AP European
Molony
Chapter 12
Renaissance Study Guide
Chapter Summary
The Age of the Renaissance has a distinct image in most people’s minds. It is one of our most
recognized eras, populated with artists and writers of great genius, vivid imagination, and
amazing skill. Yet the violence of its rising political leaders and daring of its financiers made it,
as one historian has said, an age characterized by “the mixed scent of blood and roses.”
The strong economic recovery of the day, prefiguring the modern world, created a refined
courtly society which supported the arts but planted seeds of envy in the hearts of peasant and
city laborers who did not share the wealth. Strong Italian merchants and European kings held
seats of power. Writers and artists, widely honored for their work, served at the pleasure and
taste of wealthy patrons. Renaissance popes, freeing themselves from the fourteenth century’s
chaos, used their office to enrich themselves and their families. Heresy loomed, and
intellectuals called for reform.
Still the roll call of personalities-Castiglione, Machiavelli, Ficino, Pico, Leonardo, Michelangelo,
Raphael- confirms that the Renaissance was indeed an age of genius and achievement, a high
point in Western Civilization.
Learning Objectives
1. Be able to describe the social changes that characterize Renaissance life, particularly
alterations in the economic system, class structure, and family life.
2. Explain the historical events that led to Machiavelli’s theories of statecraft and how his
theories differed from the published works of political theorists before him.
3. Define Renaissance humanism and show how it reached into all branches of edition,
politics, learning, and into the arts.
4. Describe the new forms of art and architecture the Renaissance introduced and
sustained, from the early works of Masaccio through those of Raphael.
5. Detail the character of the Renaissance Papacy and Church, how it developed skills of
survival in a difficult era and how its practices made it vulnerable to attack reformers.
Vocabulary Terms
1. Jacob Burckhardt
2. Medici
3. Isabella d’Este
4. The Prince
5. Vittorino da Feltre
6. Johannes Guttenberg
7. Masaccio
8. John Wyclif
9. Nepotism
10. Julius II
11. Castiglone
12. Machiavelli
13. Leonardo Bruni
14. Marsilio Ficino
15. Pico della Mirandola
16. Michelangelo
17. Charles VII
18. Henry VII
19. Julius II
20. Leo X
Place the following in Chronological Order and give dates:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella
Sack of Rome
End of the Great Schism
Fall of Constantinople
Expulsion of the Spanish Jews
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges
Battle of Bosworth Field
Questions for Critical Thought
1. As applied to the early modern period of Western Civilization, what does the term
“Renaissance” mean? What areas of life did it affect most?
2. What exactly was the role Castiglione played in the development of Italian courtly
society? Describe his ideal courtier.
3. In what sense can it be said that Machiavelli created a new political science? Describe
it. What message does it have for modern readers?
4. Define Renaissance humanism. What effects did it have on theories and practices of
education?
5. Compare and Contrast Italian and Northern styles of Renaissance art. Which is now
considered more universal in appeal? Why?
6. Recount the way in which Spain was united. Explain how different trails to unity might
have made for a different final product, a different Spain.
7. What was the nature of the new heresies of the Renaissance period? How did they
differ and how were they like previous ones? How was reaction to them by the church
like and unlike reaction to previous ones?
8. Describe the Renaissance papacy by discussing its major figures, their lives, their
accomplishments. Had you been a contemporary scholar, what remedies would you
have prescribed for the problems of the church under their leadership?
AP USB Port – Ch 12 study guide