Transcript Italy the Birthplace of the Renaissance

Italy the Birthplace of the
Renaissance
SECTION 1-1
Europe in the 1500’s
Renaissance Italy
Renaissance
 Time period from 1300 to 1600
 Was a “rebirth” of art and learning
 Focused on the individual and the potential for
human growth and achievements
3 Factors That Gave Rise to the Renaissance in
Italy
 City states
 Wealthy merchant class
 A return to classical Greece and Rome
Italian City-States
 Italy had many urban centers while the rest of
Europe was mainly rural
 Cities were places where people exchanged new
Renaissance ideas
 Many people in a central area made it easier for ideas
to spread
Wealthy Merchant Class
 The Bubonic Plague killed a large portion of the
population
 This left few workers, which allowed them to
demand better wages
 With little opportunity to expand their businesses,
many merchants turned to the arts
A Return to the Classics
 Renaissance thinkers looked to Ancient Greece and
Rome as sources of knowledge
 Classical societies were viewed as more
sophisticated than ones from the Middle Ages
 Scholars used the Roman ruins around Italy and
Latin texts to study the classics
Renaissance Philosophy
 As scholars studied the classics, they began to focus
on human potential and achievement
 This is called humanism and it became a center point
for Renaissance thinking
 Some people began to think of society in a secular or
worldly view rather than a religious one
 Key figures Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli
The Renaissance Man & Woman
 The Renaissance man strove to excel in all areas of
study (athletics, the arts, and intellectual studies)
 The Renaissance woman was expected to inspire but
not create, to be intelligent but not take active roles
in society
Leonardo da Vinci
 He was the ideal
Renaissance Man
 He was a painter,
sculptor, scholar and
scientist
 One of his most famous
pieces was the Mona
Lisa
“da Vinci’s works”
Changes in Literature
 Writers began to write in the Vernacular which was
writing in native language rather than in Latin (you
write in French in France and English in England)
Machiavelli
 A Renaissance writer and author of the Prince – a
political handbook that advised rulers on how to rule
their subjects
The End