Name: __________________________ Date: _____________
Use the following to answer questions 1-10:
Write the letter of the word or phrase that best matches the definition or example provided. Some
terms may be used more than once; others may not be used at all.
Terms
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o.
p.
q.
r.
s.
Renaissance
debate about women
communes
signori
oligarchies
republic
condottieri
humanism
popolo
secularism
individualism
virtù
royal council
court of the Star Chamber
New Christians
courts
patronage
Christian humanists
orders
Page 1
Page 2
1. Government by one-man rule in Italian cities such as Milan.
2. A term applied to Jews and Muslims who accepted Christianity; in many cases they
included Christians whose families had converted centuries earlier.
3. A French word meaning “rebirth,” first used by art historian and critic Giorgio Vasari to
refer to the rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity.
4. The quality of being able to shape the world according to one's own will.
5. Disenfranchised common people in Italian cities who resented their exclusion from
power.
6. Debate among writers and thinkers in the Renaissance about women's qualities and
proper role in society.
7. Magnificent households and palaces where signori and other rulers lived, conducted
business, and supported the arts.
8. Northern humanists who interpreted Italian ideas about and attitudes toward classical
antiquity and humanism in terms of their own religious traditions.
9. Financial support of writers and artists by cities, groups, and individuals, often to produce
specific works or in specific styles.
10. A program of study designed by Italians that emphasized the critical study of Latin and
Greek literature with the goal of understanding human nature.
Page 3
Choose the letter of the best answer.
11. Why did a unified Italian state fail to develop in the fifteenth century?
A) Political loyalty and feeling centered on a passionate attachment to the individual
city-state.
B) The papacy prevented any movement toward unification, fearing a threat to its
political authority.
C) France and the Holy Roman Empire had too many land claims in the region to permit
any unification.
D) Spain claimed all of southern Italy and threatened war on any power seeking to unify
the peninsula.
E) The Italians were too culturally and linguistically diverse to realistically contemplate
unification.
12. As consumer habits changed, an aristocrat's greatest expense was usually his
A) urban palace.
B) military hardware and training.
C) daughter's dowry.
D) food.
E) jewelry and clothing.
13. Francesco Petrarch believed that
A) a new era would dawn as writers stripped Christianity of the classical Roman
influences that had polluted the church's teachings.
B) the writers of ancient Greece had reached a perfection in literature and philosophy
that the writers of ancient Rome had corrupted.
C) the recovery of classical texts would bring about a new golden age of intellectual
achievement.
D) the barbarian invaders had brought a new, vigorous energy to Western culture that
needed to be integrated into the classical tradition.
E) education should center on the study of the Bible combined with meditation and
reflection.
14. Italian humanists stressed the
A) study of the classics for what they could reveal about human nature.
B) study of the classics in order to understand the divine nature of God.
C) absolute authority of classical texts.
D) role of the church in the reform of society.
E) study of Revelation for a clue to the date of the Second Coming.
Page 4
15. The most important factor in the emergence of the Italian Renaissance was the
A) decline of religious feeling.
B) political disunity of Italy.
C) great commercial revival in Italy.
D) creation of powerful, centralized monarchies.
E) French patronage of Italian artists.
16. The leaders of the Catholic Church
A) ignored the Renaissance.
B) attempted to crush the secularism of the Renaissance.
C) readily adopted the Renaissance spirit, especially when it came to art.
D) used Renaissance ideals to promote moral reform.
E) came to believe that the Renaissance had caused the Reformation.
17. Why did the printing press find substantial success?
A) Governments rejected pleas to censor publishing, realizing that expanding
knowledge would lead to more prosperous subjects.
B) Increasing literacy and the opening of more schools and universities had created an
expanding market for reading material.
C) The technology was highly complex so that only a few presses came into operation,
producing large profits for those printers.
D) Printing presses primarily published secular works useful for professionals and
merchants.
E) Because the press could not print images, printers could work much more quickly
than manuscript copyists, who had to wait for each image to be drawn.
18. Rich individuals sponsored artists and works of art
A) because it was good for business.
B) in order to please God.
C) to glorify themselves and their families.
D) to control unemployment.
E) to enlighten the masses.
Page 5
19. How did the printing press provide a framework to challenge provincial sentiments?
A) The printing press served to reestablish the idea of a unified Christendom.
B) Provincial towns sought to limit and control the spread of printing, undermining
their legitimacy as promoters of the general good.
C) In order to establish legitimacy, printers published primarily in Latin, serving to
reinforce a sense of a unified Western culture.
D) Individuals widely separated by geography could read the same material and form a
common identity that competed with local loyalties.
E) Central governments ordered printing presses established in all local communities in
order to establish a national network of printing.
20. According to Machiavelli, government should be judged on whether it
A) provided the necessary public services.
B) was based on Christian morality.
C) protected the liberty of its citizens.
D) provided order, security, and safety of the populace.
E) improved the economy.
21. All of the following inhibited women's success as painters in the Renaissance except
A) women were not allowed to study the male nude.
B) women could not work in public where the fresco technique was done.
C) women were not permitted to join groups of male artists for informal practice.
D) women were not permitted to attend artistic academies.
E) women were not permitted to take up painting until after they were married.
22. Which of the following best identifies the term “race” in the Renaissance?
A) Groupings of people based on skin color
B) Groupings of people based on noble lineage
C) Groupings of people based on geographic origins
D) Groupings of people based on ethnic, national, or religious factors
E) Groupings of people based on linguistic families
23. In terms of gender relations, Renaissance humanists argued that
A) men and women were equals in intellectual pursuits.
B) the status of women had improved since the Middle Ages.
C) women's sphere of activity was private and domestic.
D) women should have equal opportunity in marital and extramarital sexual relations.
E) women lacked immortal souls.
Page 6
24. Why was women's work less valued and less compensated than men's work?
A) The traditional work associated with women was unskilled and, therefore, more
widely performed.
B) Women were largely secluded in their homes; therefore, their work was seen as
strictly domestic and not worthy of compensation.
C) Women did not seek to organize in guilds so that they could better influence wages
and prices for their work.
D) It was understood that a woman was either married or to be married and, therefore,
not responsible for supporting a family.
E) Women's work was viewed as work that affected the body, such as clothing and food
preparation; therefore, it was associated with fleshly sinfulness.
25. Charles VII of France expanded his authority through all of the following except
A) expelling the English from all French soil except Calais.
B) eliminating nobles' militias and troops.
C) increasing the influence of lawyers and bankers on the royal council.
D) instituting new taxes.
E) establishing regular companies of cavalry and archers.
26. According to the Dutch humanist Erasmus, the key to reform was
A) education.
B) control of the papacy.
C) a pious life.
D) the concerted effort that only a strong state could afford.
E) adherence to church dogma.
27. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile
A) permitted the monarchs to undermine the provincial elite by unifying the two states
into a single, unified kingdom.
B) unified all of the Iberian peninsula.
C) created a dynastic union but did not unify the separate kingdoms into a single state.
D) undermined the claims of the Holy Roman Emperor to be the defender of the church.
E) secured the power of the Roman church in Spain due to the Inquisition.
Page 7
28. The Spanish conversos were
A) American Indians who returned to Spain to demonstrate that they could and would
embrace Christianity.
B) Jewish Christians, some of whom held prominent positions in the state, church, and
business.
C) Albigensian heretics who had fled to Spain to avoid the Inquisition in France.
D) Muslim converts to Christianity following the fall of Granada.
E) small clans of Celts who had hidden away in the Pyrenees and still practiced
traditional Celtic rituals.
29. According to the text, Thomas More's Utopia was remarkable for its time because it
asserted that
A) the problems plaguing society could be solved by a beneficent government.
B) North America would one day be the site of the greatest power in world history.
C) Native Americans could be saved through conversion to Christianity.
D) flaws in the divine nature were responsible for human corruption.
E) human beings evolved from lower animals.
30. What new type of anti-Semitism emerged in fifteenth-century Spain?
A) Status as a Jew was defined as cultural rather than biological or Christian, so that it
could only be removed by being raised in a non-Jewish culture.
B) Status as a Jew was defined as inherent the blood, so Jews could never be true
Christians.
C) Status as a Jew was defined as the result of religious choice, so status could change
when a Jew adopted a new religion.
D) Status as a Jew was defined as political, so status could change if a Jew separated
himself from the political authority of Jewish community leaders.
E) Status as a Jew was defined as intellectual, so status could change if a Jew dedicated
himself to learning and adopting the Christian scholastic tradition.
Page 8
Answer ONE of the following questions in a few paragraphs. Include specific examples that
support your thesis and conclusions.
31. How did Renaissance people define race, class, and gender? How do Renaissance
definitions of these terms differ from contemporary definitions?
Page 9
32. In many ways, the Renaissance was primarily an artistic movement. Describe
Renaissance art. What were its themes and techniques? Be sure to include relevant
examples. How were artists trained, what was their status in society, and who was their
audience? How did Renaissance art reflect the changing attitudes and interests of
Europeans?
Page 10
Answer Key
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
d
o
a
l
i
b
p
r
q
h
A
A
C
A
C
C
B
C
D
D
E
D
C
D
B
A
C
B
A
B
Students should note that ideas about race were closely linked with those about ethnicity
and blood. They should discuss the impact of the growing slave trade and the expulsion of
Muslims and Jews from Spain. They should explain the relationship between status based
on function and status based on wealth during the Renaissance. Students should also
assess the implications of the Renaissance debate about women. Finally, they should
place the origins of the contemporary meaning of race in the eighteenth century, of class
in the nineteenth century, and of gender in the twentieth century.
32. Students should begin with a discussion of the religious and classical themes of the
movement. Then they should describe techniques such as realism, perspective, and
balance. Examples should be cited; the text provides many. Next, students should turn to
the artists themselves, considering their training and status. Better essays might connect
artistic genius with increasingly humanistic and realistic works of art. The system of
patronage should also be discussed. Finally, students should attempt to assess to what
extent Italian Renaissance art, with its increasingly secular styles, represented changing
Page 11
attitudes.
Page 12