101 Lecture 20 April 16

Question 1

The Renaissance and Humanism

Answer 1

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Question 2

The Renaissance as a Historical Period
c. 1400-1600

Renaissance as a state of mind: Humanism

Answer 2

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Question 3

Fortuna (chance) gradually replaced Providence as the universal frame of reference

Answer 3

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Question 4

The historical period the Renaissance overlaps with the end of the medieval world

Its first few generations were in a sense the culmination of the medieval

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Question 5

Slide

Middle Ages truly end with 3 things:

1. Printing Press 1450
2. New World 1492
3. Reformation 1517

Answer 5

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Question 6

Today we’re looking at the shift in mentality that would come to characterize many of the developments later

Answer 6

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Question 7

Slide

In Italy 15th c.

New period of skepticism

Somewhat exciting

Answer 7

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Question 8

Humanism a new outlook on life

Not organized initially

It began as a kind of youthful rebellion

All its initial adherents were younger than 40

Answer 8

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Question 9

Humanism reacting against:

Medieval synthesism

Valued:
the specific, individual, solitary, unique.

Answer 9

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Question 10

Individual persons, things, ideas had autonomous value

No need to fit things into a grander cosmic schema

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Question 11

Slide

Dedication to the liberal arts

grammar, history, literature, philology, rhetoric

Studia humanitatis

These best suited for appreciating the human experience

Answer 11

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Question 12

Slide

Belief that the ancients had most nearly perfected the philosophy of loving life for its own sake

Answer 12

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Question 13

hallmark of early humanism: embracing teh study of classical literature and philosophy

Answer 13

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Question 14

Recovered large bodies of near-lost classical writing

wrote extensive commenatries

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Question 15

Slide

Tried to “purify” Latin

No word or grammatical construction that had not been used by Cicero

They killed Latin

Answer 15

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Question 16

Slide

Humanism's Founder
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-1374)

Born near Florence

Grew up in Avignon near the papal palace

Fell in love with Cicero while still young

Answer 16

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Question 17

Petrarch

Studied law. Unhappy years as a lawyer

Parents died, left him a comfortable inheritance

Devoted himself to poetry and literary study

Answer 17

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Question 18

Can see the difference in humanism from medieval worldviews by looking at Laura vs Beatrice

Answer 18

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Question 19

Humanism born in the disasters of 14th and 15th c.

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Question 20

These young authors emhasized a worldview that focused on the immediate, the particular

Answer 20

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Question 21

World may not make sense, but that doesn’t mean we should despair

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Question 22

Slide

This celebration can be seen in how classics embraced

Classics had been bedrock of medieval education

Answer 22

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Question 23

Medievals tended to embrace classical authors for their value in helping make one a better Christian.

For humanists, embraced for their own sake

No larger purpose necessary

Answer 23

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Question 24

Classical texts as practical guides for living

Most written for small urban republics

Like what northern Italy looks like

Answer 24

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Question 25

By end of 16th c., virtually the entire classical literary canon as we know it recovered

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Question 26

Renaissance humanism rejected Middle Ages

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Question 27

Petrarch on scholastcism vs humanism

Schol can define a virtue like goodness, but can’t make you want to be good.

Humanism inflames the heart

Answer 27

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Question 28

Humanists all too eager to distance themselves from the medieval world

Church as corrupt, full of scholastic hairsplitting

Medieval Latin brutish and mangled

Architecture a nightmare of spires

Answer 28

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Question 29

Philosophy full of mind-numbing abstractions

Politics barbarism by another name, tribalism in robes

Answer 29

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Question 30

Criticisms were genuine and they had a point

But it takes a long time for these protestations to actually become changes

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Question 31

Christian Humanism in the North

Answer 31

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Question 32

Slide

Let’s begin with an overview of Medieval Christianity at the end of the Middle Ages

Answer 32

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Question 33

A. Scholasticism (define again)

1. a method of theology - logical analysis of Biblical texts
2. a means by which to understand God, to properly interpret Bible
3. leads to worry about heresy (incorrect teaching)

Answer 33

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Question 34

B. Internationalism (one Church the same throughout the West)

Answer 34

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Question 35

C. Ritualistic

1. Use of Latin
2. actions to help save your soul
3. community cohesiveness through liturgical ritual
4. emphasis on outward manifestations of faith
5. well-fitted to an active peasant cohort

Answer 35

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Question 36

E. Pope as a secular/spiritual leader

1. has worldly concerns
2. Role as political leader disturbing to many

Answer 36

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Question 37

F. Growing dissatisfaction with these traits in Catholocism

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Question 38

Slide

Northern Renaissance has its roots in printing

1. First printed Bible in 1445-50 (Gutenburg)
2. Interest in recovering ancient texts (as in Italy)
3. Moveable type–this was the real invention
   a. quickly able to reproduce texts
   b. do so without errors from copyists
   c. books much cheaper to produce than manuscripts
4. importance today of such books–incanabulae

Answer 38

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Question 39

Slide

Gutenburg bible

Answer 39

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Question 40

Slide

Mixing Renaissance Humanism with Christianity

1. civic (Italian Renaissance): “what you need to live well”
2. Christian (Northern): “what you need to be saved”
3. focus is still, however, on the person, on the “you”
4. creates the beginning of a religious reformation

Answer 40

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Question 41

How is it Humanistic?

1. the “ancients” are the early Church, the Bible
2. Romans, Greeks hold less sway than Bible, Epistles
3. interest in the liberal arts (poetry, art, nature)
4. harmony, moderation
5. creates the model for Christian Liberal Arts education
6. Above all, emphasis on the duty of individual to understand salvation, Bible, God

Answer 41

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Question 42

Slide

Ethics instead of Scholasticism

1. again, focus on the individual
2. what can the person do in society to be saved?
3. salvation, therefore in worldly work
4. Reason for the Christian human condition
   a. less interest in heresy
   b. use of reason to create piety, not philosophy

Answer 42

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Question 43

Action vs. Contemplation

1. Goal: Reform Xtianity thru morals
2. Goal: Reform Church through ancient simplicity
3. Goal: Prune the Church to make it bear better fruit
4. Highly Optimistic

Answer 43

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Question 44

Slide

A new world, new Europe

Answer 44

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Question 44

Piety intsead of ritual

1. Act out your faith instead of acting out rituals
2. individualist ideas need less communitarian rituals
3. rituals had become too much, needed pruning
4. would result in pure simplicity of ancient church

Answer 44

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Question 45

In-class wtiting

Identify three themes that, to you, characterize the Middle Ages

Answer 45

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