Unit 1 Renaissance to Reformation to Religious Wars
AP European History
Lesson 1: What is the meaning, characteristics and causes of the Italian
Renaissance?
View: Crash Course: World History. The Renaissance: Was it a Thing?
1. Identify John Green’s central argument about the Renaissance.
2. Cite his evidence regarding the Middle Ages, the Islamic world and the
economy of the period that supports his argument.
3. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Read:
P. 341-347 Western Civilization
Ane Lintvedt, “Teaching Students to Interpret Documents” in Perspectives, Dec. 2004
Petrarch p. 6; Bruni, p. 7 Sources of the Western Tradition
Analyze Primary Documents:
Provide a summary, POV (Point of View) and analysis of the document.
To determine POV use the following questions as a guide:
 Who is the author or authors?
 Why would she, he, or they say or think this?
 Where does the document come from in time and geography?
 What does it come from? A religious text, a letter, a diary, a newspaper, a
speech?
 Why was the document created?
 Is the document true or accurate?
Lesson 2: The Italian States in the Renaissance
Read: The Western Tradition, p. 347-352
View: “The Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance” PBS available on YouTube
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What was the result of de Medici’s search for ancient manuscripts?
What was the function of patronage?
Explain the importance of the development of linear perspective.
Discuss what Donatello’s David sculpture represented.
Summarize Cosimo de Medici’s contribution to the Renaissance.
Lesson 3: The Intellectual Renaissance in Italy and the Artistic Renaissance
Read: The Western Civilization, p. 352-366
View: The Western Tradition, Program 25, “The Renaissance and the Age of
Discovery”.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What is Weber’s central argument about the Renaissance?
In what ways did medieval innovations contribute to the Renaissance?
Identify the key shift in thought that occurred by the 14th century.
What does humanism stress?
Examine Machiavelli’s contribution to Renaissance thought.
Explain the developments specific to Renaissance visual art that is reflected
in Giotto, Van Eyck, Botticelli, and Michelangelo.
Primary Source Analysis: Pico della Mirandola, “Oration on the Dignity of Man”, p. 10
in Sources of the Western Tradition
Resources: Websites to view art from Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Ancient
Regimes.
http://musa.uffizi.firenze.it/discrezioneE.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/auth
Lesson 4 The European State and the Church in the Renaissance
The problems of heresy and reform; Wycliff; Lollardy; Hus and the Hussites; Reform
of the Church; The Renaissance Papacy – Julius II, Nepotism; Patrons of culture. Leo
X.
Read: Western Civilization, p. 366-373
Primary Source Analysis: Alessandra Strozzi, “Letters from a Widow and Matriarch
of a Great Family” (1450-1465), p. 8 Sources of the Making of the West
Key Questions/Writing Assignments:
Choose 1 from the following 3.
1. Identify the attitudinal elements that fueled the accomplishments of the
Italian Renaissance. Was it just of direct importance to the small elite part of
the urban population, or was there possibly some “trickle down” to lower
social groups?
2. Compare an Italian Renaissance painting and a Northern renaissance
painting. Think about audience, purpose, and style. In what ways are they
similar and different? How do they reflect the society that produced them?
3. Research a Renaissance Pope and report on the life of that pope. Focus on the
contributions of the pontiff to the decline of the Catholic Church. Which
popes stand out as particularly influential, positively or negatively?
4. Discuss the role of women during the Renaissance. Was rebirth and
humanism only for men? Complete document analysis and write an
introduction only with a thesis that answers the question as a last sentence.
N.B. The instructor will provide the documents. * Everyone does this