Stephanie Chiu

Chapter 12 Outline
Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance

I. Meaning and Characteristics of the Renaissance

A. Urban Society
1. As a result of its commercial preeminence and political evolution, northern
Italy by the mid-fourteenth century was mostly a land of independent cities that
dominated the country districts around them.
2. These city-states became the centers of Italian political, economic, and social
life.
3. A secular spirit emerged as increasing wealth created new possibilities for the
enjoyment of worldly things.
B. Age of Recovery
1. The Renaissance was an age of recovery from the “calamitous fourteenth
century”
2. Italy and Europe began a slow process of recuperation from the effects of the
Black Death, political disorder, and economic recession.
C. Rebirth of Classical Culture
1. Italian intellectuals became intensely interested in the Greco-Roman culture of
the ancient Mediterranean world.
2. Affected activities as diverse as politics and art and led to new attempts to
reconcile the pagan philosophy of the Greco-Roman world with Christian
thought, as wells as new ways of viewing human beings.
D. Recovery of the Individual
1. “Men can do all things if they will”
2. A high regard for human dignity and worth and a realization of individual
potentially created a new social ideal of the well-rounded personality or
universal person who was capable of achievements in many areas of life.
II. Making of Renaissance Society
A. Economic Recovery
1. Hanseatic League
a. As early as the thirteenth century, a number of North German coastal
towns had formed a commercial and military association known as the
Hansa, or Hanseatic League.
b. More than 80 cities belonged to the Hansa.
c. It had a monopoly on northern European trade in timber, fish, grain,
metals, honey, and wines. Its southern outlet in Flanders, became the
economic crossroads of Europe in the fourteenth century, serving as the
meeting place between Hanseatic merchants and the Flanders Fleet of
Venice.
2. Wool and Silk
a. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Florentine woolen industry
had begun to recover.
b. Italian cities began to develop and expand luxury industries, especially
silk, glasses, and hand worked items in metal and precious stones.
3. Banking
a. The House of Medici was the greatest bank in Europe, with branches in
Venice, Milan, Rome, Avignon, Bruges, London, and Lyons.
 b. The Medici were also the principal bankers for the papacy, a position
that produced big profits and influence at the papal court.
c. After a rather sudden decline at the end of the century due to poor
leadership and a series of bad loans.
B. Social Changes
1. Domination of the Nobility
a. 2-3 percent of the populations in most countries were nobles, they
managed to dominate society as they had done in the Middle Ages,
serving as military officers and holding important political posts as well
as advising the king.
b. Members of the aristocracy pursued education as the means to maintain
their role in government.
2. Courtly Society in Castiglione’s Courtier
a. The Renaissance ideal of the well-developed personality became a social
ideal of the aristocracy. Nobles were expected to make good
impressions; while being modest, they should not hide their
accomplishments but show them with grace.
b. The aim was to serve his prince in an effective and honest way.
3. Peasants and Townspeople
a. They constituted 85-90 percent of the European population.
b. At the top of urban society were the patricians, whose wealth from
capitalistic enterprises in trade, industry, and banking enabled them to
dominate their urban communities economically, socially, and
politically. Then the petty burghers, and finally the propertyless workers.
4. Slavery
a. Slavery existed, but had declined for economic reasons, and had been
replaced by serfdom by the ninth century.
b. Slaves were used as skilled workers, making handcrafted goods for their
masters, or as household workers. Girls served as nursemaids, and boys
as playmates.
c. Their owners for humanitarian reasons had freed many slaves, and the
major source of slaves dried up as the Black Sea slave markets were
closed to Italian traders after the Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire.
5. Families
a. A family meant the extended household of parents, children, and servants
and could also include grandparents, widowed mothers, and even
unmarried sisters.
b. Parents, often to strengthen business or family ties, arranged marriages.
To do so, the parents of the wife would pay a dowry to determine their
status in society.
c. The father-husband was the center of the Italian family.
III. Italian States in the Renaissance
A. Major States: Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, and the Papal States
1. Northern Italy was divided between the duchy of Milan and the republic of
Venice. The maritime republic of Venice remained an extremely stable
political entity of governed by a small oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats.
2. The republic of Florence dominated the region of Tuscany. It was governed by
a small merchant oligarchy that manipulated the apparently republican
government.
 3. The Papal States lay in central Italy. Nominally under the political control of
the popes, papal residence in Avignon and the Great Schism had enabled
individual cities and territories to become independent of papal authority.
4. The kingdom of Naples, which encompassed most of southern Italy and usually
the island of Sicily, was fought over by the French and the Aragonese until the
latter established their domination in the 15th century.
B. Examples of Federigo da Montefeltro and Isabella d’Este
1. Federigo rule Urbino from 1444 to 1482, and received a classical education
typical of the famous humanist school in Mantua run by Vittorino da Feltre.
2. He was a rather unusual condottiere by 15th century standards as he was
reliable and honest.
3. Isabella was the most famous of the Renaissance-ruling women. She was the
daughter of the duke of Ferrara, and married Francesco Gonzaga.
4. She was known for her intelligence and political wisdom, and attracted artists
and intellectuals to the Mantua court and were responsible for amassing one of
the finest libraries in all of Italy.
C. Birth of Modern Diplomacy
1. There were ambassadors in the Middle Ages, but they were used only on a
temporary basis. This concept of an ambassador changing because of the
political situation.
2. A large number of states existed, many so small that their security was easily
threatened by their neighbors. To survive, the Italian states began to send
resident diplomatic agents to each other to ferret out useful information.
D. Machiavelli’s Prince
1. His major concerns were the acquisition and expansion of political power as
the means to restore and maintain order in his time.
2. From Machiavelli’s point of view, a prince’s attitude toward power must be
based on an understanding of human nature, which he perceived as basically
self-centered.
IV. Intellectual Renaissance in Italy
A. Humanism
1. Petrarch
a. (1304-1374) He has been called the father of Italian Renaissance
humanism.
b. He rejected his father’s desire to become a lawyer and took up a literary
career instead. He was the first intellectual to characterize the Middle
Ages as a period of darkness, promoting the mistaken belief that
medieval culture was ignorant of classical antiquity.
2. Leonardo Bruni
a. (1370-1444) He was a humanist, Florentine patriot, and chancellor of the
city, wrote a biography of Cicero.
b. One of the first Italian humanists to gain a thorough knowledge of Greek
and became an enthusiastic pupil of Manuel Chrysoloras, a Byzantine
scholar.
3. Lorenzo Valla
a. (1407-1457) He was educated in Latin and Greek, and eventually
achieved his chief ambition of becoming a papal secretary.
b. Wrote The Elegances of the Latin Language, which was an effort to
purify medieval Latin and restore Latin to its proper position over the
vernacular.
 4. Ficino and the Platonic Academy
a. (1433-1499) Ficino was one the academy’s leaders. He dedicated his life
to the translation of Plato and the exposition of the Platonic philosophy
known as Neoplatonism.
b. The Platonic Acadmey was an informal discussion group.
5. Pico della Mirandola
a. (1463-1494) The most prominent magi in the late fifteenth century.
b. He produced one of the most famous pieces of writing of the
Renaissance, the Oration in the Dignity of Man. Pico took an avid
interest in Hermetic philosophy, accepting it as the “science of the
Divine”
B. Education
1. Vittorino da Feltre and “the Liberal Studies”
a. (1378-1446) He founded a secondary school at Mantua in 1423 when the
ruler of a small Italian state wanted education for his children.
b. The Liberal Studies referred to the Renaissance view of the value of the
liberal arts influenced by a treatise on education. IT included history,
moral philosophy, eloquence, letters, poetry, mathematics, astronomy,
and music.
2. Pietro Paolo Vergerio’s Concerning Character
a. The work stressed the importance of the liberal arts as the key to true
freedom, enabling individuals to reach their full potential.
b. He stated that the purpose was not to create great scholars but rather to
produce complete citizens who could participate in the civic life of their
communities.
C. Humanism and History
1. Secularization of History
a. Humanists were responsible for secularizing the writing of history. They
reduced the role of miracles in historical interpretation because they took
a new approach to sources.
b. They wanted to use documents and exercised their newly developed
critical skills in examining them.
2. Francesco Guicciardini
a. (1483-1540) Some Renaissance scholars have called him the greatest
historian between Tacitus, and Voltaire and Gibbon.
b. To him, the purpose of writing history was to teach lessons, he was so
impressed by the complexity of his historical events that he felt those
lessons were not always obvious.
D. Impact of Printing
1. Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible
a. Gutengurg had invented the first printer with hand-carved wooden blocks
creating movable type. The Bible was the first true book in the West
produced from it.
2. Scholarly Research and Lay Readership
a. The printing of books encouraged the development of scholarly research
and the desire to attain knowledge. Printing facilitated cooperation
among scholars and helped produced standardized and definitive tests.
b. Without the printing press, the new religious ideas of the Reformation
would never have spread as rapidly.
V. Artistic Renaissance
A. Early Renaissance
 1. Masaccio
a. (1401-1428) He demonstrated a more realistic relationship between
figures and landscape, and visual representation of the laws of
perspective, a new realist style of painting was born.
2. Uccello
a. (1397-1475) In his work, figure became mere stage props to show off his
mastery of the laws of perspective.
3. Botticelli
a. (1445-1510) Had an interest in Greek and Roman mythology, which was
well, reflected, in one of his most famous works, Primavera.
4. Donatello
a. (1386-1466) He spent time in Rome studying and copying statues of
antiquity. His subsequent work in Florence reveals how well he had
mastered the essence of what he saw.
5. Brunelleschi
a. (1377-1446) was a friend of Donatello and accompanied him to Rome.
He drew much inspiration from the architectural monuments of Roman
antiquity.
6. Piero della Francesca
a. (1410-1492) provided accurate representations as wells as a sense of both
the power and the wealth of the rulers of Urbino.
B. High Renaissance
1. Leonardo da Vinci
a. (1452-1519) represents a transitional figure in the shift to High
Renaissance principles. He carried on the 15th century experimental
tradition by studying everything.
2. Raphael
a. (1483-1520) Raphael blossomed as a painter at 25; he was already
regarded as one of Italy’s best painters.
3. Michelangelo
a. (1475-1564) He was an accomplished painter, sculptor, and architect,
and was another giant of the High Renaissance. Neo-Platonism inspired
him.
4. Bramante
a. (1444-1514) He came from Urbino. He designed a small temple on the
supposed site of Saint Peter’s martyrdom. Inspired by antiquity,
Bramante had recaptured the grandeur of ancient Rome.
C. Artist and Social Status: Artist as Hero
1. In the early Renaissance, artists started out as apprentices and worked
themselves up to masters. Here, artists were still considered as artisans.
However at the end of the 15th century, the talented individuals were artistic
geniuses with creative energies akin to the divine.
D. Northern Artistic Renaissance
1. Jan Van Eyck
a. (1390-1441) He was among the first to use oil paint, a medium that
enabled the artist to use a varied ranged of colors and makes changes to
create fine details.
2. Albrecht Durer
a. (1471-1528) He wrote detailed treatises on the laws of perspective and
Renaissance theories of proportion.
 E. Music in the Renaissance
1. Dufay
a. (1400-1474) the most important composer of his time. He was the first to
use secular tunes to replace Gregorian chants as the fixed melody that
served as a basis for the Mass.
2. Madrigal
a. The chief form of secular music. The Renaissance madrigal was a poem
set to music, and its origins were in the 14th century Italian courts.
VI. European State in the Renaissance
A. New Monarchies
1. “Renaissance States” was the time in which recovery set it, and attempts were
made to reestablish the centralized power of monarchial governments.
B. Growth of the French Monarchy
1. Charles VII and the Taille
a. (1422-1461) He was crowned king at Reims. He established a royal army
composed of cavalry and archers.
b. A taille is an annual direct tax usually on land or property, without any
need for further approval from the Estates-General. Losing control of the
purse meant less power for this parliamentary body.
2. Louis XI and Commerce
a. (1461-1483) He was known as the Spider because of his wily and
devious ways. By retaining taille, he secured a sound, regular source of
income.
C. England: Civil War and New Monarchy
1. War of the Roses
a. Broke out in 1450s. It pitted the ducal house of Lancaster, who symbol
was a red rose, against the ducal house of York, whose symbol was a
white rose.
2. Henry VII and the Tudors
a. (1485-1509) Henry VII worked to reduce internal discussion and
establish a strong monarchial government. He ended private wars of the
nobility by abolishing “livery and maintenance”, the practice by which
wealthy aristocrats maintained private armies of followers dedicated to
the service of their lord.
D. Unification of Spain
1. Ferdinand and Isabella
a. The marriage between the two was a dynastic union of two rulers, not a
political union. They recognized the importance of controlling the
Catholic Church, with its vast power and wealth.
b. They also pursued a policy of strict religious uniformity.
2. Expulsion of Muslims and Jews
a. The increased persecution in the 14th century led the majority of Spanish
Jews to convert to Christianity. They were largely tolerated in medieval
Spain.
3. Inquisition
a. Complaints about the sincerity of these Jewish convert prompted
Ferdinand and Isabella to ask the pope to introduce the Inquisition into
Spain in 1478.
b. It worked with cruel efficiency to guarantee the orthodoxy of the
converts, but had no authority over practicing Jews.
 E. Holy Roman Empire: Success of the Habsburgs
1. Unlike France, England, and Spain, the Holy Roman Empire failed to develop
a strong monarchial authority. The Habsburg, though, was very successful. Not
military, but because of well-executed policy of dynastic marriages.
2. Maximilian attempted to centralize the administration by creating new
institutions common to the entire empire.
F. Struggle for Strong Monarchy in Eastern Europe
1. In Eastern Europe, rulers struggles to achieve the centralization of their
territorial states but faced serious obstacles.
2. Through their control of the Sejm or national diet, the magnates reduced the
peasantry to serfdom by 1511 and established the right to elect their kings. The
Polish kings proved unable to establish a strong royal authority.
3. Since the 13th century, Russia had been under the domination of the Mongols.
Gradually, the princes of Moscow rose to prominence by using their close
relationship to the Mongol khans to increase wealth.
G. Ottoman Turks and the End of Byzantium
1. The steadily advancing Ottoman Turks increasingly threatened Eastern Europe.
The Byzantine Empire had, of course, served as a buffer between the Muslim
Middle East and the Latin West for centuries. It was severely weakened by the
sack of Constantinople in 1204 and its occupation by the West.
VII. Church in the Renaissance
A. Heresy and Reform
1. John Wyclif’s Lollards
a. (1328-1384) His disgust with clerical corruption led him to a far-ranging
attack on papal authority and medieval Christian beliefs and practices.
b. Wyclif alleged that there was no basis in Scripture for papal claims of
temporal authority and advocated that the popes be stripped of their
authority and advocated that the popes be stripped of their authority and
their property. The followers were named Lollards.
2. John Hus
a. (1374-1415) He urged the elimination of the worldliness and corruption
of the clergy and attacked the excessive power of the papacy within the
Catholic Church.
3. The Doctrine of Sacrosancta
a. It stated that a general council of the church received its authority from
God; hence every Christian, including the pope, was subject to its
authority.
4. Pius II and Execrabilis
a. Pope Pius II issued the papal bull Execrabilis, condemning appeals to a
council over the head of a pope as heretical.
B. Renaissance Papacy
1. Sixtus IV and Alexander VI
a. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) made five of his nephew cardinals and gave
them an abundance of church offices to build up their finances.
b. Alexander VI (1492-1503) was a member of the Borgia family who was
known for his debauchery and sensuality.
2. Julius II and the New Saint Peter’s
a. (1503-1513) Was most involved in war and politics. Known as the fiery
“warrior-pope”, and seen as a spiritual leader.
3. Leo X and Raphael
a. Leo X (1513-1521) was a patron of Renaissance culture, not as a matter
of policy, but as a deeply involved participant.
b. Raphael was commissioned to do paintings, and the construction of Saint
Peter’s was accelerated, as Rome became the literary and artistic center
of the Renaissance.