Name: ____________________
Beard – World History
Date: __________
Overview- What was the Renaissance?
The Renaissance, a French word meaning rebirth or revival, led Europe out of the middle ages
into the modern times.
It was a period between the early fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The rebirth
occurred in the fields of art, literature and science. The term “Renaissance” was coined by the
fifteenth century intellectuals who believed that their age represented the rebirth of classical
culture following an infirming age of darkness as they termed the medieval period. The
Renaissance represented our transformation from medieval to modern civilization.
There were many reasons which acted to bring about Renaissance. Firstly, the philosophers and
thinkers like Robert Bacon, St. Francis of Assisi, and Dante, who all lived in the thirteenth
century. In the medieval period, the church nominated the human mind and activities.
It was difficult to question the church’s authority, but these philosophers revolutionized the
thought and laid a great stress on the importance of reasoning, independent thinking and
scientific investigation. Robert Bacon made a bold appeal for the free use of powers of mind.
Thus, the spirit of enquiring, original and free thinking gave great momentum to the Renaissance
movement.
Johann Gutenburg’s invention of the printing press was another very important factor for the
spread of Renaissance. Before the invention of the printing press it was very difficult to spread
knowledge because the books were written by hand and they were also very costly. This made
knowledge the privilege of the rich people only.
But things changed drastically with the invention of printing press. The first printing press was
set up in 1465 in Germany. The printing press was later introduced in England in 1476. The
press helped in publishing books in large numbers. Besides, printing was more accurate than
copying by hand, and as a consequence books were more dependable. Increase in knowledge and
education also helped fuel an interest in literature and reading.
The Renaissance originated in Italy. The most fundamental reason for this was that Italy in the
later Middle Ages encompassed the most advanced urban society in all of Europe. Italian
aristocrats lived in urban centers rather that in small castles and constituently became fully
involved in urban public affairs. Moreover, since the Italian aristocracy built its palaces in the
cities, the aristocratic class was less sharply set off from the class of rich merchants than in the
north.
In France and Germany, there was never any variation from the idea that aristocrats lived off the
income of their landed estates while rich town dwellers gained their living from trade (a very
feudal system until it collapsed after the Bubonic Plague). In Italy, so many town dwelling
aristocrats engaged in banking or mercantile enterprises and so many rich mercantile families
initiated the manners of aristocracy that by fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the aristocracy and
upper mercantile classes were becoming virtually indistinguishable.
Name: ____________________
Beard – World History
Date: __________
The noted Medici family in Florence, for example, emerged as a family of physicians, made its
fortune in banking and rose imperceptibly into aristocracy. The result of their development for
the history of education is obvious. Not only was there a great demand for education in skills of
reading and counting necessary to become a successful merchant, but the richest and most
prominent families sought above all to find teachers who would import to their offspring the
knowledge and skills necessary to argue well in public arena.
Consequently, Italy produced a large number of non-religious educators, many of whom not only
taught students but demonstrated their learned attainments in the production of political and
ethical essays and works of literature. The schools of their educators, moreover created the best
educated upper-class public in all of Europe and incredibly therefore with a considerable number
of wealthy patrons who were ready to invest in cultivation of new ideas and new forms of
literary and artistic expression.
Another reason for Italy becoming the birth place of an artistic Renaissance lay in the fact that it
had a far greater sense of rapport with the classical past than any other territory in Western
Europe. The Italian aristocratic commitment to an educational curriculum speared success in
urban politics.
The best teachers understandably sought inspiration from ancient Latin and Greek texts because
politics and speech-making were classical rather than medieval arts. Elsewhere, using classical
knowledge and classical literacy style may have seemed outdated and artificial, but in Italy, the
classical past was appealing. Ancient Roman movements were present throughout the Italian
peninsula and ancient Latin literature was popular; Italians recognized their own culture and
history. Moreover, Italians became particularly intent on re-appropriating their classical heritage
in the 14lh and 15th centuries because Italians then were seeking to establish an independent
cultural identity in opposition to a lackluster identity most closely associated with France.
Naturally, once Roman literature and learning became particularly favored in Italy, so did the
Roman art and architecture.
On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions. You do not need to rewrite the
question.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What general areas of culture and society did the Renaissance affect?
How did the printing press help the Renaissance spread throughout Europe?
What are some reasons why the Renaissance began in Italy?
How did the Medici family contribute to the Renaissance?
Why did Italy embrace Latin and Ancient Roman ideas?