The Concept of the
Renaissance
Federico Chabod
The Traditional Concept
 The problem of Continuity
 Fustel de Coulanges and his theory on the
Barbarian invaders (tabula rasa)
 The theory of continuity against the theory of
things “as they have occurred” (effects and
dangers of each theory in itself) p. 151
 The traditional concepts: Middle Ages and
Renaissance
 The praesens tempus and media aetas according
to Italians of the XIV and XV (Boccaccio, C.
Salutati, L. Valla, L. Bruni)
 As the city of Rome perished at the hands of the perverse and
tyrannical emperors, so did Latin studies and literature
undergo similar ruin and diminution . . . And Italy was
invaded by the Goths and Longobards, barbarous, uncouth
people, who practically extinguished all knowledge of
literature.
Leonardo Bruni
All statues and paintings were smashed and torn . . . And thus
were destroyed not only statues and paintings, but the books
and commentaries and handbooks and rules on which men
relied for their training in this great and excellent and gentle
art
Lorenzo Ghiberti
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 Vasari : criticism of the Christians but not of the
faith. His is an aesthetic criticism
 Voltaire: antipathy for Catholicism : it is the “guilt”
of religion, responsible for medieval obscurantism
(furor against the papacy’s power during the Middle
Ages - spirit of the Reformation)
 Voltaire echoes Ghiberti’s and Vasari’s opinions
about the fall of the Roman empire, the advent of
Christianity and the barbarism of the northern
invaders
 These opinions are amplified by modern historians:
Michelet, Burckhardt, Spaventa, Dilthey and Gentile
 Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien represents the
period as a sudden emergence of genius in the
middle of a cultural and artistic desert. Isolation of
the Renaissance (no sense of historical continuity)
Imitation of Classical Models
 Opinion expressed by the artists of the time. The
Renaissance has its origin when the
“glorious minds that sprang from the soil of Tuscany . . .
(turn to the ancient ruins of Rome and start)
distinguishing very clearly the good from the bad and
forsaking the old styles, they began once more to imitate,
to the limit of their energies and abilities, the styles
affected by the ancients . . .”
Giorgio Vasari
Belief that the ancients had exercised a direct
influence on the rebirth of Art and Literature
was general (a direct consequence of numerous
archeological excavations)
New Critical Approaches
 The theory of continuity applied to the Middle
Ages and Renaissance
 Middle Ages: rich in variety, stimulated by many
problems, interests and aspirations; a restless age,
full of exuberant life
 Is the Renaissance a new phenomenon, with
features of its own, or is it a broadening (not very
original) of already present motifs and ideals?
 First step: distinguish between every-day-life and
the LIFE OF THE MIND, the theoretical
formulation of a CONSCIOUSNESS (man’s
thoughts and ideas)
Renaissance
 The term is used to describe a MOBILIZATION OF
IDEAS which
is primarily
 ARTISTIC
 LITERARY
 CULTURAL
 The Renaissance as an “INTELLECTUAL” reality,
not as a “PHYSICAL” one
 An intellectual construction in which human
designs and actions conform to an ideal system,
to a spiritual creed, to a program of life
 Only when transformed in a complete, theoretical
affirmation, a practical truth becomes a
theoretical precept, a law explicitly credited with
a universal validity
 Vix scio quae fuerim, vix Roma recordor; vix sinit
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occasus vel neminisse mei. Par tibi, Roma, nihil cum sos
prope tota ruina.
Hildebrand de Lavardin (Le Mans, 1106)
Nichil actum fore potavi, si que legendo didiceram, non
aggrederer exercendo.
Cola di Rienzo (1350)
Nos . . . Volentes et desiderantes . . . Voluntates,
benignitates, et liberalitates antiquorum romanorum
principium . . . imitari.
Decree of the sovereignity of the Roman People I August
1347
Imitatio - legere becomes exercere. Instead of an elegy,
there is a determination to revive the ancient splendors
and glories of Rome
Men must imitate the ancients “in matters calling for
strength and vigor . . . (they must adopt) the true and
perfect ways of antiquity, not the false and corrupt.
Niccolò Machiavelli (L’arte della guerra)
 Limitation of Medieval thought
a) the relationship between God and man;
b) the Christian and Augustinian sense of sin and
grace (religious conception of the world)
 The Classic authors remained ornaments in the
works of the Middle Ages, intended to give luster
to the moral and spiritual ways of the medieval
philosophers (Dante?)
 Il est remarquable . . . que pendant la période la plus
radieuse de la Renaissance les types iconographiques
“transmis” et donc altérés, - soient presque partout
abandonnés au profit des types ‘retrouvés’ dans leur
pureté première.
J. Seznec, La survivance des dieux antiques
 For the Medieval scholar, Rome was
imitable, but only as Christian Rome, capital
of Christianity
 The Renaissance viewed Rome as the ideal
moment in human history, in which the
highest aspirations of mankind were
realized. Imitation becomes a pattern of life
Realism and Individualism
 In the Middle Ages realism is episodic, emotional.
The detail is realistic, but the general conception is
not. The Prime Mover of life and human history is
located outside the world and the destinies of men
are determined by the will of God.
 The sensibility is ‘human’ and ‘mundane’, but the
spirit is nourished by an inner life located outside
carnal humanity
 Medieval and Renaissance historical descriptions?
What is the difference? (177)
 The “conceptual” (vs “impressionistic”)realism of
Guicciardini and Machiavelli
 The realistic description of physical traits is
undertaken only if it serves to complete the “moral”
description (178)
 Renaissance Realism
 Villani’s (medieval chronicler) Historiae Fiorentine
a) passionate moral appeals (God, devil etc.).
b) no interpretation, no sense of human
“individuality”
 Machiavelli’s Historiae Fiorentine
a) no supernatural presence
b) man is the primary agent of history
c) the supernatural as fatality, casualty
d) natural “deterministic” realism (sins are political
not moral)
 Machiavelli’s political realism is not concerned
with “right” and “wrong,” “good” and “evil”
But since it is my purpose to write what may be useful to those who
need it, I have thought it more fitting to concern myself with the effective
reality of things than with speculation. For many have imagined republics
(Plato) and principates which have never been seen or known to exist in
reality.
Machiavelli Il principe
 Political realism: How things are, not how things
should be
 No supernatural Will to explain the immediate
causes of events
Art in the Renaissance
 Aim of the medieval artist is the glorification of
the Creator (Theophilus, Schedula diversarum
artium)
 Renaissance artist (L. B. Alberti, Della pittura)
a) is conscious of the intrinsic merit of an artwork
b) aims at creating the beautiful and immortal
c) glorification of humanity and its achievements
d) Nature is imitated (scientifically) per se, not as
a mirror of God’s power
 Liberation of the artist from every restriction that
is not dictated by artistic reason
 The world becomes a synthesis of lines, volumes
and colors
Novelty of the Renaissance
 Realism and individualism (from Alberti to
Machiavelli, Ariosto and Galileo) lead to the
affirmation of the complete autonomy of art,
politics, science and history
 Ars gratia artis
 The typically medieval conception of the
world in which no branch of human activity
could be considered independent from life as
a whole is abandoned
Man and God
 Main issues raised by the new system
a) how can Nature be reconciled with the excellence
of man
b) how to reconcile man and Nature with God
 Art and politics are no longer serving a supernatural
purpose but ethics still is!
 The idea of a purely rational ethic, independent from
religion, is unthinkable
 Ethics concern itself with the question: how things
ought to be (vs. how things are)
 The need to justify the world and existence, nature
and creature, will and fortune, brings man back to
the idea of a transcendent God of humanity
The Treatise as Genre
 A treatise is a prose work that analyzes a problem in all its
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aspects. It is the demonstration of a thesis whose validity
results from the confutation of all other antitheses
The themes can range from politics, to aesthetics, to science
It derives directly from the Greek and Roman tradition,
from Plato’s Dialogues, where a group of thinkers that
debate their individual philosophical positions
The treatise can have a dialogical form, that becomes a
lively debate, or can be discursive, presenting different
arguments and contrasting perspectives
Popularity of the treatise a) the rediscovery of the classics
b) exemplary form of discussion and expression of ideas
c) the necessity to theorize and form a new model of man
d) the projection on the page of a human res publica whose
aim is the education of free thinking human beings
Niccolò Machiavelli
 1469 Born in Florence
 1498 Is elected secretary of the Florentine Republic
 1500 Is sent as envoy to the King of France, Louis XII
 1501 Marries Marietta Corsini; will have six children
 1502 Envoy to Cesare Borgia, at Urbino and Imola
 1503 Is sent to Rome for the Conclave (Pious III)
 1506 Works for the republic and organizes its army
 1507-11 Travels to Tyrol (Maximilian), then to Blois, to meet Louis
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XII. Later he travels to Munich and France
1512 The Holy League of Modena decides the return of the Medici
to Florence. He is banned from the city for a year
1513 Imprisoned and tortured. Begins to write The Prince
1515-16 Offers The Prince to Lorenzo de’ Medici
1519 Composes The Art of War
1525 Completes the eight volumes of the Florentine Chronicles
1527 After the sack of Rome, Florence returns to the Republic. He
dies on June 21
The Prince and Its Ideology
 A negative evaluation of human nature
 The conviction of human nature’s immutability
 The necessity to keep these data in mind if one wants to enter a
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political career (Realpolitik)
The usefulness of examples taken from the past
At the light of his lucid realism, politica activity becomes a science
whose core is the foundation and maintenance of the state
Political actions shall not be evaluated on the basis of a moral code
but keeping in mind the principle of utility and congruence with
that given objective (previous point)
Virtues are therefore: cruelty, dissimulation, murder etc.
Net separation between moral and political judgement
differentiates The Prince from previous treatises (mirror of prince)
popular during the Middle Ages (catalogues of moral virtues)
Contrasting aspects of Machiavelli’s thought:
a) the theorization of an absolute power (The prince)
b) his sympathy for the democratic government (The Discourses)
The Structure of The Prince
Chapters I - XI
Chapters XII - XIV
Typology of Principalities and
problems related to each of them
Mercenary and volunteer militias
Chapters XV - XIX
Virtues and attitudes of a Prince
Chapters XX - XXIII
Precepts of various kind
Chapter XXIV
Responsibilities of Italian Princes
Chapter XXV
Virtue and Fortune
Chapter XXVI
Exhortation to liberate Italy
 XI Ecclesiastical Principalities
a) Reasons why Ecclesiastical Principalities are secure and
happy
b) Why are E.P. so powerful now when they once were not
c) Present history: Alexander VI - Julius II - Leo X
 XII Militia and Mercenary Soldiers
a) Chief foundations of a state
b) Different kinds of arms
c) Mercenaries (proof of reality)
d) What kind of sins have the Italian princes committed
e) Overview of the Quattrocento (church and princes)
 XIII Auxiliary and Native Troops
a) Definition
b) Why are they worse than mercenaries
c) The symbolic meaning of David’s biblical story
d) “But men with their lack of prudence initiate novelties and, finding
the first taste good, do not notice the poison within.”
 XIV The Duties of a Prince in Regard to the Militia
a) Main objective of a Prince
b) Armed vs unarmed
c) The art of war in peace time
d) Knowledge of hardship and territory
e) Imitation and study
 XV Of the Things for which Men, especially Princes, are
Praised or Blamed
a) Concept of reality
b) What ought to be done (consequences)
c) Know hows for a Prince
d) Good and bad virtues (reversed value)
 XVI Of Liberality and Niggardliness
a) Praise of the miserly Prince (good vice)
 XVII Of Cruelty and Clemency
a) Reasons for being cruel (consequences of leniency)
b) To be feared or loved
 c) Description of humanity
d) Hannibal’s example and the historians
e) “Men love of their own free will but fear at the will of the prince.”
 XVIII In What Way Must Princes Keep Faith
a) Experience contradicts good intentions
b) The beast and the man
c) Broken promises
d) Deceivers and deceived
e) Alexander VI’s example
f) “It is not, therefore, necessary for a prince to have all the abovenamed qualities, but it is necessary to seem to have them.”
g) To be or to appear to be
h) Mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, religion
Machiavelli and Fortuna
 Fortuna as ambiguous concept in M.?
 Characteristics of Fortuna (images used)
 What is the role of religion in a state (religio
instrumentum regni)
 What is virtue for Machiavelli?
 Are man’s virtue, intelligence, energy
enough to create and shape history?
 Can man achieve anything by himself?
 Where is God in his philosophy of man