The Renaissance Beyond Italy:
Innovations on the Italian Motif
I. The Renaissance in Italy: Characteristics
A. A Spirit of Optimism
1.
Recovery from an “unhappy condition”
a.
2.
3.
The Little Ice Age, Black Death, endemic warfare
Economic solvency: the opening of the East
Political autonomy
B. The embrace of Antiquity
1.
2.
Selective borrowing: orators and the state
WHY?
a. Search for new models
b. Italian, Urban, Cosmopolitan, non-feudal, culturally unified
C. Christianity as Core
II. Humanism: the Italian philosophy “of life”
A. Renaissance humanitas
B. Two main tenets
1. bene beatique vivendi ars: the art of living well
and holy
a. The active vs. the comtemplative
2. homo faber: man as maker/doer
C. Implications
1. Centrality/dignity of man
2. Reason vs. Eloquence
III. Propagating the spirit: the studia humanitatis
1. Subjects:
a. Grammar
i. “cleaning up” the texts
ii. Relevance to contemporary context
b.
c.
d.
e.
Rhetoric
History
Moral philosophy
Poetry
2. Vs. the seven liberal arts
a. Trivium & Quadrivium
3. Implications
IV. Changed Realities: Italy by 1500
A. The rise of signorie
1.
2.
Causes
Implications
B. Loss of Economic Dominance
1.
2.
The move north
Oceanic trade
C. The Italian Wars
1.
2.
The Italian “Surrender”
Emigration
D. The Counter-Reformation
E. Consequences & Implications
V. The “Northern Renaissance”
A. Definition
B. Common Attributes
1. Embrace and patronage of the arts/literature
2. Centrality of the court
a. Education and civility
b. Political theory and centralization
3. Adoption of Humanism
4. Chaos of the Reformations
VI. Dissemination
A. Human “bearers of knowledge”
B. Oral, manuscript, print
C. Humanist influence
1. Demand & supply
2. Founding humanist schools/universities
3. Informal academies
VI. Humanism in the North
A. Curriculum & tools
B. The embrace of the classics
C. A specific sort of inquiry: the self
1. Dignity of man/worth of woman
2. Self-fashioning & reactions thereto
D. The triumph of the vernacular
E. Influence of the printing press
F. Influence of religion
VII. Christian Humanism: Social
Regeneration Through Education
A. Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)
1. Erasmus’ Christian Humanism
a. Educational reform
b. Eloquence vs. dialectic
2. Scholarship
 new editions of ancient texts
 New Testament in Greek (1516)
 Education of a Christian Prince (1516)
3. The Praise of Folly (1511)
4. The “Phisolophia Christi”
5. Implications
B. Thomas More (1478-1535)
1. More’s Christian Humanism
a. History
b. Political theory
i. The role of government
ii. The Humanist as counselor
2. Utopia (1516)
a. Raphael Hathloday & the island
b. The attributes of “no place”
3. Implications
a. Human reason & morality