The Renaissance (French for "rebirth"; Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 62 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. It is spoken as a first language by many Italian citizens and immigrants abroad, for a total of approximately 70 million native speakers. In addition, it: Rinascimento, from ri- "again" and nascere "be born")^[1] was a cultural movement A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as world communications have accelerated this that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence Florence (Italian: Firenze listen , pronounced [fiˈrɛntse]; alternative obsolete spelling: Fiorenza, Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 367,569 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area) in the Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th and 15th centuries . The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early Modern era (Renaissance) and later spreading to the rest of Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma–66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event. When used in social history, eras may for example denote a period, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the term. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a resurgence of learning based on classical Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman literature (such as Aeschylus, Ovid, Homer and others) flourished sources, the development of linear perspective Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is seen by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects are drawn: in painting, and gradual but widespread educational The history of education is the history of teaching and learning. Each generation, since the beginning of human evolution and writing, has sought to pass on cultural and social values, traditions, morality, religion and skills to the next generation. The passing on of culture is also known as enculturation and the learning of social values and reform. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in and the Modern era Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline after the Middle Ages. Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period. Contemporary history describes the span of historic events that are immediately relevant to the present time. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity. In socialist theory, it is necessary to explain how a "workers'" movement can be led by those who have never held jobs. As such, intellectuals are an adjunct to the working class pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics developments and the contributions of such polymaths A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath (or polymathic person) may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable. Most ancient scientists were polymaths by today's standards as Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( pronunciation ), (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519), was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose and Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal, who inspired the term "Renaissance man A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath (or polymathic person) may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable. Most ancient scientists were polymaths by today's standards".^[2][3]

There is a general, but not unchallenged, consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence Florence (Italian: Firenze listen , pronounced [fiˈrɛntse]; alternative obsolete spelling: Fiorenza, Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 367,569 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area), Tuscany Tuscany (Italian: Toscana, pronounced [tosˈkana]) is a region in Central Italy. It has an area of 22,990 square kilometres (8,880 sq mi) and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence in the 14th century.^[4] Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence Florence (Italian: Firenze listen , pronounced [fiˈrɛntse]; alternative obsolete spelling: Fiorenza, Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 367,569 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area) at the time; its political structure; the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici The House of Medici or de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to found the Medici Bank;^[5] and the migration of Greek scholars The migration of Byzantine scholars and other émigrés from southern Italy and Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine Empire and mainly after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 16th century, is considered by some scholars as very important in the revival of Greek and Roman studies and subsequently in the development of the and texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453 , when the city was conquered by the Ottomans. Constantinople was defended by the army of Emperor at the hands of the Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet (today Turkish people) that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources (references needed), the leader (khan) of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in the.^[6][7][8]

The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography The term historiography also denotes a body of historical work on a specialized topic. Scholars discuss historiography topically – such as the “historiography of Catholicism,” the “historiography of early Islam,” or the “historiography of China" – as well as specific approaches and genres, such as political history and social, and there has been much debate among historians as to the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical delineation.^[9] Some have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form. The word is a learned formation of a Greek compounds, consisting of νόστος, nóstos, "returning home", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος, álgos, "pain" or "ache". It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the for the classical age Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman literature (such as Aeschylus, Ovid, Homer and others) flourished,^[10] while others have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras.^[11] Indeed, some have called for an end to the use of the term, which they see as a product of presentism Presentism is a mode of historical analysis in which present-day ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or interpretations of the past. Some modern historians seek to avoid presentism in their work because they believe it creates a distorted understanding of their subject matter – the use of history History is the study of the human past. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and its to validate and glorify modern ideals.^[12] The word Renaissance has also been used to describe other historical and cultural movements A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as world communications have accelerated this, such as the Carolingian Renaissance The Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival occurring in the late eighth and ninth centuries, with the peak of the activities occurring during the reigns of the Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. During this period there was an increase of literature, writing, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence, and the Renaissance of the 12th century The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes at the outset of the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Western Europe with strong philosophical and scientific roots. For some historians these changes paved the way to later achievements such as the.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Origins 2.1 Latin and Greek Phases of Renaissance humanism 2.2 Social and political structures in Italy 2.3 Black Death 2.4 Cultural conditions in Florence 3 Characteristics 3.1 Humanism 3.2 Art 3.3 Science 3.4 Religion 3.5 Self-awareness 4 Spread 4.1 Southern Europe 4.1.1 Italy 4.1.2 Portugal 4.1.3 Spain 4.2 Northern Europe 4.2.1 England 4.2.2 France 4.2.3 Germany 4.2.4 Hungary 4.2.5 Netherlands 4.2.6 Poland 4.2.7 Italian buildings in Russia 5 Historiography 5.1 Conception 5.2 For better or for worse? 6 Other Renaissances 7 See also 8 References 8.1 Primary sources 9 Notes 10 External links

Overview

Renaissance
Topics
Architecture Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was Dance During the Renaissance period, there was a distinction between country dances and court dances. Court dances required the dancers to have been trained and were often for display and entertainment, whereas country dances could be attempted by anyone. At Court, the formal entertainment would often be followed by many hours of country dances which Literature Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature, which began in Italy during the 14th century and spread around Europe through the 17th century. The impact of the Renaissance varied across the continent; countries that were predominantly Catholic or Protestant experienced the Renaissance differently compared to areas where the Music Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given the gradually adopted "Renaissance" characteristics: musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s Painting Renaissance art is the painting, sculpture and decorative arts of that period of European history known as the Renaissance, emerging as a distinct style in Italy in about 1400, in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy, literature, music and science. Renaissance art, perceived as a "rebirth" of ancient traditions, took Philosophy Renaissance philosophy was the period of the history of philosophy in Europe that falls roughly between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment. It includes the 15th century; some scholars extend it to as early as the 1350s or as late as the 16th century or early 17th century, overlapping the Reformation and the early modern era. Among the Science During the Renaissance, great advances occurred in geography, astronomy, chemistry, physics, math, manufacturing, and engineering. The rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of printing which would democratize learning and allow a faster propagation of new ideas. But, at Technology Renaissance technology is the set of European artifacts and customs, spanning the Renaissance period, roughly the 14th through the 16th century. The era is marked by such profound technical advancements like the printing press, linear perspectivity, patent law, double shell domes or Bastion fortresses. Draw-books of the Renaissance artist- Warfare Early Modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive. Gunpowder was first invented in China and then later spread to western nations of the Middle East. It then found its way into Eastern Europe following the invasions of the Mongols, who had employed
Regions
England The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in Tuscany in the 14th century. This era in English cultural history is sometimes referred to as "the age of France French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century. The French Renaissance traditionally extends from the Germany The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which originated from the Italian Renaissance in Italy. This was a result of German artists who had traveled to Italy to learn more and become inspired by the Renaissance movement. The Italy The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The term renaissance is in essence a modern one that came into currency in the Netherlands Northern Europe The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Before 1450 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe. This influenced the German Renaissance, French Renaissance, English Renaissance, Poland The Renaissance in Poland lasted from the late 15th century to the late 16th century and is widely considered to be the Golden Age of Polish culture. The Kingdom of Poland (from 1569 known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), ruled by the Jagiellon dynasty, actively participated in the European Renaissance. A century without major wars - only Spain The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries. The year 1492 is commonly accepted as the beginning of the influence of the Renaissance in Spain

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( pronunciation ), (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519), was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose's Vitruvian Man The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius Pollio. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a shows clearly the effect writers of Antiquity had on Renaissance thinkers. Based on the specifications in Vitruvius's De architectura around 1500 years before, Da Vinci tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man.

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.^[13]

Renaissance thinkers sought out in Europe's monastic libraries and the crumbling Byzantine Empire the literary, historical, and oratorical texts of antiquity, typically written in Latin or ancient Greek, many of which had fallen into obscurity. It is in their new focus on literary and historical texts that Renaissance scholars differed so markedly from the medieval scholars of the Renaissance of the 12th century, who had focused on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural sciences, philosophy and mathematics, rather than on such cultural texts. Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life.^[14] In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were brought back from Byzantium to Western Europe and engaged Western scholars for the first time since late antiquity. This new engagement with Greek Christian works, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New Testament promoted by humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, would help pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.

Artists such as Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, that is to understand it rationally. A critical contribution to Italian Renaissance humanism Pico della Mirandola wrote the famous text "De hominis dignitate" (Oration on the Dignity of Man, 1486), which consists of a series of theses on philosophy, natural thought, faith and magic defended against any opponent on the grounds of reason. In addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, Renaissance authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages; combined with the introduction of printing, this would allow many more people access to books, especially the Bible.^[15]

In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity, and through novel approaches to thought. Some scholars, such as Rodney Stark,^[16] play down the Renaissance in favor of the earlier innovations of the Italian city states in the High Middle Ages, which married responsive government, Christianity and the birth of capitalism. This analysis argues that, whereas the great European states (France and Spain) were absolutist monarchies, and others were under direct Church control, the independent city republics of Italy took over the principles of capitalism invented on monastic estates and set off a vast unprecedented commercial revolution which preceded and financed the Renaissance.

Origins

Florence, the center of Renaissance Main article: Italian Renaissance

Most historians agree that the ideas that characterized the Renaissance had their origin in late 13th century Florence, in particular with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), as well as the painting of Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337).^[17] Some writers date the Renaissance quite precisely; one proposed starting point is 1401, when the rival geniuses Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi competed for the contract to build the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral (Ghiberti won).^[18] Others see more general competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it did. Accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins.

During Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand. Artists depended totally on patrons while the patrons needed money to sustain genuises. Wealth was brought to Italy in 14th, 15th and 16th century by expanding trade into Asia and Europe. Silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought during Crusades made the prosperity of Genoa and Venice.^[19]

Cicero

Latin and Greek Phases of Renaissance humanism

Further information: Greek scholars in the Renaissance

In stark contrast to the High Middle Ages, when Latin scholars focused almost entirely on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural science, philosophy and mathematics,^[20] Renaissance scholars were most interested in recovering and studying Latin and Greek literary, historical, and oratorical texts. Broadly speaking, this began in the fourteenth century with a Latin phase, when Renaissance scholars such as Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406), Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364–1437) and Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459 AD) scoured the libraries of Europe in search of works by such Latin authors as Cicero, Livy and Seneca.^[21] By the early fifteenth century, the bulk of such Latin literature had been recovered; the Greek phase of Renaissance humanism was now under way, as Western European scholars turned to recovering ancient Greek literary, historical, oratorical and theological texts.^[22]

Demetrius Chalcondyles (1424 – 1511) was a Renaissance teacher of Greek and of Platonic philosophy who taught in Italy for over forty years;^[23] at Padua, Perugia, Milan and Florence.^[24]

Unlike the case of Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. Ancient Greek works on science, maths and philosophy had been studied since the High Middle Ages in Western Europe and in the medieval Islamic world, but Greek literary, oratorical and historical works, (such as Homer, the Greek dramatists, Demosthenes and Thucydides and so forth), were not studied in either the Latin or medieval Islamic worlds; in the Middle Ages these sorts of texts were only studied by Byzantine scholars. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity. This movement to reintegrate the regular study of Greek literary, historical, oratorical and theological texts back into the Western European curriculum is usually dated to Coluccio Salutati's invitation to the Byzantine diplomat and scholar Manuel Chrysoloras (c.1355–1415) to Florence to teach Greek,^[25] his knowledge of the Greek language was of significant importance. Another Greek Byzantine scholar of importance was Demetrius Chalcondyles (1424 – 1511) who taught Platonic philosophy and the Greek language in Italy for a period of over forty years; at Padua^[26], Perugia^[27], Milan and Florence.^[24] Among his pupils were Johann Reuchlin, Janus Lascaris, Poliziano, Leo X, Baldassare Castiglione^[28], Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, Stefano Negri, and Giovanni Maria Cattaneo.^[29][30]

The fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, accompanied by the closure of its schools of higher learning by the Ottoman Turks, brought many other Greek scholars to Italy and beyond, who brought with them Greek manuscripts, and knowledge of the classical Greek literature, some of which had been lost for centuries in the West.^[31]

Social and political structures in Italy

A political map of the Italian Peninsula circa 1494

The unique political structures of late Middle Ages Italy have led some to theorize that its unusual social climate allowed the emergence of a rare cultural efflorescence. Italy did not exist as a political entity in the early modern period. Instead, it was divided into smaller city states and territories: the Kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States at the center, the Genoese and the Milanese to the north and west respectively, and the Venetians to the east. Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanised areas in Europe.^[32] Many of its cities stood among the ruins of ancient Roman buildings; it seems likely that the classical nature of the Renaissance was linked to its origin in the Roman Empire's heartland.^[33]

Historian and political philosopher Quentin Skinner points out that Otto of Freising (c. 1114 - 1158), a German bishop visiting north Italy during the 12th century, noticed a widespread new form of political and social organisation, observing that Italy appeared to have exited from Feudalism so that its society was based on merchants and commerce. Linked to this was anti-monarchical thinking, represented in the famous early Renaissance fresco cycle Allegory of Good and Bad Government in Siena by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (painted 1338–1340) whose strong message is about the virtues of fairness, justice, republicanism and good administration. Holding both Church and Empire at bay, these city republics were devoted to notions of liberty. Skinner reports that there were many defences of liberty such as Matteo Palmieri’s (1406–1475) celebration of Florentine genius not only in art, sculpture and architecture, but “the remarkable efflorescence of moral, social and political philosophy that occurred in Florence at the same time”.^[34]

Even cities and states beyond central Italy, such as the Republic of Florence at this time, were also notable for their merchant Republics, especially the Republic of Venice. Although in practice these were oligarchical, and bore little resemblance to a modern democracy, they did have democratic features and were responsive states, with forms of participation in governance and belief in liberty.^[35][36][37] The relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement.^[38] Likewise, the position of Italian cities such as Venice as great trading centres made them intellectual crossroads. Merchants brought with them ideas from far corners of the globe, particularly the Levant. Venice was Europe's gateway to trade with the East, and a producer of fine glass, while Florence was a capital of textiles. The wealth such business brought to Italy meant large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned and individuals had more leisure time for study.^[38]

Black Death

One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation caused by the Black Death in Florence, which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th-century Italy. Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been speculated that the familiarity with death that this brought caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife.^[39] It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art.^[40] However, this does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors.^[9]

Cultural conditions in Florence

Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence and patron of arts

It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life which may have caused such a cultural movement. Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici, a banking family and later ducal ruling house, in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage, encouraging his countryman to commission works from Florence's leading artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.^[5]

The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo came to power; indeed, before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Some historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e. because "Great Men" were born there by chance.^[41] Da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the time.^[42]

Characteristics

Humanism

Main article: Renaissance humanism

In some ways Humanism was not a philosophy per se, but rather a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, humanists would study ancient texts in the original, and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based on the programme of 'Studia Humanitatis', that being the study of five humanities: poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy and rhetoric. Although historians have sometimes struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".^[43] Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind."^[44]

Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More (1478–1535) revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers, and applied them in critiques of contemporary government. Machiavelli's contribution, in the view of Isaiah Berlin, was a decisive break in western political thought allocating a unique reasoning to politics and faith and perhaps making him the father of the social sciences. Pico della Mirandola who lived to only twenty-three years wrote what is often considered the manifesto of the Renaissance, a vibrant defence of thinking, the Oration on the Dignity of Man. Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475), another humanist, is most known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life"; printed 1528) which advocated civic humanism, and his influence in refining the Tuscan vernacular to the same level as Latin. Palmieri's written works drawn on Roman philosophers and theorists, especially Cicero, who, like Palmieri, lived an active public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also Quintilian. Strongly committed to a deep and broad education Palmieri believed this would dispose people to public engagement and enhance the human capacity to do good deeds and contribute to the community. Although holding public office between 1432 and 1475 he is best remembered for these writings extolling the ideal of humanism as combination of learning with civic or political action. Possibly the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a 1465 poetic work La città di vita, but an earlier work Della vita civile (On Civic Life) is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues concern how children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest.

Art

Main articles: Italian Renaissance painting, Renaissance painting, and Renaissance architecture The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique.^[45] The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the arts.^[46] To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method, was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated by other artists.^[47] Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others.

Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed, the work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck having particular influence on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. (For more, see Renaissance in the Netherlands). Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of everyday life.^[48]

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are examples of Renaissance art

In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, formulated the Renaissance style which emulated and improved on classical forms. Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral.^[49] The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in Mantua. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.

Monalisa by Leonardo da Vinci is a master piece of Renaissance and world art

The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Filippo Brunelleschi.^[50]

Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular.

Science

Main articles: History of science in the Renaissance and Renaissance technology

The upheavals occurring in the arts and humanities were mirrored by a dynamic period of change in the sciences. Some have seen this flurry of activity as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age.^[51] Others have seen it merely as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day.^[52] Regardless, there is general agreement that the Renaissance saw significant changes in the way the universe was viewed and the methods with which philosophers sought to explain natural phenomena.^[53]

Galileo Galilei. Portrait in crayon by Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni

Science and art were very much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. An exhaustive 2007 study by Fritjof Capra ^[54] shows that Leonardo was a much greater scientist than previously thought, and not just an inventor. In science theory and in conducting actual science practice, Leonardo was innovative. He set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics; he devised principles of research method that for Capra classify him as “father of modern science”. In Capra's detailed assessment of many surviving manuscripts Leonardo's science is more in tune with holistic non-mechanistic and non-reductive approaches to science which are becoming popular today. Perhaps the most significant development of the era was not a specific discovery, but rather a process for discovery, the scientific method.^[53] This revolutionary new way of learning about the world focused on empirical evidence, the importance of mathematics, and discarding the Aristotelian "final cause" in favor of a mechanical philosophy. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus and Galileo. In his 1991 survey of these developments, Charles Van Doren ^[55] considers that the Copernican revolution really is the Galilean cartesian (René Descartes) revolution, on account of the nature of the courage and depth of change their work brought about.

The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy. With the publication of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica, a new confidence was placed in the role of dissection, observation, and a mechanistic view of anatomy.^[53]

Religion

Main articles: Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation

The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. Indeed, much (if not most) of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church.^[14] However, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God.^[14] Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.

Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope infamous for his corruption

The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages saw a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome.^[56] While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the 15th century saw a resulting reform movement know as Conciliarism, which sought to limit the pope's power. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four illegitimate children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more power.^[57]

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist textual criticism of the New Testament.^[14] Indeed, it was Luther who in October 1517 published the 95 Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to its sale of indulgences. The 95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Self-awareness

By the 15th century, writers, artists and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations that were taking place and were using phrases like modi antichi (in the antique manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. The term la rinascita (rebirth) first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568).^[58][59] Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with Michelangelo. It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.^[60]

Spread

In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread with great speed from its birthplace in Florence, first to the rest of Italy, and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread, its ideas diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and national movements.

Southern Europe

Italy

Main article: Italian Renaissance

While Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of some areas of innovation, particularly in music.^[61] The music of the 15th century Burgundian School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in that art and the polyphony of the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of what was the first true international style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century.^[61] The culmination of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer, Palestrina. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600.

The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the purely religious art of medieval painters. At first, Northern Renaissance artists remained focused on religious subjects, such as the contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by Albrecht Dürer. Later on, the works of Pieter Bruegel influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than religious or classical themes. It was also during the northern Renaissance that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries.^[62] A feature of the Northern Renaissance was its use of the vernacular in place of Latin or Greek, which allowed greater freedom of expression. This movement had started in Italy with the decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on the development of vernacular languages; in fact the focus on writing in Italian has neglected a major source of Florentine ideas expressed in Latin.^[63] The spread of the technology of the German invention of movable type printing boosted the Renaissance, in Northern Europe as elsewhere; with Venice becoming a world center of printing.

Portugal

In Portugal, the Renaissance arrived through the influence of the wealthy Italian merchants that started investing their money in the profitable Indian commerce that Portugal had monopolized during the late 15th century. Lisbon flourished, and writers such as Gil Vicente, Sá de Miranda, Bernardim Ribeiro and Luís de Camões and artists such as Nuno Gonçalves appeared.

Spain

Main article: Spanish Renaissance

The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean possessions of the Aragonese Crown and the city of Valencia. Indeed, many of the early Spanish Renaissance writers come from the Kingdom of Aragon, including Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell. In the Kingdom of Castile, the early Renaissance was heavily influenced by the Italian humanism, starting with writers and poets starting with the Marquis of Santillana, who introduced the new Italian poetry to Spain in the early 15th century. Other writers, such as Jorge Manrique, Fernando de Rojas, Juan del Encina, Juan Boscán Almogáver and Garcilaso de la Vega, kept a close resemblance to the Italian canon. Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece Don Quixote is credited as the first Western novel. Renaissance humanism flourished in the early 16th century, with influential writers such as philosopher Juan Luis Vives, grammarian Antonio de Nebrija or natural historian Pedro de Mexía.

Later Spanish Renaissance tended towards religious themes and mysticism, with poets such as fray Luis de León, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, and treated issues related to the exploration of the New World, with chroniclers and writers such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega or Bartolomé de las Casas, giving rise to a body of work, now known as Spanish Renaissance literature. The late Renaissance in Spain also saw the rise of artists such as El Greco, and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Antonio de Cabezón.

Northern Europe

Main article: Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance as it occurred in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern Renaissance".

England

Main article: English Renaissance "What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god!" — from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

In England, the Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the English Renaissance with the work of writers William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Sir Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Sir Philip Sidney, John Milton, as well as great artists, architects (such as Inigo Jones who introduced Italianate architecture to England), and composers such as Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, and William Byrd.

France

Main article: French Renaissance

In 1495 the Italian Renaissance arrived in France, imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of Italy. A factor that promoted the spread of secularism was the Church's inability to offer assistance against the Black Death. Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, and built ornate palaces at great expense. Writers such as François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Michel de Montaigne, painters such as Jean Clouet and musicians such as Jean Mouton also borrowed from the spirit of the Italian Renaissance.

In 1533, a fourteen-year old Caterina de' Medici, (1519–1589) born in Florence to Lorenzo II de' Medici and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude. Though she became famous and infamous for her role in France's religious wars, she made a direct contribution in bringing arts, sciences and music (including the origins of ballet) to the French court from her native Florence.

Germany

Main article: German Renaissance

In the second half of the 15th century, the spirit of the age spread to Germany and the Low Countries, where the development of the printing press (ca. 1450) and early Renaissance artists like the painters Jan van Eyck (1395–1441) and Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516) and the composers Johannes Ockeghem (1410–1497), Jacob Obrecht (1457–1505) and Josquin des Prez (1455–1521), predated the influence from Italy. In the early Protestant areas of the country humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, and the art and writing of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute.^[64] However, the gothic style and medieval scholastic philosophy remained exclusively until the turn of the 16th century. Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg (Ruling:1493-1519) was the first truly Renaissance monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, later nown as "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" (Diet of Cologne 1512).

Hungary

The Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the Quattrocento to Hungary first in the Central European region, thanks to the development of early Hungarian-Italian relationships – not only in dynastic connections, but also in cultural, humanistic and commercial relations – growing in strength from the 1300s. Italian architectural influence became stronger in the reign of Zsigmond thanks to the church foundations of the Florentine Scolaries and the castle constructions of Pipo of Ozora. The relationship between Hungarian and Italian Gothic styles was a second reason – exaggerated breakthrough of walls is avoided, preferring clean and light structures. The new Italian trend combined with existing national traditions to create a particular local Renaissance art. Acceptance of Renaissance art was furthered by the continuous arrival of humanist thought in the country. Many young Hungarians studying at Italian universities came closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct connection with Florence evolved. The growing number of Italian traders moving to Hungary, specially to Buda, helped this process. New thoughts were carried by the humanist prelates, among them Vitéz János, archbishop of Esztergom, one of the founders of Hungarian humanism.^[65] After the marriage in 1476 of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary from 1458–1490) to Beatrice of Naples, Buda became one of the most important artistic centres of the Renaissance north of the Alps.^[66] The most important humanists living in Matthias' court were Antonio Bonfini and the famous Hungarian poet Janus Pannonius.^[66] Matthias Corvinus's library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collections of secular books: historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the fifteenth century. His library was second only in size to the Vatican Library. (However, the Vatican Library mainly contained Bibles and religious materials.)^[67] In 1489, Bartolomeo della Fonte of Florence wrote that Lorenzo de Medici founded his own Greek-Latin library encouraged by the example of the Hungarian king. Corvinus's library is part of UNESCO World Heritage.^[68] Other important figures of Hungarian Renaissance: Bálint Balassi (poet), Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos (poet), Bálint Bakfark (composer and lutenist)

Netherlands

Main article: Renaissance in the Netherlands

Poland

Main article: Renaissance in Poland Poznań City Hall rebuilt from the Gothic style by Giovanni Batista di Quadro (1550–1555)

An early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was Filip Callimachus. Many Italian artists came to Poland with Bona Sforza of Milan, when she married King Zygmunt I of Poland in 1518.^[69] This was supported by temporarily strengthened monarchies in both areas, as well as by newly established universities.^[70]

Italian buildings in Russia

Renaissance trends from Italy and Central Europe influenced Russia in many ways, though this influence was rather limited due to the large distances between Russia and the main European cultural centers, on one hand, and the strong adherence of Russians to their Orthodox traditions and Byzantine legacy, on the other hand. From Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, gun-founders, gold- and silversmiths and (Italian) master builders were requested by Ivan.^[71]

Prince Ivan III introduced Renaissance architecture to Russia by inviting a number of architects from Italy, who brought new construction techniques and some Renaissance style elements with them, while in general following the traditional designs of the Russian architecture. In 1475 the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti came to rebuild the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin, damaged in an earthquake. Fioravanti was given the 12th-century Vladimir Cathedral as a model, and produced a design combining traditional Russian style with a Renaissance sense of spaciousness, proportion and symmetry.

The Palace of Facets on the Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin.

In 1485 Ivan III commissioned the building of a royal Terem Palace within the Kremlin, with Aloisio da Milano being the architect of the first three floors. Aloisio da Milano, as well as the other Italian architects, also greatly contributed to the construction of the Kremlin walls and towers. The small banqueting hall of the Russian Tsars, called the Palace of Facets because of its facetted upper story, is the work of two Italians, Marco Ruffo and Pietro Solario, and shows a more Italian style. In 1505, an Italian known in Russia as Aleviz Novyi or Aleviz Fryazin arrived in Moscow. He may have been the Venetian sculptor, Alevisio Lamberti da Montagne. He built 12 churches for Ivan III, including the Cathedral of the Archangel, a building remarkable for the successful blending of Russian tradition, Orthodox requirements and Renaissance style. It is believed that the Cathedral of the Metropolitan Peter in Vysokopetrovsky Monastery, another work of Aleviz Novyi, later served as an inspiration for the so called octagon-on-tetragon architectural form in the Moscow Baroque of the late 17th century.

Theotokos and The Child, the late 17th century Russian icon by Karp Zolotaryov, with a notably realistic depiction of faces and clothing.

Between the early 16th and the late 17th centuries, however, an original tradition of stone tented roof architecture had been developed in Russia. It was quite unique and different from the contemporary Renaissance architecture elsewhere in Europe, though some researches call that style 'Russian Gothic' and compare it with the European Gothic architecture of the earlier period. The Italians, with their advanced technology, may have influenced the invention of the stone tented roof (the wooden tents were known in Russia and Europe long before). According to one hypothesis, an Italian architect called Petrok Maly may have been an author of the Ascension Church in Kolomenskoye, one of the earliest and most prominent tented roof churches.^[72]

By the 17th century the influence of Renaissance painting resulted in Russian icons becoming slightly more realistic, while still following most of the old icon painting canons, as seen in the works of Bogdan Saltanov, Simon Ushakov, Gury Nikitin, Karp Zolotaryov and other Russian artists of the era. Gradually the new type of secular portrait painting appeared, called parsúna (from "persona" - person), which was transitional style between abstract iconographics and real paintings.

In the mid 16th century Russians adopted printing from Central Europe, with Ivan Fyodorov being the first known Russian printer. In the 17th century printing became widespread, and woodcuts became especially popular. That led to the development of a special form of folk art known as lubok printing, which persisted in Russia well into the 19th century.

A number of technologies of Renaissance period was adopted by Russians from Europe rather early, and perfected subsequently to became a part of strong domestic tradition. Mostly these were military technologies, such as cannon casting adopted at least in the 15th century. The Tsar Cannon, which is the world's largest bombard by caliber, is the masterpiece of Russian cannon making. It was cast in 1586 by Andrey Chokhov, and is notable also by its rich relief decoration. Another technology, that according to one hypothesis originally was brought from Europe by Italians, resulted in the development of vodka, the national beverage of Russia. As early as 1386 the Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae ("the living water") to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The Genoese likely got this beverage with the help of the alchemists of Provance, who used the Arab-invented distillation apparatus to convert grape must into alcohol. A Moscovite monk called Isidore used this technology to produce the first original Russian vodka c. 1430.^[73]

Historiography

Conception

The term was first used retrospectively by the Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) in his book The Lives of the Artists (published 1550). In the book Vasari was attempting to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of gothic art: the arts had fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue (1240–1301) and Giotto (1267–1337) began to reverse this decline in the arts. According to Vasari, antique art was central to the rebirth of Italian art.^[74]

However, it was not until the nineteenth century that the French word Renaissance achieved popularity in describing the cultural movement that began in the late-13th century. The Renaissance was first defined by French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874), in his 1855 work, Histoire de France. For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that is, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the seventeenth century.^[75] Moreover, Michelet distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages and the democratic values that he, as a vocal Republican, chose to see in its character.^[9] A French nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement.^[9]

The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) in his Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860), by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo in Italy, that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He saw in the Renaissance the emergence of the modern spirit of individuality, which had been stifled in the Middle Ages.^[76] His book was widely read and was influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance.^[77] However, Buckhardt has been accused of setting forth a linear Whiggish view of history in seeing the Renaissance as the origin of the modern world.^[11]

More recently, historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical age, or even a coherent cultural movement. Randolph Starn, Historian at the University of California Berkeley, stated:

"Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content in between, the Renaissance can be (and occasionally has been) seen as a movement of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-bound culture".^[11]

For better or for worse?

See also: Continuity thesis Painting of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, an event in the French Wars of Religion, by François Dubois

Much of the debate around the Renaissance has centered around whether the Renaissance truly was an "improvement" on the culture of the Middle Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance towards the "modern age". Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly.^[41]

In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness – that which was turned within as that which was turned without – lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues.^[78]

—Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the "medieval" period – poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for example – seem to have worsened in this era which saw the rise of Machiavelli, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Many people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age" imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies.^[79] Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages.^[58] Some Marxist historians prefer to describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and philosophy were part of a general economic trend away from feudalism towards capitalism, resulting in a bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts.^[80]

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. In his book The Waning of the Middle Ages, he argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was important.^[10] The Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. The Renaissance obsession with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession.^[81] Meanwhile George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both argued that scientific progress was perhaps less original than has traditionally been supposed.^[82]

Some historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance to be unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages" (Middle Ages). Many historians now prefer to use the term "Early Modern" for this period, a more neutral designation that highlights the period as a transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era.^[83] Others such as Roger Osborne have come to consider the Italian Renaissance as a repository of the myths and ideals of western history in general, and instead of rebirth of ancient ideas as a period of great innovation ^[84]

Other Renaissances

The term Renaissance has also been used to define time periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries. Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a case for a Renaissance of the 12th century.^[85] Other historians have argued for a Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, and still later for an Ottonian Renaissance in the 10th century.^[86] Other periods of cultural rebirth have also been termed "renaissances", such as the Bengal Renaissance or the Harlem Renaissance.

See also

Main article: Outline of the Renaissance

• Weser Renaissance
• Gilded woodcarving
• List of Renaissance figures
• List of Renaissance structures
• Medical Renaissance
• Scientific Revolution

References

• Brotton, Jerry. The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (2006) excerpt and text search
• Burckhardt, Jacob The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), a famous classic; excerpt and text search 2007 edition; also complete text online
• Burke, P, The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries ISBN 0-631-19845-8
• Cronin, Vincent (1967), The Florentine Renaissance ISBN 0002112620
• Cronin, Vincent1969), The Flowering of the Renaissance, ISBN 0712698841
• Cronin, Vincent(1992), The Renaissance, ISBN 0002154110
• Cambridge Modern History, Vol. 1. The Renaissance (1903), older atticles by scholars complete text online
• Campbell, Gordon. The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2003). 862 pp. online at OUP
• Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance, ISBN 0-442-02319-7
• Ferguson, Wallace K. (1962), Europe in Transition, 1300–1500, ISBN 0-04-940008-8
• Fletcher, Stella. The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390-1530. (2000). 347 pp.
• Grendler, Paul F., ed. The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. (2003). 970 pp.
• Grendler, Paul F. "The Future of Sixteenth Century Studies: Renaissance and Reformation Scholarship in the Next Forty Years," Sixteenth Century Journal Spring 2009, Vol. 40 Issue 1, pp 182+
• Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. (1994). 648 pp.; a magistral survey, heavily illustrated excerpt and text search
• Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics (2001) excerpt and text search
• Haskins, Charles Homer (1927), The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, ISBN 0-674-76075-1
• Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. (2000). 747 pp.
• Huizinga, Johan (1924), The Waning of the Middle Ages, republished in 1990 ISBN 0-14-013702-5
• Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe, ISBN 0-395-88947-2
• Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance: A Short History. (2000). 197 pp. excerpt and text search
• King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance (1991) excerpt and text search
• Kristeller, Paul Oskar, and Michael Mooney. Renaissance Thought and its Sources (1979) excerpt and text search
• Lopez, Robert S. (1952), Hard Times and Investment in Culture
• Nauert, Charles G. Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2004). 541 pp.
• Patrick, James A., ed. Renaissance and Reformation (5 vol 2007), 1584 pages; comprehensive encyclopedia
• Plumb, J. H. The Italian Renaissance (2001) excerpt and text search
• Robin, Diana; Larsen, Anne R.; and Levin, Carole, eds. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England (2007) 459p.
• Rowse, A. L. The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society (2000) excerpt and text search
• Ruggiero, Guido, ed. A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance. (2002). 561 pp.
• Rundle, David, ed. The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. (1999). 434 pp.; numerous brief articles online edition
• Speake, Jennifer and Thomas G. Bergin, eds. Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation. (2004). 550 pp.
• Starn, Randolph. "A Postmodern Renaissance?" Renaissance Quarterly 2007 60(1): 1-24
• Stephens, John, The Italian Renaissance: The Origins of Intellectual and Artistic Change before the Renaissance ISBN 0-582-49337-4
• Strathern, Paul (2003), The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, ISBN 1844130983
• Thorndike, Lynn (1943) 'Renaissance or Prenaissance?' in "Some Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance", Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 4, No. 1, Jan. 1943
• Trivellato, Francesca. "Renaissance Italy and the Muslim Mediterranean in Recent Historical Work," Journal of Modern History (March 2010), Vol. 82, No. 1: 127-155.
• Turner, Richard N. Renaissance Florence (2005) excerpt and text search
• Ward, A. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance (1902)
• Weiss, Roberto (1969) The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, ISBN 1-597-40150-1
• Werkmeister, William H. [editor] (1959). Facets of the Renaissance. Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press.

Primary sources

• Ross, James Bruce, and Mary M. McLaughlin, eds. The Portable Renaissance Reader (1977) excerpt and text search

Notes

1. ^ "Renaissance, Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=renaissance&searchmode=none. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
2. ^ BBC Science & Nature, Leonardo da Vinci Retrieved on May 12, 2007
3. ^ BBC History, Michelangelo Retrieved on May 12, 2007
4. ^ Burke, P., The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries (Blackwell, Oxford 1998)
5. ^ ^{a b} Strathern, Paul The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (2003)
6. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica, Renaissance, 2008, O.Ed.
7. ^ Har, Michael H. History of Libraries in the Western World, Scarecrow Press Incorporate, 1999, ISBN0810837242
8. ^ Norwich, John Julius, A Short History of Byzantium, 1997, Knopf, ISBN0679450882
9. ^ ^{a b c d} Brotton, J., The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2006.
10. ^ ^{a b} Huizanga, Johan, The Waning of the Middle Ages (1919, trans. 1924)
11. ^ ^{a b c} Starn, Randolph. "Renaissance Redux" The American Historical Review Vol.103 No.1 p.124 (Subscription required for JSTOR link)
12. ^ The Idea of the Renaissance, Richard Hooker, Washington State University Website (Retrieved on May 2)
13. ^ Perry, M. Humanities in the Western Tradition, Ch. 13
14. ^ ^{a b c d} Open University, Looking at the Renaissance: Religious Context in the Renaissance (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
15. ^ Open University, Looking at the Renaissance: Urban economy and government (Retrieved May 15, 2007)
16. ^ Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason, Random House, NY: 2005
17. ^ See below, under "Sources".
18. ^ Walker, Paul Robert, The Feud that sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World, (New York, Perennial-Harper Collins, 2003)
19. ^ Severy, Merle; Thomas b Allen, Ross Bennett, Jules B Billard, Russell Bourne, Edward Lanoutte, David F Robinson, Verla Lee Smith (1970). The Renaissance - Maker of Modern Man. National Geographic Society. ISBN 0870440918.
20. ^ For information on this earlier, very different approach to a different set of ancient texts (scientific texts rather than cultural texts) see Latin translations of the 12th century, and Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe.
21. ^ L.D. Reynolds and Nigel Wilson, Scribes and Scholars: A guide to the transmission of Greek and Latin Literature Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1974, p.113-123.
22. ^ L.D. Reynolds and Nigel G. Wilson, Scribes and scholars p. 123; 130-137.
23. ^ Valeriano, Pierio; Gaisser, Julia Haig (1999). Pierio Valeriano on the ill fortune of learned men: a Renaissance humanist and his world. University of Michigan Press. p. 281. ISBN 0472110551, 9780472110551. "Demetrius Chalcondyles was a prominent Greek humanist. He taught Greek in Italy for over forty years."
24. ^ ^{a b} Bèze, Théodore de; Summers, Kirk M. (2001). A view from the Palatine: the Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. p. 442. ISBN 0866982795 9780866982795. "Demetrius Chalcondyles (1423-1511), a Greek refugee who taught Greek at Perugia, Padua, Florence, and Milan. Around 1493 he produced a Greek textbook for beginners."
25. ^ L.D. Reynolds and Nigel G. Wilson, Scribes and scholars, p. 119, 131.
26. ^ "Demetrius Chalcondyles.". www.britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/157045/Demetrius-Chalcondyles. Retrieved 2009-09-24. "Demetrius Chalcondyles – born 1424, Athens [Greece] died 1511, Milan [Italy]. In 1447 Demetrius went to Italy, where Cardinal Bessarion became his patron. He was made professor at Padua in 1463."
27. ^ Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson (2008). The History of Education Volume 1. BiblioBazaar, LLC. p. 264. ISBN 0554225239, 9780554225234. "Another Greek of importance was Demetrius Chalcondyles of Athens (1424—1511), who reached Italy in 1447. In 1450 he became professor of Greek at Perugia."
28. ^ "Baldassare Castiglione". britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98529/Baldassare-Castiglione. Retrieved 2009-12-26. "Castiglione was educated [by] Demetrius Chalcondyles."
29. ^ Valeriano, Pierio; Gaisser, Julia Haig (1999). Pierio Valeriano on the ill fortune of learned men: a Renaissance humanist and his world. University of Michigan Press. p. 281. ISBN 0472110551, 9780472110551. "Demetrius Chalcondyles was a prominent Greek humanist. He taught Greek in Italy for over forty years; among his pupils were Ianus Lascaris, Poliziano, Leo X, Castaglione, Giraldi, Stefano Negri, and Giovanni Maria Cattaneo."
30. ^ "Demetrius Chalcondyles.". britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/157045/Demetrius-Chalcondyles. Retrieved 2009-09-25. "One of his pupils at Florence was the German scholar Johann Reuchlin."
31. ^ History of the Renaissance, HistoryWorld (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
32. ^ Kirshner, Julius, Family and Marriage: A socio-legal perspective, Italy in the Age of the Renaissance: 1300–1550, ed. John M. Najemy (Oxford University Press, 2004) p.89 (Retrieved on 10-05-2007)
33. ^ Burckhardt, Jacob, The Revival of Antiquity', The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (trans. by S.G.C. Middlemore, 1878)
34. ^ Skinner, Quentin, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol I: The Renaissance; vol II: The Age of Reformation, Cambridge University Press, p. 69
35. ^ Skinner, Quentin, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol I: The Renaissance; vol II: The Age of Reformation, Cambridge University Press, p. 69)
36. ^ Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason, New York, Random House, 2005
37. ^ Martin, J. and Romano, D., Venice Reconsidered, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 2000
38. ^ ^{a b} Burckhardt, Jacob, The Republics: Venice and Florence, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, translated by S.G.C. Middlemore, 1878.
39. ^ For more, see Barbara Tuchman's book, A Distant Mirror.
40. ^ The End of Europe's Middle Ages: The Black Death University of Calgary website. (Retrieved on April 5, 2007)
41. ^ ^{a b} Burckhardt, Jacob, The Development of the Individual, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, translated by S.G.C. Middlemore, 1878.
42. ^ Stephens, J., Individualism and the cult of creative personality, The Italian Renaissance, New York, 1990 p. 121.
43. ^ Burke, P., The spread of Italian humanism, in The impact of humanism on western Europe, ed. A. Goodman and A. MacKay, London, 1990, p. 2.
44. ^ As asserted by Gianozzo Manetti in On the Dignity and Excellence of Man, cited in Clare, J., Italian Renaissance.
45. ^ Clare, John D. & Millen, Alan, Italian Renaissance, London, 1994, p. 14.
46. ^ Stork, David G. Optics and Realism in Renaissance Art (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
47. ^ Vasari, Giorgio, Lives of the Artists, translated by George Bull, Penguin Classics, 1965, ISBN 0-14-044-164-6.
48. ^ Peter Brueghel Biography, Web Gallery of Art (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
49. ^ Hooker, Richard, Architecture and Public Space (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
50. ^ Saalman, Howard (1993). Filippo Brunelleschi: The Buildings. Zwemmer.
51. ^ Butterfield, Herbert, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300–1800, p. viii
52. ^ Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 1.
53. ^ ^{a b c} Brotton, J., "Science and Philosophy", The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction OUP, 2006.
54. ^ Capra, Fritjof, The Science of Leonardo; Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance, New York, Doubleday, 2007.
55. ^ Van Doren, Charles, A History of Knowledge, New York, Ballantine, 1991.
56. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, Western Schism (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
57. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, Alexander VI (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
58. ^ ^{a b} Panofsky, Erwin. Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, New York: Harper and Row, 1960.
59. ^ The Open University Guide to the Renaissance, Defining the Renaissance (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
60. ^ Sohm, Philip. Style in the Art Theory of Early Modern Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
61. ^ ^{a b} Láng, Paul Henry. "The So Called Netherlands Schools," The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1. (Jan., 1939), pp. 48–59. (Subscription required for JSTOR link.)
62. ^ Painting in Oil in the Low Countries and Its Spread to Southern Europe, Metropolitan Museum of Art website. (Retrieved April 5–2007)
63. ^ Celenza, Christopher, (2004) The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanists, Historians, and Latin's Legacy.Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press
64. ^ Review of Lewis Spitz, The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists. Review by Gerald Strauss, English Historical Review, Vol. 80, No. 314, p.156. Available on JSTOR (subscription required).
65. ^ "the influences of the florentine renaissance in hungary". Fondazione-delbianco.org. http://www.fondazione-delbianco.org/inglese/relaz00_01/mester.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
66. ^ ^{a b} Czigány, Lóránt, A History of Hungarian Literature, "The Renaissance in Hungary" (Retrieved on May 10, 2007)
67. ^ Marcus Tanner, The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of his Lost Library (New Haven: Yale U.P., 2008)
68. ^ [1]
69. ^ (1494,%E2%80%93,1557),1958.html History of Poland on Polish Government's website (Retrieved on April 4–2007)
70. ^ For example, the re-establishment of Jagiellonian University in 1400.
71. ^ http://www.scitech.mtesz.hu/51landmark
72. ^ The first stone tented roof church an the origins of the tented roof architecture by Sergey Zagraevsky at RusArch.ru (Russian)
73. ^ Pokhlebkin V. V. / Похлёбкин В. В. (2007). The history of vodka / История водки. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraph / Центрполиграф. pp. 272. ISBN 5-9524-1895-3.
74. ^ "Defining the Renaissance, Open University". Open.ac.uk. http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance2/defining.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
75. ^ Michelet, Jules. History of France, trans. G. H. Smith (New York: D. Appleton, 1847)
76. ^ Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (trans. S.G.C Middlemore, London, 1878)
77. ^ Gay, Peter, Style in History, New York: Basic Books, 1974.
78. ^ Burckhardt, Jacob. "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy". http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/2-1.html. Retrieved August 31, 2008
79. ^ Savonarola's popularity is a prime example of the manifestation of such concerns. Other examples include Philip II of Spain's censorship of Florentine paintings, noted by Edward L. Goldberg, "Spanish Values and Tuscan Painting", Renaissance Quarterly (1998) p.914
80. ^ Renaissance Forum at Hull University, Autumn 1997 (Retrieved on 10-05-2007)
81. ^ Lopez, Robert S., and Miskimin, Harry A., The Economic Depression of the Renaissance, Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 14 (1962), pp. 408-26. Available on JSTOR (subscription required)
82. ^ Thorndike, Lynn (1943) Renaissance or Prenaissance? in "Some Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance", Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 4, No. 1, Jan. 1943. Available on JSTOR (subscription required)
83. ^ Greenblatt, S. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, University of Chicago Press, 1980.
84. ^ Osborne, Roger, Civilization: a new history of the Western world, Pegasus Books, 2006.
85. ^ Haskins, Charles Homer, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927.
86. ^ Hubert, Jean, L’Empire carolingien, (English: The Carolingian Renaissance, translated by James Emmons, New York: G. Braziller, 1970.

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