Chapter 12

Recovery and Rebirth:

The Renaissance

Pg. 314-320

Meaning and Characteristics of the Italian Renaissance

Renaissance = RebirthRebirth of antiquity – Greco-Roman civilization

Jacob Burkhardt Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860)Portrayed Italy as the birthplace of the modern world

Urban SocietyCity-states dominated political, economic, & social life

Age of RecoveryEffects of Black Death, political disorder, economic recession

Emphasis on individual abilityNew social ideal of a well rounded or universal personWealthy upper class, not a mass movement

Possible Test Question

The Italian Renaissance was primarilya mass movement of the peasants.

characterized by a preoccupation with religion.

a product of rural Italy.

a recovery or rebirth of antiquity and Greco-Roman culture.

a religious reform movement.

Possible Test QuestionAccording to Jacob Burckhardt, the Renaissance in Italy represented

the greatest period of economic recovery in the history of civilization.a period of moral decline.An era of tremendous graft and corruption in Italian government.A continuation of the culture of the High Middle Ages.A distinct break from the Middle Ages and the true birth of the modern world.

The Making of Renaissance Society

Economic RecoveryItalian cities lose economic supremacy

• Lost their advantage due to the plague

Hanseatic League• Commercial organization of German Towns

Manufacturing• Textiles, printing, mining and metallurgy (firearms)

Banking• Florence and the Medici

• Patron to the arts

Possible Test Question

The Medici controlled the finances of the Italian city-state of

Venice

Rome

Milan

Florence

Naples

Possible Test Question

What was the commercial and military league set up off the north coast of Germany?

Delian LeaguePrussian ConfederationBaltic LeagueLeague of German CitiesHanseatic League

Possible Test Question

Two key areas of Renaissance technological innovation were

fireworks and glass making.

mill construction and hydraulics.

mining and metalworking, including manufacture of firearms.

Optical instruments and lens grinding.

The use of the vault and the arch.

Social Changes in the Renaissance

The Nobility (2nd Estate)Reconstruction of the aristocracyAristocracy: 2 – 3 percent of the populationPursued education to maintain role in government

Baldassare Castiglione (1478 – 1529)The Book of the Courtier (1528)Impeccable character, grace, talents and noble birthAchievements such as military and bodily exercisesClassical education, well versed in the artsService to the princeIdeal of a well developed personality became the social ideal for the aristocracy

Possible Test Question

Castiglione’s The Courtier was a primer on military training for nobles.

very popular handbook laying out the new skills in politics, the arts, and personality expected of Renaissance aristocrats.

sharp denunciation of the wasteful noble life.

treatise against active participation in public life.

work on how to achieve political power and then keep it.

Possible Test QuestionThe achievements of the Italian Renaissance were the products of

an elite movement, involving small numbers of wealthy patrons, artists, and intellectuals.a mass movement in which all sections of society participated and contributed.a narrow religious movement directed almost entirely by clerics.a political movement in essence controlled mainly by kings.Foreign inspiration and influence, particularly from Islamic Spain.

Peasants and TownspeoplePeasants (3rd Estate)

Peasants: 85 – 90 percent of populationDecline of manorial system and serfdom

Urban Society – hierarchy of 3rd EstatePatricians – wealth from trade, industry, bankingPetty burghers, shopkeepers, artisans, guildmasters, and guildsmenThe poor and unemployed (30-40% of urban pop.)Slaves

• Black Death caused a shortage of workers• Slavery declined by the end of the 15th century

Possible Test Question

The Third Estate of the fifteenth century was

predominately urbanessentially free from the manorial system, especially in eastern Europe.relatively free from violence and disease in urban areas.overwhelmingly made up of peasants.made up of clergy and nobles.

Possible Test Question

The reintroduction of slavery in the fourteenth century occurred largely as a result of

continued warfare and the capture of foreign prisoners.

the shortage of labor created by the Black Death.

papal decrees encouraging a paternal relationship with pagans.

movements for Italian naval domination of the Mediterranean and the attendant need of manpower.

the importation of slaves from Africa.

Family and Marriage in Renaissance Italy

Husbands and WivesArranged Marriages

• Size of dowry depended on status

Husband head of household• Had to legally free kids or emancipate them

Wife managed household• Had lots of babies!

ChildrenChildbirth

• Approx. 10% of mothers died • 50% of children didn’t reach the age of 20

Sexual NormsAristocratic men had affairs quite oftenProstitution was seen as a necessary vice

Possible Test QuestionWhich of the following statements best describes marriage in Renaissance Italy?

Young men asked women for their hand in marriage, after a lengthy courtship.Husbands were generally the same age as their spouses.Marriages were usually arranged, to strengthen familial alliances.Men and women waited longer to get married than in the Middle Ages.Men and women married earlier than in the Middle Ages because of increased economic opportunities.

The Italian States in the Renaissance

Five Major PowersMilan

• Francesco Sforza

Venice

Florence• Cosimo Medici (1434-1464)

• Lorenzo the Magnificent (1469-1492)

The Papal States• Looked to regain control over Urbino, Bologna, & Ferrara

Kingdom of Naples

Italian States Cont’dIndependent City-States

Mantua• Vittorino da Feltre

Ferrara• Governend by the D’Este family

Urbino• Federigo da Montefeltro• Wife was Battista Sforza, niece of Francesco Sforza

The Role of WomenBattista Sforza governed Urbino when her husband was goneNaples was strongly influenced by Isabella d’Este

• Helped rule Mantua before & after her husband’s death

Italian States Cont’dWarfare in Italy

Balance of power between city states existed• Until Ludovico Sforza invited French to intervene in Italian

polics

• Other states turned to Spain for help

Struggle between France and Spain• Charles VIII of France vs. Ferdinand of Aragon

• After 1510, Francis I of France vs. Charles I of Spain

• Charles I sacked Rome in 1527 ending the Italian wars

Invasion and division• Still only a slight sense of Italian nationalism

• Italy will not be a unified nation until 1870

Possible Test Question

By the fifteenth century, Italy wasa centralized state.

dominated by the Papal States exclusively.

the foremost European power.

dominated by five major regional independent powers.

made up of hundreds of independent city-states.

Possible Test Question

Perhaps the most famous of Italian ruling women was

Battista Sforza.

Isabella d’Este.

Christina of Milan.

Catherine de Medici.

Christine de Pizan.

Possible Test Question

Federigo da Montefeltro of Urbino wasan example of a skilled, intelligent, independent Italian warrior prince.an outspoken advocate of Italian unification.a callous, disloyal prince, loathed by the papacy.strictly opposed to the proliferation of condottieri in Italy.a pious subject of the papacy.

Possible Test Question

The Peace of Lodi in 1454 exemplifies what key Italian Renaissance political concept?

rule through intimidation

peace at any price

a balance of power between multiple, competing territorial states

the useless nature of paper treaties

the inevitability of war and violence

Map 12.1: Renaissance Italy

The Birth of Modern Diplomacy

Modern diplomacy a product of Renaissance Italy

Ambassador used to be a servant of Christendom

Changing concept of the ambassadorResident ambassadors

Agents of the territorial state

Machiavelli and the New Statecraft

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)The Prince (1513)Realistic examination political ruleAcquisition, maintenance and expansion of political powerPrince should act on behalf of the state, not his conscienceCesare Borgia

• Pope Alexander VI son• Perfect model for the The Prince

Possible Test Question

Machiavelli’s ideas as expressed in the The Prince achieve a model for

a republican state in Italy.a new attitude of moral responsibility among politicians.a modern secular concept of power politics.a deeply religious conception of the religious sanctity of the state.the justification of divine right monarchy.

Italian Renaissance HumanismClassical RevivalPetrarch (1304 – 1374)Humanism in Fifteenth-Century Italy

Leonardo Bruni (1370 – 1444)• New Cicero

Lorenzo Valla (1407 – 1457)Humanism and Philosophy

Marsilio Ficino (1433 – 1499)• Translates Plato’s dialogues• Synthesis of Christianity and Platonism

Renaissance HermeticismFicino, Corpus HermeticumGiovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463 – 1494), Oration on the Dignity of Man

Education, History, and the Impact of Printing

Education in the RenaissanceLiberal Studies: history, moral philosophy, eloquence (rhetoric), letters (grammar and logic), poetry, mathematics, astronomy and musicEducation of womenAim of education was to create a complete citizen

Humanism and HistorySecularizationGuicciardini (1483 – 1540), History of Italy, History of Florence

The Impact of Printing Johannes Gutenberg

• Movable type (1445 – 1450)• Gutenberg’s Bible (1455 or 1456)

The spread of printing

Art in the Early RenaissanceMasaccio (1401 – 1428)Perspective and OrganizationMovement and Anatomical StructurePaolo Uccelo (1397 – 1475)

The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510)Primavera

Donato di Donatello (1386 – 1466)David

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – 1446)The Cathedral of FlorernceChurch of San Lorenzo

Masaccio, Tribute Money

The Artistic High Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)Last Supper

Raphael (1483 – 1520)School of Athens

Michelangelo (1475 – 1564)The Sistine Chapel

Raphael, School of Athens

The Artist and Social Status

Early RenaissanceArtists as craftsmen

High RenaissanceArtists as heroes

The Northern Artistic Renaissance

Jan van Eyck (c. 1380 – 1441)Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride

Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528)Adoration of the Magi

Van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride

Music in the Renaissance

Burgundy

Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400 – 1474)

The Renaissance Madrigal

The European State in the Renaissance

The Renaissance State in Western EuropeFrance

• Louis XI the Spider King (1461 – 1483)

England• War of the Roses• Henry VII Tudor (1485 – 1509)

Spain• Unification of Castile and Aragón• Establishment of professional royal army• Religious uniformity• The Inquisition• Conquest of Granada• Expulsion of the Jews

Map 12.2: Europe in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century

Map 12.3: The Iberian Peninsula

Central, Eastern, and Ottoman Empires

Central Europe: The Holy Roman EmpireHabsburg DynastyMaximilian I (1493 – 1519)

The Struggle for Strong Monarchy in Eastern EuropePolandHungaryRussia

The Ottoman Turks and the End of the Byzantine Empire

Seljuk Turks spread into Byzantine territoryConstantinople falls to the Turks (1453)

Map 12.4: The Ottoman Empire and Southeastern Europe

The Church in the RenaissanceThe Problems of Heresy and Reform

John Wycliff (c. 1328 – 1384) and LollardyJohn Hus (1374 – 1415)

• Urged the elimination of worldliness and corruption of the clergy• Burned at the stake (1415)

Church CouncilsThe Papacy

The Renaissance PapacyJulius II (1503 – 1513)

• “Warrior Pope”NepotismPatrons of Culture

• Leo X (1513 – 1521)

Discussion QuestionsDoes the Renaissance represent a sharp break from the Middle Ages or a continuation of the Medieval Period?What social changes did the Renaissance bring about?How did Machiavelli deal with the issue of political power?How did the printing press change European society?What technical achievements did Renaissance artists make? Why were they significant?What was the relation between art and politics in Renaissance Italy?How did the popes handle the growing problems that were emerging in the Church in the Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Century?

Web LinksRenaissance SecretsExplore Leonardo’s StudioLeonardo da Vinci on the BBCVatican Exhibit – Rome RebornRenaissance – Focus on FlorenceThe Uffizi Gallery – FlorenceVatican Museums – The Sistine ChapelGutenberg.deThe War of the RosesThe Ottoman Website