Transcript Renatio: c. 1450-1550

Renatio
The Renaissance
1375-1527
(give or take a few years)
AP European
When did it begin?
• Literary beginnings: death of
Petrarch (1374) and Boccaccio
(1375)
• extension of Middle Ages? or break
from Middle Ages?
Who is Jakob Burkhardt? And why do we care?
What do historians think
today?
• not only interested in High Culture,
e.g. humanist though, reformation
theology, scientific discovery, and
exploration
• also concerned with material
condition, medieval continuities, and
popular belief
– magic/witchcraft, vagrancy, disease, and
decimation of colonial populations
Why in Italy?
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Politics
Economics
Religion
Society
Intellectual
Artistic
Italian
CityStates
(~1494)
New Diplomacy in the Italian
Renaissance
Middles Ages:
• Ambassador = servant
to all Christendom
• “An ambassador is
sacred because he acts
for the general
welfare…the business
of an ambassador is
peace.”
Renaissance:
• Resident ambassador
• “The first duty of an
ambassador is exactly the
same as that of any other
servant of government,
that is, to do, say, advise,
and think whatever may
best serve the preservation
and aggrandizement of his
own state.”
• Birth of modern
diplomacy
Renatio
The Renaissance
• renatio: Latin, ‘rebirth’; from Greek
palingenesis, ‘spiritual rebirth
/resurrection from the dead’
• “The essence of the Renaissance lay not in any
sudden rediscovery of classical civilization but
rather in the use which was made of classical
models to test the authority underlying
conventional taste and wisdom.”
Davies: Europe: A History. Oxford University Press: 1996. 471
Whom did it involve?
• small intellectual elite (Examples??)
– some politicians _______________
– artists/authors ________________
– religious reformers _____________
• large sectors of Europe remain
untouched (such as??)
Humanism, Secularism, Rationalism =
Reforms in Education
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Latin term humanitas, meaning human virtue
philosophical movement that began in Italy in the
15th century
rejected ideas of supernatural supremacy over the
reasoning capacity of human beings.
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Pietro Paolo Vergerio (1370-1444) freedom =
development of full potential
emphasized classical studies (called humanities),
which included rhetoric, poetry, and philosophy,
and it continues to influence education and
philosophical thinking today.
The Individual – Center of
Humanism
• God-given ingenuity could/should unravel the
secrets of God’s universe
• Man’s fate could be controlled and improved
• Sense of liberation due to awareness of human
potential
Virtú = man (vir)
Wisdom + Virtue =
Humanism
•self-sufficient
•self-confident
•takes advantage of opportunities
How does Machiavelli describe a
person of virtú? (U1.2 #27)
Neoplatonism (U1.2 #2, 3)
• Neoplatonism
Florentine Platonic Academy (Cosimo de’ Medici)
Plato traslated by Marisilio Ficino
• What is neoplatonism?
Fusion of Christianity & Platonism
Great Chain of Being
Plants (material) ←MAN  GOD (spiritual)
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
(1462-1494) (U1.2 #4 Why?)
• Read exerpt pg. 292
• Oration on the Dignity of Man
new emphasis on free will
(divine, not downfall)
Our desire / ability to study
and understand nature, gives
us the potential to become
sages / magi.
Lorenzo Valla
• Ad fontes – return to the source
• In what way(s) did Valla’s
strong belief in good scholarly
research end up causing the
Catholic Church additional
problems in the mid-15th
century?
Civic Humanism
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Cultivation of authors, such as Cicero, Homer,
Virgil BUT ALSO new local histories (Bruni’s
History of the Florentine People)
Leonardo Bruni, The New Cicero – glorification of
Cicero as politician + author; life of participation and
activity
Purpose of historical writing is to teach a lesson
(learn from the past)
“civic humanist” = wise man who can govern
Ethics independent of Christianity – moral greatness
of individual and one’s ability to discover truth &
wisdom
l’uomo universale
universal man (Renaissance man)
• “independence of mind”
• master of all branches of art and
thought
• no dependence on outside
authorities for formation of
knowledge, tastes & beliefs