RENAISSANCE AND DISCOVERY I
UNIT VI
THE RENAISSANCE
The long and bloody Hundred Years’ War along with the Black Death had carved a path of destruction that left Europe
and its population utterly devastated. However, as the 15th century approached, Europe experienced a dramatic rebirth
that would forever change itself and the world. Those that saw this dramatic change would use the term “Middle Ages”
to distance themselves and acknowledge this new age in Europe: the Renaissance
RENAISSANCE
Meaning “rebirth”, the Renaissance that began in Italy was an age of accelerated change through a cultural movement
spanning from the late 14th through the 16th century striving for excellence in all things from art to politics. However, the
society that the Renaissance foster seems to have concentrated on three major changes:
1. shift from rural-agrarian societies to urban-merchant societies
2. shift from mankind’s insignificance to humanism stressing ambitious individualism to excell
3. shift from a solely religious focus to the acceptance of secular views based on Greek and Roman teachings
URBAN SOCIETY
During the Renaissance, a dramatic economic shift from agrarian economies focused on large feudal fields was replaced
by a merchant economy that focused on trade. This new focus on trade naturally led cities to grow as centers of trade
where merchants could buy and sell goods, as the cities themselves grew wealthier from the increase in trade.
- unlike England and France that united their land and wealth into powerful nation-states, the Italian land and
wealth was maintained into the hands of powerful city-states.
Florence – the birthplace of the Renaissance, the city became a patron (supporter) of the arts controlled by the
Medici family who were rich merchants that helped make Florence the cultural center of Italy
Venice – the cities relation to water and the Mediterranean led the city to become one of the world’s greatest
naval and trading powers establishing a semi-republic ruled by an oligarchy of its merchant class
Milan – located in northern Italy at the crossroads of eastern and western trade in Europe, this city like Venice
became a leading trade center in Europe with a large merchant class
These city-states benefited greatly by supplying the armies of the Crusades and establishing trade cities in the Middle
East from which they acquired special luxury goods not found in Europe.
- however, the pursuit of money and power led these city-states to constantly feud with one another, while
factions inside the cities fought with each other for power and wealth
Despite the internal conflicts between and within city-states, the economical shift favoring merchants in a trade economy,
Italy, at the center of major trade routes, was the most metropolitan (urbanized) and richest cosmopolitan
(internationally sophisticated) area in Europe.
HUMANISM
Humanism was born out of the attempt to merge Greek and Roman logic with Christian values and ethics as people
began to reason that since individuals were “made in God’s image”, that individuals had an obligation to develop their
skills and focus them not on their afterlife but to make positive change in this world during this life.
Humanism – a strong belief and emphasis on the individual stressing classical education on the humanities of literature,
history and philosophy so that an individual could excel in all things (humanities provide a foundationary skills
on which to pivot in numerous professional directions)
Renaissance Man – an individual who can do almost anything such as Leonardo daVinci who was a painter,
sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, humanist
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in addition to paintings, Leonardo left more than 4,000 pages of notes and drawings including human anatomy,
mechanical diggers, artillery, and conceptions for tanks, solar power, calculators, plate tectonics and flying devices
Renaissance education – reborn from the ancient Greek and Roman schools and centered around humanities stressing
the study of ancient language (Latin and Greek) but moves to vernacular languages (everyday language of an
area) by 1500 as many ancient works are translated
Dante Alighieri – Italian author of The Divine Comedy (1321) and its tale of his soul’s journey from hell to
salvation
Chaucer – English author of The Canterbury Tales (1400), a collection of tales of pilgrims competing to tell a
story on their way to the shrine of a saint
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The key to humanism was that man wasn’t insignificant as preached by medieval thinking, but that he was a marvelous
creature with the potential to do great things. If man were ambitious enough to excel and perfect all he was capable of,
he would not only have great wisdom, but the ability to focus his talents to better the world around him.
SECULAR FOCUS
When the Byzantine Empire fell, scholars from Constantinople fled to Italy where they found fertile ground for their
Greek and Roman ideas about power, politics, theology, and culture introducing a much more logical and secular
(worldly) understanding of the world that had been dominated by the religious authority of the Catholic Church.
Niccolò Machiavelli – an Italian political philosopher known for his ruthless political theories (The Prince) that taught
religious morality has no place in politics believing all people were self-centered acting out of selfish desires
- taught that rulers must be ruthless to hold on to power “better to be feared that loved”
“the ends justify the mean” – this became a central argument in his beliefs seeing that any evil action (means)
can be justified if it is done for a good purpose in the end as long as the means are swift, effective and
stabilized the health of the state
Art in the Renaissance – Renaissance artists attempted to mimic the everyday world in realistic terms with paintings
taking on a three-dimensional look using linear perspective rather than the medieval two-dimensional paintings
- the wealth of a region could be mirrored by the superb artistic output that was produced there and the great
number and names of the artists that resided there
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)  Mono Lisa, Last Supper, Vitruvian Man
Michelangelo (1475-1564)  sculpture of David, The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel ceiling, Pietà
Raphael (1483-1520)  The School of Athens
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – English actor and playwright considered the master of the English
language and known for his many masterpieces including: Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Nights
Dream and Hamlet
While the Renaissance began a trend of a more secular view and study of the world with paintings and depictions of
Greek and Roman historical and mythological events, this isn’t to say that the people of the Renaissance were not
religious. To the contrary, much of the art of the Renaissance was done of and for the church.
- in a time when many people were still illiterate (unable to read or write), paintings of biblical events served
a dual purpose of beautifying churches and providing pictorial representation the illiterate could understand
The new wealth of the merchant economy not only fueled and funded Renaissance art, but also would later finance
overseas explorations. However, the new focus on the individual and secularism didn’t turn Christians away from
religion, but begin the process of questioning the church that would lead to the future crisis known as the Reformation.
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