Lecture 31: 15th C
Renaissance
Dr. Ann T. Orlando
19 November 2015
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Introduction
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Renaissance movement
Language
Political pragmatism
Popular northern devotion
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Renaissance = Rebirth
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Name given by 19th C historians
Begins in Italy in 14th C, extends to mid-16th C when
it becomes Baroque
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Catholic Intellectual and artistic movement
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Renaissance is said to begin when Petrarch reads
Confessions when he ascends Mt. Ventoux, April 26, in
1336
Michelangelo (1475-1564) is usually considered both a
Renaissance and a Baroque artist
Rejects the Aristotle of the schoolmen
Embraces rhetoric and language over philosophy
Embraces a certain pragmatism about human life and
society
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Humanism
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Starts in Italy as part of Italian Renaissance
Although outside universities, very much a Catholic-oriented
intellectual movement
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Wants to get back to the original religious and classical
sources, ad fontes
Funding for intellectuals, scholars, artists comes from
wealthy princes, merchants
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Therefore, not to be confused with later atheistic humanism
Medici’s
Popes
In art, man becomes the ‘measure of all things’ Protagoras of
Abdera ( c. 480-410 B.C.)
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Examples in architecture
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Architecture Gothic and
Renaissance
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Beauvais Cathedral
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So large, collapses twice, in
13th C and 16th C
http://archive.cyark.org/cathedral-of-beauvais-info
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Pazzi Chapel, Florence
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Brunellesci 15th
http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Pazzi%20Chapel
/
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Renaissance and Language
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Rejection of ecclesial, scholastic Latin
Development of vernacular literature
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Italian: Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374), and
Boccaccio (1313-1375)
English: Chaucer (1343-1400)
French: Rabelais (1483-553)
Study of works in original languages (ancient Latin,
Greek, Hebrew)
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Bible
Classical Greek and Roman literature
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Petrarch (1304 – 1374)
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‘Father’ of Renaissance
Family wanted him to study law, but he preferred
studying the classics
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Spent time a minor court official in Avignon
Became a wandering poet
Returning to Italy he gathered around himself a
‘school’ in Florence
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Dedicated to literature and the classics
Emphasis on writing in Italian
Secular subject matter
Boccaccio his most famous student
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Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457)
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‘Adjunct’ professor of ancient Latin
Find employment in court of Naples
At the time, Naples is in a feud with papal states
(Pope Eugene IV)
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Papacy using Donation of Constantine to justify its claims
Through critical analysis, Valla demonstrates it is a forgery
Valla obtained an appointment to Curia by Nicholas V
(Vatican Library)
Wrote a treatise, “On Pleasure,” among the first proEpicurean and anti-Stoic works since antiquity
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Erasmus of Rotterdam
(1469-1536)
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Dutch, Augustinian canon
regular
Humanist who encouraged
return to Bible and early Fathers
of Church as a way to reform
Scripture as the philosophy of
Christ
Optimistic about man’s ability to
know and understand; ancient
maxim that if one knows what is
right, one will do it
Detailed textual work on Bible
and Augustine
Most famous scholar of his time
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Erasmus portrait by Hans
Holbein the Younger,
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.138
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New Technologies in 15th C
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Printing Press
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Last great information leap forward was codex
rather than papyrus in 3rd C and Carolingian Script
of 8th C
15th C development of Printing Press allowed rapid
communication my ‘instantly’ creating multiple
copies of a work
Guttenberg assembled multiple technical advances
to create an efficient press; Bible printed 1454
Spurred increase in literacy;
Also removed production of manuscripts from
monasteries to secular world
European Voyages of Discovery
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The Medici Family
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Powerful Florentine family
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Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464)
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Power based on banking
Subterfuge to evade usury laws
Adroitly developed ‘banks’ managed by family members throughout much of Europe
Usually managed to back the ‘winning’ side in Papal-Imperial-French-Italian city state
rivalries
Established Medici family as economic and political powers in Florence
Humanist, patron of arts
Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449 – 1492)
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Grandson of Cosimo the Elder
Brother Giuliano assassinated on Easter in 1478 in Pazzi Chapel; Archbishop of Pisa
(present at the time) complicit in the assignation (executed in his Easter vestments)
Lorenzo went to war with Pope Sextus IV; ends with an uneasy peace between Medici
and papacy
Lorenzo’s son Giovanni became Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521)
Lorenzo educated Giuliano’s son, who later became Pope Clement VII (r. 1523-1534)
…and his granddaughter, Catherine (1519-1589) becomes Queen of France
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Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
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Public life fell in and out of favor with the Medici’s as
they went in and out of power in Florence
Basis of political theory is that power makes an
authority legitimate, not ‘goodness’
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Legitimacy of law is wholly dependent on ability to enforce
law
Prince’s virtues are those qualities which ensure his
ability to effectively wield power
Most likely the ‘prince’ that Machiavelli is advising is
the illegitimate son of Alexander VI and sometime
cardinal; known for his cruelty
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Popular Devotion in Northern
Europe
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Beguines
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Begin in 13th C as a loosely connected group of reclusive
religious women in Netherlands
Beguine houses spread throughout Europe, but no vows
Sometimes accused fo heresy and suppressed, but then
rehabilitated
Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) may be associated with the
later Beguine movement
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Popular Northern devotions
(cont.)
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Devotio Moderna
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Begun in Netherlands by Gerharde Groote (1340-1384)
Call to simpler more personal from of Christina life and
meditation
Little emphasis on ecclesial Church and ritual
Brethren of Common Life lay community founded by Groote,
communities spread throughout Europe
Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Imitation of the Life of
Christ
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During the Reformation many of these communities break
from the Church and are basis of pietism movements
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Assignments
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1. Petrarch, Ascent of Mt. Ventoux,
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source
/petrarch-ventoux.html
2. Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince,
Dedication, Chapters I,XI, XVIII,
available at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/
machiavelli-prince.html#DEDICATION
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