for Mass; madrigals developed as secular vocal music in vernacular.
Madrigals: 12-line poems often about love; later polyphonic with five or six voices; use of text painting to mirror meaning.
THE EUROPEAN STATE IN THE RENAISSANCE
FOCUS: NEW MONARCHIES / RENAISSANCE STATES
THEMES
By the late 15th century, France, England, and Spain saw centralized monarchies; central authority reduced power of churches and nobles; professional bureaucracies; taxation systems consolidated.
Central European states (HRE, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary) faced significant challenges; some weak monarchies, reliance on noble estates.
THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL MONARCHIES
FRANCE
After the Hundred Years’ War, France rebuilt national identity; Charles VII (1422–1461) established a royal army with cavalry and archers and gained levy rights via the Estates-General (the taille).
Louis XI (1461–1483), nicknamed the Spider, strengthened royal authority by regularizing the taille and subduing nobles; expansionist moves after Charles the Bold’s death (1467–1477) expanded French territory; core for future centralized state building.
ENGLAND
Civil wars in the 1450s (Wars of the Roses) between Lancasters and Yorks; Henry VII (1485–1509) established a strong, centralized monarchy; ended private noble armies (livery and maintenance) and created the Court of Star Chamber; pursued diplomacy to avoid costly wars; built a stable revenue stream via crown lands, legal fines, and customs duties.
SPAIN (UNIFICATION OF SPAIN)
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon (married 1469) created a dynastic union; maintained separate cortes, laws, coinage, and institutions; reformed the royal council with middle-class professionals; tightened royal control of the Church via papal appointment powers; pursued religious uniformity to unify the state: expulsion of Jews (1492) and Muslims (1502) and the conquest/destruction of Granada (1492).
Policies culminated in the Catholic Monarchy; the Spanish Inquisition was used to enforce orthodoxy (though not universally across all Spaniards).
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE HABSBURGS
The empire failed to centralize as effectively as France/Spain; dynastic marriages strengthened Habsburg holdings (Franche-Comté, Luxembourg, Low Countries); Maximilian I (1493–1519) attempted centralization via institutions and state-building, but German princes blocked zentralization; Charles V inherited multiple dynastic kingdoms leading to later Habsburg dominance.
EASTERN EUROPEAN CHALLENGES
Poland: crown vs magnates; Sejm; suppression of royal authority; serfdom formalized by 1511.
Bohemia: weakened monarchy; Hussite wars; nobles gained power.
Hungary: Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490) centralized, reformed, patronized humanist culture; after his death, central authority waned.
Russia: Ivan III (1462–1505) laid groundwork for Moscow as a state; expanded possessions and asserted independence from Mongol rule.
THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND THE END OF CONSTANTINOPLE
The Ottoman threat grew; 1453 fall of Constantinople under Mehmed II; Balkans and wider eastern Europe increasingly under Ottoman pressure.
MAPS AND BOUNDARIES
Maps 12.2–12.4 illustrate the geography of Renaissance Europe, showing major states and shifts in power, trade routes, and the Ottoman advance.
THE CHURCH IN THE RENAISSANCE
FOCUS: PAPACY POLICIES AND THEIR IMPACT
COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE AND ITS AFTERMATH
Ended the Great Schism in 1417 but failed to reform church deeply; Lollardy and Hussite reform movements challenged church authority.
Council attempted reforms: Sacrosancta (general authority for councils over the pope) and Frequens (regular councils).
Pius II’s Execrabilis (1460) condemned appeals to councils over the head of the pope, signaling papal supremacy over conciliar authority.
RENAISSANCE PAPACY
Popes pursued temporal aims in Papal States and Italian politics; notable popes included Sixtus IV, Alexander VI (Borgia), Julius II, and Leo X.
Nepotism and political maneuvering characterized the era; Julius II led military actions to expand papal power; Leo X (Medici) presided over patronage of Renaissance culture and accelerated Saint Peter’s construction.
IMPACT ON ROME AND CULTURE
The Renaissance popes were major patrons of the arts and learning, turning Rome into a cultural hub; however, their political and personal intrigues often overshadowed spiritual leadership.
CHAPTER SUMMARY AND CHRONOLOGY
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The Renaissance began in Italy, rediscovered Greco-Roman culture, and introduced a new vision of humankind centered on the individual.
Humanism shaped education and politics; the state and civic life shaped intellectual work (civic humanism).
Art and science flourished; the Renaissance produced a new standard of beauty and the idea of the artist as a genius; Rome emerged as a cultural apex by the end of the 15th century.
The Renaissance also saw the rise of new monarchies and centralized states in Western Europe; Renaissance popes increasingly pursued temporal power.
The period raised questions about religious reform that would fuel further changes in the 16th century.
CHRONOLOGY (selected)
1400s: Civic humanism in Florence; Masaccio’s frescoes; Cosimo de’ Medici’s rule.
1450: Invention of printing with movable type.
1475–1517: Key works and events including Botticelli’s Primavera; Leonardo’s Last Supper; the Sack of Rome; Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier; Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.
1494: French invade Italy (Charles VIII); Italian wars begin; fall of Milan.
1490s–1520s: High Renaissance culminates in the works of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo; the Roman center of art solidifies.
CHAPTER REVIEW: SELECT AP® QUESTIONS (SAMPLE)
PART A: EDUCATION AND HUMANISM
Question about Castiglione’s Courtier: education, gender, and social expectations; answers emphasize humanist education focusing on classical languages and civic virtues rather than divinity alone; women’s education and social expectations are debated.
PART B: NEW MONARCHIES AND RELIGION
Questions about Ferdinand and Isabella’s centralization and religious uniformity; Spain’s religious homogenization as a foundational element of state-building; contrast to other European states where religious reform often conflicted with monarchic power.
PART C: ART AND CULTURE
Questions about Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo; how Vasari’s account reflects the Renaissance ideal of the artist as genius and how this changed social status and patronage.
PART D: CHURCH AND STATE
Questions about Renaissance popes and their influence on politics and culture; the tension between spiritual authority and temporal power in the papacy.
PART E: SHORT-ANSWER AND ESSAYS
Tasks include evaluating thinkers, providing evidence, and analyzing the impact of the new monarchies on centralization, with emphasis on primary sources and historiography.
KEY TERMS (selected)
Renaissance, estates, individualism, secularism, humanism, civic humanism, Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, pantheism, new monarchies, nepotism.
FURTHER READING SUGGESTIONS (selected)
General works on the Renaissance: M. L. King, The Renaissance in Europe; J. Hale, The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance.
On women, family, and marriage: C. Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy.
Italian city-states and Machiavelli: J. M. Najemy (ed.), Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1300-1550; Q. Skinner, Machiavelli.
Renaissance art and political developments: Paoletti & Radke, Art, Power, and Patronage in Renaissance Italy; Mulgan, The Renaissance Monarchies.
The Renaissance papacy: G. Noel, The Renaissance Popes.
CHRONOLOGY (condensed)
1400s: Civic humanism in Florence; Masaccio’s frescoes; Cosimo de’ Medici’s rule.
1440s–1460s: Invention of printing; rise of humanist education; early High Renaissance ideas.
1454: Peace of Lodi; 40-year period of relative peace in Italy.
1494–1527: Italian Wars; French invasion; Sack of Rome (1527).
1513–1521: Julius II and the peak of Renaissance papacy; papal patronage of art.
1529–1534: Reformation era setting the stage for religious reform in the 16th century.
NOTE
All numerals and dates are drawn from the provided transcript. Where figures appear, they are included as precise values where given (e.g., 2 ext{-}3 ext{ extasciitilde} ext{percent} of the population were nobles; 85 ext{-}90 ext{ extasciitilde} ext{percent} peasants; 30 ext{-}40 ext{ extasciitilde} ext{percent} urban poor). LaTeX expressions have been used for mathematical references where applicable, for example: 2\%, 85\%\text{ to }90\%, and 30\%\text{-}40\%.