WHAT WAS THE RENAISSANCE ?
WHY IS THIS NEW AGE CALLED THE RENAISSANCE ?
The Renaissance was from 1400 to 1700 ac.
The new age began when some Italians started to look at the achievement of the ancient Greek and
Romans. They admired the buildings they saw and the books they found. They tried to copy them.
This changed the way they thought and behaved. It was almost as if the Romans and the Greeks had
come back to life. For that reason historians call this age “Renaissance”, which means rebirth. The Renaissance
was a new interest in them Greek and Roman world and the way people began to question old ideas.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE
The Renaissance was different from the Middle Ages in many ways.
Medieval
Renaissance
In the middle Ages priests monks or nuns were
amongst the only people who could read and write.
They studied the bible and the writings of early
Christians.
In the Renaissance, many more people learned to
read and write. They studied The writings of the
Ancient Greeks and Romans as well as the Bible.
Medieval people thought that life here on earth
mattered less than life in heaven after a person
died.
Greek and Roman writers were not Christians. They
thought life in this world was important and did not
worry about the next. People form the Renaissance
learnt from them. They admired the beauty of
nature and felt it was important to study it.
Medieval people accepted the teachings of the
Christian Church, even in Geography or Medicine. It
did not occur to them to question these teachings.
Renaissance people believed humans could do
almost anything. They questioned the teachings of
the Church and wanted to find things out for
themselves.
HUMANISM
The Renaissance way of looking at the world is called humanism. That mean that human beings are at
the center of everything. Here is a piece of evidence form the Renaissance that show the meaning of
humanism :
“The greatest thing on earth is to know how to belong to oneself. Everyone looks in front of
them. But I look inside of myself. I have no concerns but my own. I constantly reflect of myself.”
From a scholar called Michel de Montaigne
WHY DID THE RENAISSANCE BEGIN IN ITALY ?
ITALY HAD BEEN THHE CENTER OF THE OLD ROMAN EMPIRE
In every town in Italy there were ruins of the old Roman buildings. These reminded the Italians of the
achievement of their ancestors and aroused their curiosity. They wanted to learn about the Romans and their
art, literature and architecture. The Italian language was based on Latin, the language of the Romans. That
made it easy for Italians to read the books of Roman writers.
THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE BROUGHT GREEK SCHOLARS TO ITALY
In 1453 the Turks conquered the Greek city of Constantinople. Greek scholars escaped to Italy. They
brought many Greek manuscripts with them. This made many Italians interested in in Greek ideas as well.
ITALIAN MERCHANTS WE RE RICH
Italian merchants brought silks and spices from Asia and sold them to the rest of Europe. This trade
made them immensely rich. As a result they had money to spend on fine buildings and magnificent pictures
and statues. Works of art became status symbols by which wealthy people showed how rich they were.
ITALIAN MERCHANTS FOUND NEW IDEAS ON THE IR TRAVELS
Their trade brought Italians into contact with people like the Chinese or the Arabs, who had a much
more advanced civilization than the Europeans at that time. These Italians brought home many ideas of their
travels and became more critical of the old way of doing things.
ITALY HAD MANY GREAT CITIES
In the rest of Europe, the Feudal system existed, where kings and nobles ruled over the people. But
Italy had no King. It was divided into cities and each city had its own ruler. Here are the most important cities :
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Rome was ruled by the Pope.
Florence was ruled by a wealthy banking family, the Medici.
Milan was ruled by a military family, the Sforza.
In Venice the 500 richest families elected a council to run their city.
As you can see, each city had its way of doing things. That made Italians more willing to try new ways of doing
things than people in other parts of Europe.
COMPETITION BETWEEN ITALIAN CITIES
The citizens of each Italian city thought that their city was the best. They were willing to spend a lot of
money to make it more beautiful than its neighbors.
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City governments hired the best architects to design fine churches and monuments and they paid
the best artists to decorate churches with pictures and statues.
Rich merchants spent their own money on buildings, pictures and statues to beautify their city. They
also competed with one another to get the best artists to paint pictures for their private houses, and
the best musicians to play for them.
This intense competition meant that there was plenty of work for painters, sculptors and architects.
PATRONS
The city government and rich merchant were called patrons. A patron is a person who pays an artist
to produce a work of art. During the Renaissance works of art became status symbols that helped wealthy
cities and powerful men to show off their wealth and power to the world.
THE RENAISSANCE BEGINS IN FLORENCE
In 1400 Florence was the richest city of Italy. The inhabitants made their money from the wool trade
and banking.
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Merchants from Florence travelled around the Europe buying high-quality wool. They brought it back
to Florence where local people wove it into fine woolen cloth and dyed it in brilliant colors. Then the
merchants sold the woolen cloth to the kings and nobles of Europe and made a great deal of money.
To help their trade, merchants from Florence became bankers. It was dangerous to carry gold and
silver coins, so they invented “bills of exchange” (today we call the cheques). They opened bank in
many cities and lent money to kings and popes. Banking helped them make more money.
Florence was a republic. That meant that the people elected the government. The Florentines loved
their city. They built churches and public buildings and filled them with paintings and statues.
COSIMO DE MEDICI : A RENAISSANE PATRON
The richest bankers in Florence were the Medici. Cosimo de Medici was the head of the family. He
was a shrewd businessman who made a great fortune. He used his money to have his friends elected onto the
government. That made him the great ruler of Florence.
Cosimo admired the writings of Greek and Roman scholars. He sent agents around Europe to search
monastic libraries for old, forgotten manuscripts. If they found any, they were to copy them and carry them
back to Florence.
Cosimo built a library to house his manuscripts. It became the largest library in Europe. It was also the
first public library because it was open to everyone. He also set up an academy where scholars could study
manuscripts. He called it the Platonic academy after the Greek writer Plato.
Cosimo was also a patron. This meant he helped artists and inventors. He invited them to stay in his
home and paid them to work for him. He also paid for many public buildings himself. For example he paid a
famous architect, Brunelleschi, to build a parish church in the new Renaissance style.
Cosimo ruled Florence for thirty years. He made alliances with other cities. That kept the peace
between the different states in Italy and allowed trade to flourish. Under Cosimo’s rule Florence became the
cultural capital of Europe.
LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT
When Cosimo died, his grandson Lorenzo took over. He was only twenty years old. He did so many
good things that people called him “Lorenzo the magnificent”. He was great sportsman and a famous patron
of the art. He also wrote poetry. Among the artists he supported were Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.
He also continued to collect manuscripts.
OTHER PATRONS
Soon after Lorenzo died, the king of France invaded Italy. This started a war that lasted for many
years. Florence was heavily involved, and its wealth was reduced. After that the popes became the main
patrons in Italy.