Recovery and Rebirth:
The Age of the Renaissance
Characteristics & Meaning of Renaissance
Recovery from 14th C
Essentially urban
phenomenon
Rediscovery of classical
antiquity
Emphasis on individual
ability
Economic Recovery
Italian cities lose preeminence
due to Plague
Hanseatic League grow in power
Compete w/ Med city-states
Textile industry rivaled by
printing, mining, & metallurgy
Venetians cont’d development of
commercial empire
Banking flourishes in Florence w/
new profits from textiles
Social Changes in the Renaissance
The Nobility
2 - 3 % of population
Military & political posts
Concession from centralizing
rulers
More costs & less profits of
14th C
Education: Key to advancement
Baldassare Castiglione
• The Book of the Courtier
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Service to the prince
Modest, but proud?
Classical ed
Impeccable character (nobles
born w/ grace)
 Martial skill
Peasants and Townspeople
85-90% of population
(Rising econ + new ag
techniques) x plague
costs =
(Decline of manorialism
+ cont’d erosion of
serfdom)
Lords found more
profitable to hire workers
Social Stratification in Cities
Peasants as hired workers
After ruin of plague, towns
grew in pop
Social status in cities
developed & grew
Patricians: old $,
commercial banking;
dominated local govt
Petty burghers: artisans,
shopkeepers, guild
masters/members
Property-less workers
Unemployed 30-40% of pop
Slavery in the Renaissance
Ag slavery declines, largely
replaced by serfdom by 9th C
Reappears in 11th C; grows
rapidly, esp. after BD steals
workers
Skilled workers needed in Italy
Household workers wanted across
Europe
Concubines for wealthy patricians
Obtained from the eastern Med,
Black Sea region, Africa, & Spain
Wars b/t Christians & Muslims bring
fresh infidels” to each side
Declines in Italy by end of 15th
century (except in royal courts)
Portuguese import 140,000 from
Africa between 1444 and 1505
Replace European slaves
The Family in Renaissance Italy
Extended in nature
Multi-generational living
Often almost like communes
(families w/ parents in large villas
Usually echoed feudal order
• Autocratic Father center of family
• Mother over females; usually
much younger
• Eldest brother replaces; Eldest
wife
Marriages
Arranged for social & econ
advance
Role of the wife
Primary role to bear children
High mortality rates childbirth,
infancy, & early childhood
Italian States of Renaissance Era
Five most powerful city-states:
Milan
Venice
Florence
Naples
Papal States
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Five Major States
Duchy of Milan
Prior to 1447, ruled by
Visconti family
Briefly repub before
former condittiero
Francesco Sforza
claimed control by
marrying Visconti
daughter & paid HRE
for title
Highly organized &
profitable tax & govt
admin
Controlled Lombardy
Republic of Venice
Maritime powerhouse
Controlled
northwestern Italy &
Western Adriatic
Borghesia-aristocrat
oligarchy govt
Commercial empire
Elected Doge (dux)
acted as chief admin
Fear of Venice led to
Florentine-Milanese
alliance
Republic of Florence
Dominated Tuscany
@start of 15th C,
controlled by
borghesian oligarchy
1434: Cosimo Medici
assumes control
Kept appearance of
repub, but ran govt as
“grey eminence”
Thru LAVISH
patronage of arts,
made Florence center
of Renaissance
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Medici Hall of Fame
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Giovanni di Bicci
Masaccio &
Brunelleschi
Cosimo
Lorenzo
Florence Under the Medici
As power grew, all pretense of
oligarchy (let alone democracy) fell
Cosimo content to be grey eminence;
Piero sickly, Lorenzo powerful, but
generous
Exiled under Piero II (1494-1512);
restored to power in 1530
After Lorenzo’s death, Girolamo
Savonarola came to power
establishing a republic/theocracy
Botticelli renounced painting
Weirdly, Pico della Mirandola was a
friend
Condemnations of Pope Alex VI
resulted in his death
Medici assumed power
again under Alessandro
II (Il Moro)
A New Generation Rises
After Allessandro’s
murder by a cousin, a
junior branch of Medici
(children of Cosimo’s brother Lorenzo)
assumed control of
Florence under Cosimo I,
Duke of Tuscany (1537)
This line would rule for
200 years (when a Hapsburg
family that married into the Medici
would take over)
Independent City-States
Independent City-States
Urbino
Federico da Montefeltro, (14441482)
Took over after brother died,
but continued in his profession
as condottiero
Fought for Milan, Florence,
Ferrara
Made Urbino into a
Renaissance center- second
largest library
Named Duke of Urbino by
pope Sixtus, named Gonfaliere
of the Church (mil cdr)
Surgeons removed bridge of his
nose after a fight- improved line of
sight for left eye
Mantua
Controlled by Gonzaga family
Married into Paleologi family
Also condottieri even after rise
Isabella d’Este (1474-1539) ruled
after hubby Francesco died.
First woman of Renaissance
Accomplished musician, Greek
& Latin scholar
Patron of arts
• Leonardo
• Titian
• Raphael
Ferrara
Warfare in Italy
Wars in Lombardy:
1425-1454
Venice v. Milan
Peace of Lodi: 1454
Balance of power
• Milan, Florence, &
Naples allied against
Venice & Papal States
Troubles w/ Spain & France
France dominated
Naples & Milan
Francis I
• Allied with Pope &
Suleiman
Aragon (later Spain) allied
w/ remaining citystates
Carlos I (aka Charles V)
sacked Rome
Had Naples, 2
Sicilies; got Milan
back after Pavia
Birth of Modern Diplomacy
For smaller city-states to
survive, resident agents
sent to other city states
Due to influence of
France/Spain, agents sent
to other countries
Ambassadors developed
from this
In 16th & 17th C, mod dip
practices developed
Rights of ambassadors
Procedures for conducting
int’l affairs
Machiavelli and the New Statecraft
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
The Prince
• Political power to restore and
maintain order
• Humanity is self-centered
• Ends justifies the means
Based his work on life of
Cesare Borgia
Dedicated it to Medici
Currying favor b/c they had
previously exiled him
Duke of Valentinois, Duke of Romagna, Prince of
Andria and Venafro, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino,
Camerino, and Urbino, Gonfalonier of the Church
Captain General of the Church, Bishop of Pamplona
Cardinal of Valencia
Italian Renaissance Humanism
Liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric,
poetry, moral philosophy, and
history)
Emergence of Humanism
• Petrarch (1304-1374)
 Rejected scholastic
philosophy
 Emphasize classics
Humanism in 15th C Italy
• Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444)
 Civic humanism
Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457)
• Literary criticism of ancient
texts
Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459)
• Criticism of the church
Humanism and Philosophy
Marsilio Ficino (1433-99)
Synthesis of
Christianity &
Platonism
Florentine Platonic
Academy
Hermeticism
Occult sciences
Theological and
philosophical beliefs
and speculation
Pico della Mirandola
(1463-94)
Common nuggets of
universal truth
Education in the Renaissance
Vittorino da Feltre (13781446)
Humanist education
Pietro Paolo Vergerio
(1370-1444)
Liberal arts education
History, moral
philosophy, rhetoric,
letters (grammar and
logic), poetry,
mathematics, astronomy,
and music
Women
“Renaissance man”
Humanism and History
Secularism of
history
Miracles
downplayed
Natural causation
Francesco
Guicciardini (1483-1540)
Modern analytical
historiography
History of Italy &
History of Florence
Impact of Printing
Johannes Gutenberg
Movable metal type, 14451450
Bible, 1455 or 1456
Spread rapidly
Venice alone home to 1k
printers
Development of
scholarly research
Lay reading public
50% religious in nature
Latin/Greek classics
Romances grew
increasingly popular
The Artistic Renaissance
Early Renaissance
Masaccio (1401-1428)
Frescos
Paolo Uccello (13971475)
Laws of perspective
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
• Greek and Roman mythology
Donato di Donatello (1386-1466)
• David
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)
• Architecture
Piero della Francesca (c. 1410-1492)
• Portraits
The High Renaissance
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Realism and idealism
Raphael (1483-1520)
Ideal of beauty
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
• Divine beauty
Donato Bramante (1444-1514)
• Architecture
Artist and Social Status
Artist as hero
Financial gains
The Northern Artistic Renaissance
Jan van Eyck (1390?-1441)
• Oil paint and varied range of colors
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
• Perspective and proportion
Music in the Renaissance
Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400-1474)
• Change in the composition of the mass
Madrigal (poem set to music)
The European State in the Renaissance
The “New Monarchies”
Concentration of authority
Suppression of the nobility
Control of the church
Loyalty of the People
The Growth of the French Monarchy
Charles VII, 1422-1461
• Taille (annual direct tax)
• Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, 1438
Louis XI, 1461-1483
• Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, 1467-1477
• Commerce
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Burgundy
Under Charles
the Bold
Europe in the Renaissance
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England: Civil War and a New Monarchy
War of the Roses, 1450s-1485
Henry VII, 1485-1509, Tudors
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Abolished “livery and maintenance”
Court of Star Chamber
Income
Commerce
Unification of Spain
Isabella of Castile, 1474-1504
Ferdinand of Aragon, 1479-1516
Cortes
Hermandades
The Iberian Peninsula
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Corregidores
The Church
Jews and Muslims
• Inquisition
Granada, 1492
Expulsion of Jews and Muslims
The Holy Roman Empire: The Success of
the Habsburgs
Frederick III, 1440-1493
Maximilian I, 1493-1519
Southeastern Europe
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Struggle for a Strong Monarchy in Eastern Europe
Poland
Hungary
Russia
Ottoman Turks and the End of the Byzantine Empire
Spread of the Seljuk Turks, 13th century
Constantinople falls, 1453
The Church in the Renaissance
The Problems of Heresy and Reform
John Wyclif (c. 1328-1384)
• No basis of papal claims for temporal authority
• Lollards
John Hus (1374-1415)
• Calls for end of worldliness and corruption of the clergy
Council of Constance, 1414-1418
• Sacrosancta (council received authority from God)
• Frequens (regular holding of councils)
Pope Pius II – Execrabilis (condemned appeals to a
council over the head of the pope is heretical)
The Renaissance Papacy
Pope Julius II, 1503-1513
• Warrior pope
• Basilica of Saint Peter
Pope Sixtus, 1474-1484
• Nepotism
Pope Alexander VI, 1492-1503
• Debauchery and sensuality
Pope Leo X, 1513-1521
• Patron of the arts