Transcript Renaissance and Humanism

Renaissance and Humanism
Renaissance and Humanism
• 1. Italian city-states
• 2. Ancient culture
• 3. Early modern state
Renaissance and Humanism
• 1. Italian city-states
– 11th-12th centuries 100 Italian towns practice
communal form of government and debate
republicanism (developing self-government
– 14th century princes take over after economic collapse
(Black Death); but Florence and Venice survive free
and produce the Renaissance
– Not democracies, not egalitarian, but cultures with
environments of competition and freedom that allow
creativity, discussion, and debate
– Patricians control property, but patronize scholars and
artists
Renaissance and Humanism
• 1. Italian city-states
– Florence and the Medici: Medicean age 1434-1494; the
Medici meddle in political affairs from behind the scenes
– Venice: a true republic from 1297-1797, though only 2500
out of 150000 could vote or hold office
– Renaissance spreads to Italian principalities
– Upper class citizens regularly read, collected art, and
patronized artists, scholars, and architects
– The ideal citizen was encouraged to hold public office, pay
taxes honestly, and patronize the arts
– The ideal courtier (at the court of the prince) performed
services for the prince, requiring cultivation in many skills:
horsemanship, swordplay, athletics, drawing, dancing,
music, conversation, foreign language, classical education,
all for diplomacy and peace of the state
Renaissance and Humanism
• 1. Italian city-states
– Papal princes
• After Great Schism, the popes having lost moral
authority had to force European princes into
submission
• Julius ii (1503-1513) put on armor and led his troops
into battle
• Alexander vi (1492-1503) fathered four children by his
favorite mistress
• Patrons of the arts during Renaissance; Cf. Leo x (15131521) and the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica
Renaissance and Humanism
• 2. Ancient culture
– Greece and Rome provide models for Renaissance
Italy in art, politics, philosophy, etc.
– Artists foster rebirth; imitation, collection rampant
– Scholars reexamine ancient culture: humanists
(textual criticism, grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
history, ethics: a basis of modern Humanities
curriculum)
Renaissance and Humanism
• 2. Ancient culture
– Humanists
• Petrarch (1304-1374) develops textual criticism (called
philology)
• Humanists sought to resurrect Ancient Latin; shaped
culture through comparison with the ancients’
perspective
• Donation of Constantine (Valla’s philological proof)
• The “Renaissance” Man: a master of many topics
• Education aimed at intellectual breadth (cf. gen ed
requirements at university today)
Renaissance and Humanism
• 2. Ancient culture
– Scientific innovation
• Ancient authorities provide little basis for understanding
modern experience in regard to science (what the ancients
called natural philosophy), but texts are debated
• Astronomy (Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543): Ptolemaic
system (2nd c.) challenged and refuted textually; not until
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) are Copernicus’ discoveries
confirmed by observation
• Anatomy (Vesalius 1514-1564, Fallopio 1523-1562):
encourage students to do practical observation
• Beginning of optics through artistic perspective
• Printing press (1450’s) leads to easier exchange of ideas
• Da Vinci (1452-1519): amazing inventions, but unpublished
Renaissance and Humanism
• 2. Ancient culture
– The Arts
• Imitation of the ancients is key
• Focus on natural and idealized representations in
painting and sculpture
• Perfection of linear perspective: depiction of threedimensional space on a two-dimensional surface
• Influence of the patron displayed in arts
• da Vinci, Michelangelo, all artists worked for patrons
• Renaissance spreads through art experienced by
visitors to (and invaders of) Italy
Renaissance and Humanism
• 3. Early modern state
– Italian Wars start in 1494: the now strong monarchies
of France, Spain, Holy Roman Empire (German states)
attempt to take control of peninsula
– Italy falls, Rome sacked (1527), Spain ends up in most
control by 1530
– Resulting relations between states lead historical and
political questions about how states exist and must be
ruled (e.g. Niccolo Macchiavelli 1469-1527)
Renaissance and Humanism
• 3. Early modern state
– The State System that comes out of the Renaissance:
• A system of interrelated changes
• Governments establish standing armies
• Governments modernize armies or face defeat (e.g. infantry,
gunpowder)
• Need for revenue leads to growing taxation and attendant
bureaucracy
• Need for inclusive taxation leads to elimination of tax exemption
and local government
• Need for strong central government requires submission of
aristocracy and church (which is most effective in France, England,
and Spain; not as effective in Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary)
• Need for governmental autonomy requires diplomatic presence
abroad, leading to ambassadorial representation at foreign courts