CHAPTER 12
European Society in the Age of the Renaissance
ca. 1350 - Petrarch develops ideas of humanism
1434 - 1737 - Medici family in power in Florence
1440s - invention of movable metal type
1455 - 1471 - Wars of Roses
1477 - Louis XI conquers Burgundy
1478 - establishment of the Inquisition in Spain
1492 - Spain conquers Granada ending reconquista
1494 - invasion of Italy by Charles VII of France
1508 - 1512 - Michelangelo paints ceiling of Sistine Chapel
- new ways of thinking in the Renaissance rested on economic and political developments in the
city-states of Northern Italy
- patronage - nancial support of writers and artists by cities, groups, and individuals, often to
produce speci c works or works in speci c styles
- political leaders admires Ancient Rome
- Venice, Milan, Genoa -> important cities
- Florence —> commercial leader, the city where Renaissance began, the city grew selling all
types of goods throughout Europe, merchants also loaned and invested money and they
acquired control of papal banking, by the early 14th century it had twice the population of
London, even severe crises did not destroy the city, the Black Death took half of the population,
nevertheless the basic Florentine economic structure remained stable
- communes -> northern Italian cities, sworn associations of free man led by merchant guilds
that sought political and economic independence; the merchant trades that formed the
communes built and maintained the city walls and regulated trade, collected taxes, kept civil
order within them
- the merger of the nobility and elite created a powerful oligarchy (cities were often politically
unstable cause of all the competition between the rivaling groups)
- merchant elites made citizenship dependent on a property quali cation and social connections
- popolo —> common people, disenfranchised and heavily taxed
- 13th century - a lot of uprisings of the popolo who wanted to change their social position; their
victories were temporary bc the could not establish civil order
- condottieri - military leaders who had their own mercenary armies and took over political power
once they had supplanted the existing government
- signori - cities in Italy in which one man ruled and handed down the right to rule to his son
- there wasn’t much di erence between oligarchic regimes and signori (facade of republican
government was maintained but the judicial, executive and legislative functions of government
were restricted to small circles of wealthy merchants
- 15th and 16th century - the signori and the most powerful merchants oligarchs transformed
their households into courts (magni cent palaces in the centres of the cities, all political
business was required to be done there)
- Renaissance Italians were politically loyal to their cities
- 15th century —> Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States were dominant in the Italian
peninsula, they controlled small city-states
- Venice -> republic in name, oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats actually ran the city
- Milan -> republic in name, actually ruled by the harsh Sforza family
- Florence -> republic in name, actually ruled by the Medici family
- whenever one Italian state appeared to gain a predominant position, other states combined
against it
- wealthy and divided Italy was an easy target for invasion
- 1494 -> Charles VIII invades Italy after Milan called for support when Florence and Naples
entered into an agreement to acquire Milanese territories
- Girolamo Savonarola —> preached to crowds about a possible punishment of Italy by God, and
therefore the French invasion was treated as a ful llment of this prophecy, he got the Medici
family expelled; reorganized the government (banned same-sex relationship, adultery,
drunkenness, organized groups of young men to patrol the streets looking for immoral dress
and behaviour; held big bon res in the middle of the city where he burned all of the things that
celebrated human beauty like art, clothing etc); people got bored of him and he was burned
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, - the French invasion inaugurated a new period in power politics
- Italy - focus of international ambitions and the battleground of foreign armies
- Italy was not to achieve uni cation until 1870
-
- deep interest in ancient Latin and Greek literature and philosophy among educated Italians and
re ections on them led to the development of humanism (new plans for education, new
concepts of political rule, new notions of human nature)
- Francesco Petrarch - 13th century, obsessed with the writers and artists of ancient Rome,
convinced that the recovery of classical texts would bring a new golden age of intellectual
achievement, around 1350 proposed a new kind of education in which young men would study
the works of ancient Roman authors using them as a model of how to write and speak better
- studia humanitates —> study of Latin classics, people who advocated it were known as
“humanists”
- humanism was the main intellectual component of the Renaissance (human nature and
achievements, evident in the classics, were worthy of contemplation)
- Leonardo Bruni (Italian historian) linked the decline of the Latin language after the death of
Cicero (ancient Roman author) to the decline of the Roman Republic; he also was the 1st one
to divide history into three areas - ancient, medieval and modern
- Marsilio Ficino (Florentine scholar) - was lecturing an informal group of Florence’s cultural elite,
his lecture became known as the Platonic Academy; he regarded Plato as a divinely inspired
precursor of Christ; attempted to synthesize Christian and Platonic teachings
- Plato’s emphasis on the spiritual and eternal over the material t well with Christian teachings
about the immortality of the soul
- (dokończ stronę 363)
- virtu - the quality of being able to shape the world according to one’s own will
- Renaissance thinkers did not exclude themselves when they searched for models of talent and
achievement
- Leon Battista Alberti - wrote novels, plays, legal treaties, the 1st scienti c analysis of
perspective, designed churches, palaces etc - his achievements made him a “Renaissance
man”
- biographies and autobiographies presented individuals that were worthy models but
sometimes needed more direct instruction
- Plato - admired by the Renaissance authors, following his example they speculated about
perfect examples of many things
- humanists thought that their recommended course of study in the classics would provide
essential skills for future politicians, diplomats, lawyers, military leaders, artists etc etc
- they put their ideas intro practice and gradually humanist education became the basis for the
intermediate and advanced education for boys and men
- humanists disagreed about education for woman
- many saw the value of exposing women to the classical models of moral behaviour and
reasoning
- many wondered wether a program of study that emphasized eloquence and action was
proper for women whose sphere was generally understood to be domestic an d private
- Alberti stressed that woman’s role should be restricted to the orderliness of the household,
food preparation, the education of children and the supervision of servants (seriously what
the fuck)
- women themselves were bolder in their claims about the value of the new learning
- “The Courtier” by Castiglione —> had a v broad in uence on education; it sought to train,
discipline and fashion the young man into the courtly ideal, the gentleman
- the educated man should have a broad background in many academic subjects and should
train his spiritual and physical faculties as well as his intellect
- in return for attering portraits of living rulers, authors sometimes received positions at court or
money
- humanists agreed that educated men should be active in the political a airs of their city (“civic
humanism”)
- Niccolo Machiavelli - author of “The Prince”, secretary to one of the governing bodies in the
city of Florence,
- “The Prince” —> by using the examples of classical and contemporary rulers he argues that
the function of a ruler is to preserve order and security by using whatever means necessary
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, (brutality, lies, manipulation) but should not do anything to would make the populace turn
against him; often seen as the 1st modern guide to politics
- he knew that e ective rulers exhibited the quality of virtu
- he believed in Fortuna (personi ed fate) whose power no one could fully escape
- machiavellian - cunning, ruthless
- he argued that the government should be judged by how well they provided security, order
and safety to their populace
- ideals needed to be measured in the cold light of the real world
- scholars nowadays argue wether Machiavelli actually meant what he wrote instead of just
being ironic
- the end of 15th century —> students from the Low Countries, France, Germany and England
ocked to Italy and then carried back the “new learning” to their own countries
- Christian Humanists - northern humanists who really tried to synthesise the Christian and
classical traditions, thought that the best elements of classical and Christian cultures should be
combined
- classical calmness, stoical patience, broadmindedness = Christian virtues of hope, love &
faith
- Thomas More - English humanist, most famous for his work “Utopia”:
- describes a community on an island where all children receive good education, adults divide
their days between manual labor or business pursuit and intellectual activities
- poverty, hunger have been solved by the government
- there is religious toleration
- disagreements and dissent are not acceptable
- Erasmus —> Dutch humanist, he wrote scholar books and translated some
- “The Education of a Christian Prince” idealistic and practical suggestions for the best ruler
through the study of Bible
- two fundamental themes run through all of his work
- 1. education in the Bible and the classics is the mean to reform, the key to moral and
intellectual improvement
- 2. renewal should be based on what he termed “the philosophy of Christ” - an emphasis
on inner spirituality and personal mortality rather than Scholastic theology
- his idea were important roots od the Protestant Reformation
- the impact of the ideas of Petrarch and the ideas of Erasmus were similar but they were not
spread in the same way (therefore their impact & in uence was di erent). one had the printer
the other one no
- 1440s —> movable metal type is developed in Germany
- the printing revolution was made possible by the availability of paper which was produced
using techniques that had originated in China
- historians estimate that within a half century of 1456 somewhere between 8 and 20 million
books were printed in Europe
- print shops became gathering places for ppl interested in new ideas
- printing gave people identical books which allowed them to more easily discuss the ideas with
one another
- government and churches were both scared and using the printer —> the attempted to censor
books whose ideas challenged their authority
- printing stimulated the literacy of laypeople and had an e ect on their private lives
ART AND THE ARTIST
- 15th and 16th century bore witness to dazzling creativity in painting, architecture and sculpture
- the city Florence led the way
- increasingly wealthy individuals and rulers (instead of groups) sponsored works of art
- patrons varied in their level of involvement as a work progressed
- except for power, art reveals changing pattern of consumption among the wealthy elite in
European society
- in the Middle Ages society had been organized for war, and men spent their money on
military gear
- a grand urban palace represented the greatest outlay of cash; the private chapel within the
palace symbolized the largest expenditure (also was the center of the household’s religious life,
gold dishes, embroidered tablecloths, paintings on canvas <— homes of Italian nobles
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