Chapter 12: The Fifteenth Century

Question 1

Lorenzo de’ Medici

Answer 1

“the Magnificent,” was the grandson of the man who founded the Medici political dynasty in the Republic of Florence, patronized the arts and letters,

Question 2

Alessandro Filipepi, who would be called Botticelli

Answer 2

Adoration of the Magi, established himself in the Medici court, as evidenced by the family portraits that appear in that scene, one of Medici’s closest friends, In the Adoration of the Magi, Botticelli pays homage to the beneficence of the Medici—who saw themselves as kings and princes—and codifies the reconciliation of Christian belief and humanist thought that marked the discourse of Medici Florence

Question 3

capitalism and the people

Answer 3

A class of wealthy families emerged, whose claims to eminence were based less on noble blood than on the ability to make money through capitalism, Centers of international trade sprang up in Northern Europe and in Italy. Bruges in Flanders and Florence in Italy emerged as two of the wealthiest cities. With capitalism came prosperity, and with prosperity came patronage of the arts.

Question 4

new notions associated with Renaissance thought

Answer 4

pride and ownership of one’s accomplishments, and the acknowledgement of fame

Question 5

largest and most powerful of the duchies

Answer 5

the duchy of Burgundy ( It soon became, in effect, the financial capital of northern Europe)

Question 6

polyptych

Answer 6

An arrangement of four or more painted or carved panels that are hinged together.

Question 7

Who formed the core of the great humanist collection housed today in the Laurentian Library in Florence?

Answer 7

Cosimo de’ Medici from his love of the humanities

Question 8

italics

Answer 8

Cosimo de’ Medici had his copyists write in neat cursive which turned into the model for italics

Question 9

Cosimo’s most significant contribution to the advancement of Greek studies

Answer 9

the foundation and endowment of an academy for the study of Plato

Question 10

Marsilio Ficino

Answer 10

Cosimo supported this priest so that he could copy all the works of Plato, Plotinus, and other Platonic thinkers into Latin. He wrote his own book on Platonism called Theologia Platonica

Question 11

platonic love

Answer 11

word created by Ficino to describe the spiritual bond between two people who were joined together in the contemplative search for the true, the good, and the beautiful

Question 12

the Pazzi conspiracy

Answer 12

they wanted to rule the city so they murdered Giuliano and stabbed Lorenzo (both Medici) and evidently the pope was cool with this

Question 13

Lorenzo il Magnifico (“the Magnificent”) (de’ Medici)

Answer 13

His accomplishments were so many and varied that the last half of the 15th century in Florence is often called the Laurentian Era, Lorenzo continued the family tradition of art patronage by supporting various projects and by adding to the Medici collection of ancient gems, other antiquities, and books, Lorenzo was an accomplished poet, The poem for which Lorenzo is best known is “The Song of Bacchus.” Written in 1490, its opening stanzas echo the old Roman dictum of living for the present because life is short and the future is uncertain, Lorenzo contributed the funds necessary to rebuild the University of Pisa and designated it the principal university of Tuscany (Galileo taught there in the next century)

Question 14

Girolamo Savonarola

Answer 14

Dominican preacher and reformer, His urgent preaching against the vanities of Florence in general and the degeneracy of its art and culture in particular had an electric effect on the populace,

Question 15

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Answer 15

one of the most brilliant humanists of the period, turned from his polyglot studies of Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin to a devout life under the direction of the friar; only Pico’s early death prevented him from joining Savonarola as a friar at San Marco. The humanist painter Botticelli was so impressed by Savonarola that he burned some of his worldlier paintings, and scholars see in his last works a more profound religiosity derived from the contact with the reforming friar

Question 16

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Answer 16

an intimate friend of Lorenzo de’ Medici and a companion of the Platonic scholar Marsilio Ficino. Precociously brilliant, Pico was deeply involved with the intellectual life of his day, Pico was convinced that all human learning could be synthesized in such a way as to yield basic and elementary truths. To demonstrate this, he set out to master all the systems of knowledge that then existed, was the first Christian in his day to take an active interest in Hebrew culture, preface to these theses, called the Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), has often been cited as the first and most important document of Renaissance humanism

Question 17

Johannes Reuchlin

Answer 17

came to Florence to study Hebrew with Pico. After mastering that language and Greek as well, Reuchlin went back to Germany to pursue his studies and to apply them to biblical scholarship. In the early 16th century, he came under the influence of Martin Luther, but he never joined the Reformation

Question 18

Women and the 15th century

Answer 18

more restricted and objectified, but they could get more of an education,

Question 19

Isotta Nogarola

Answer 19

became one of the most renowned Renaissance humanists of her day and, through her example, inspired other female writers, poets, and artists. Her most famous work is a performance piece framed around a dialogue between the characters Isotta and Ludovico on the relative guilt of Adam and Eve for original sin. Nogarola’s intellectual argument springs from the basic tenet that Adam and Eve were equals; both possessed the essential goodness of human nature, and both acted out of free will. Nogarola, who was educated in Greek and Latin, also wrote an oration on Saint Jerome, one of the doctors of the church, whose own writings on Christianity were grounded in Classical literature

Question 20

Laura Cereta

Answer 20

“All human beings, women included, are born with the right to an education”,

Question 21

The Prince by Machiavelli

Answer 21

considered the first purely secular study of political theory in the West,

Question 22

Desiderius Erasmus

Answer 22

the most important Christian humanist in Europe, non practicing priest, wandering scholar who gained fame as a learned thinker and author, Erasmus’s many books attempted to combine Classical learning and a simple interiorized approach to Christian living. In the Enchiridion militis Christiani (1502), he attempts to spell out this Christian humanism in practical terms. The title has a typical Erasmus-style pun: the word enchiridion can mean either “handbook” or “short sword”; thus, the title can mean the handbook or the short sword of the Christian knight. His Greek New Testament (1516) was the first attempt to edit the Greek text of the New Testament by a comparison of extant manuscripts, The most famous book written by Erasmus, The Praise of Folly (1509), was dashed off almost as a joke while he was a houseguest of Sir Thomas More in England. Again, the title is a pun; Encomium Moriae can mean either “praise of folly” or “praise of More”—Thomas More, his host. The Praise of Folly is a humorous work, but beneath its seemingly lighthearted spoof of the foibles of the day, there are strong denunciations of corruption, evil, ignorance, and prejudice in society. Erasmus flails away at the makers of war (he had a strong pacifist streak), venal lawyers, and fraudulent doctors, but above all, he bitterly attacks religious corruption: the sterility of religious scholarship and the superstitions in religious practice, The Praise of Folly went through 27 editions in the lifetime of Erasmus and outsold every other book except the Bible in the 16th century.

Question 23

Early Renaissance

Answer 23

began, not with a commission but with a competition—for the right to decorate the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery

Question 24

sculptor Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi—known simply as Donatello

Answer 24

Saint George (Fig. 12.15) was created originally for a niche on the exterior of the Orsanmichele church in Florence, the site of the headquarters of the city’s guilds. Each of the guilds had been assigned a niche in which to place a sculpture representing their patron saint; Saint George was the patron saint of armorers and sword makers

Question 25

contrapposto

Answer 25

A position in which a figure is obliquely balanced around a central vertical axis; also known as the weight-shift principle.

Question 26

frottola

Answer 26

A humorous or amorous poem set to music for a singer and two or three instrumentalists.

Question 27

canto carnascialesco

Answer 27

A carnival song, written for the carnival season before Lent.