Transcript renaissance101

The Renaissance (1350-1550)
The Renaissance (1350-1550)
A cultural “rebirth” of antiquity. A movement
that sought to imitate and understand the
culture of antiquity (of ancient Greece and
Rome).
• Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1452 C.E.)
– Papal secretary
– Citizen of Florence (later Chancellor of
Florence)
• Quintilian (35-100 C.E.), The Training of
an Orator
Ancient Roman Writers and
Thinkers
• Cicero (Roman lawyer and moral
philosopher)
• Virgil, Horace, Lucretius (poets)
• Vitruvius (architect and engineer)
• Tacitus; Suetonius (historians)
studia humanitatis
• Renaissance humanism was the product of
the urban and commercial environment of
fourteenth and fifteenth-century Italy and it
developed in response to the particular
social and political needs of urban elites.
• The studia: grammar (Latin), rhetoric,
history, poetry, and moral philosophy/ethics
• I. Political and Social Context: Communes,
Oligarchs, and Despots
• II. Renaissance Humanism
• III. The Appeal of the Ancient World
I. Political and Social Context:
Communes, Oligarchs, and
Despots
• 1. The Government of the Commune
– The Republic of Florence
• 2. Importance of Merchants and Guilds
• 3. Despots
– Condottiere (mercenary captains)
• Federico II Duke of Urbino (1422-82)
– Podestas (judges)
The Commune of Florence
Laws and ad mi nistrative posts
By vo te
Sixteen
Standard-bearers
of the p arish
mili tia s
Signoria
(Priors and
Standard-bearer of
Justic e)
Twelve
Goodme n
By lot
Podestá
Eligible
candidates
Coun cil of the
Popolo
(300)
By review
laws
Florentine Citizens
At least 30 years old
Members of the 21 gu ilds
Econo mi cally solvent
(6,000 men)
Source of personne l
Exercise of authority
Coun cil of the
Commun e
(400)
II. Renaissance Humanism
• 1. The Humanists’ Curriculum
• 2. A Program for Ruling Elites
III. The Appeal of the Ancient
World
• 1. Skills for urban politics (Machiavelli)
• 2. Provided arguments in favor of
republican government (civic humanism)
– Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444); ethic of public service
• 3. Enhanced the reputation of new elites and
their authority
– Cosimo de’Medici (1389-1464)
• 4. Legitimated questionable wealth
– The sin of usury and ill-gotten gains
• “Humanism was not merely an interest in
antiquity, but a certain way of looking at
antiquity and of relating it to the present.
Antiquity provided humanists not only with
certain classical forms of thought, literary
expression, and action, but with new norms
(values) for determining the suitability and
rightness of thought, word, and deed.”
• Aesthetic and social ideal of balance and
proportion
• Politically a stable society built on the foundation
of well-balanced and educated individuals
• Searching for the harmonies in nature, which
meant employing geometry and the mathematics
of proportion in drawing, sculpting and designing
buildings
The Papacy in the Late Middle
Ages
• 1. The Avignese Papacy or “Babylonian
Captivity” (1305-1378)
– Boniface VIII (1294-1303)
• 2. The Great Western Schism (1378-1417)
– Election of multiple popes and divided
obediences
– Concilar Movement
• 3. Renaissance Popes as Princes and Patrons
– Alexander VI (1492-1503) Rodrigo Borgia
• Sought to create a central Italian principality for his
son Cesare Borgia
– Julius II (1503-13) Nephew of Sixtus IV
• Julius Exclusus and patron of the Sistine Chapel
– Leo X (1513-1521)
• Son of Lorenzo de Medici “the Magnificent”
• Oversaw the building of the new St. Peters in Rome
European Political Scene at the
End of the Middle Ages
• 1. Monarchical Consolidation
– France [Valois] (post-1453)
• Consolidation of Royal Authority after Hundred
Years War (1337-1453)
– Spain [Trastámara]
• Marriage of Isabel and Fernando unite the Crowns
of Castile and Aragon (1469)
– England [Tudor]
• After the “Wars of the Roses” (1455-1485)
establishment of a new dynasty
• 2. Efforts to end the Independence of
Aristocracy and Clergy
– Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438)
– Defeat of the Duke of Burgundy (1477)
• 3. A Military Revolution: Standing Armies
– Large well-drilled infantries (pikesmen)
– Gunpowder firearms (harquebus and cannon)
• 4. Systematic Expansion of Taxation
– French Estates General vote for the taille
5. Continued Political Fragmentation
Italy (a patchwork of Republics and
Principalities)
The Holy Roman Empire (Hundreds of
independent political states in
Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Bohemia)
Flanders/The Netherlands (multiple
independent provinces)
• 6. French and Spanish Intervention in Italy
– French Invasions
• Charles VIII in 1494 to claim Kingdom of Naples
• Louis XII in 1499 to claim the Duchy of Milan
– Spanish (Trastámara) control of the Kingdom
of Naples
Machiavelli (1469-1527)
• An administrator and official for the
Republic of Florence
• Exiled from Florence with the restoration of
the Medici family (1512)
• Wrote The Prince (c. 1513)