Renaissance Vocab

Question 1

Accordance

Answer 1

agreement

Question 2

Stagnation

Answer 2

sluggish, inactive, not progressing

Question 3

Renaissance

Answer 3

rebirth

Question 4

topography

Answer 4

surface feature of a region

Question 5

hinterland

Answer 5

areas surrounding a city

Question 6

mercenary soldiers

Answer 6

soldiers for hire

Question 7

oligarchy

Answer 7

government by a few powerful people

Question 8

florin, ducat

Answer 8

gold coins weighing about 3.5 grams

Question 9

pile

Answer 9

heavy beam driven upright into the earth to support a structure

Question 10

republic

Answer 10

a state in which the citizens elect representatives to form a government

Question 11

to patronize

Answer 11

to support

Question 12

assassin

Answer 12

a murder of a politically important person

Question 13

to send into exile

Answer 13

to banish

Question 14

reason

Answer 14

the ability to think and to draw conclusions

Question 15

Old Town

Answer 15

a term used to describe the original city center of a European city

Question 16

Renaissance man

Answer 16

a term traditionally used to describe a person skilled in many areas

Question 17

Dominican

Answer 17

a Catholic religious order

Question 18

vanity

Answer 18

a worthless pleasure

Question 19

proportion

Answer 19

a correct relation among parts

Question 20

perspective

Answer 20

giving the appearance of distance on a flat surface

Question 21

blasphemous

Answer 21

showing contempt for sacred things

Question 22

human anatomy

Answer 22

the science of the structure of the human body

Question 23

eccentric

Answer 23

odd, peculiar person

Question 24

fresco

Answer 24

painted with water colour on fresh wet plaster

Question 25

etcher

Answer 25

an artist who engraves a picture onto a metal plate, and uses this plate as a stamp

Question 26

wood cutter

Answer 26

an artist who carves a picture onto a wood block and uses this block as a stamp

Question 27

empirical reasoning

Answer 27

drawing conclusions from physical evidence

Question 28

ether

Answer 28

an extremely pure, refined substance once through to occupy the upper regions of space

Question 29

congress

Answer 29

collection

Question 30

Inquisition

Answer 30

a Church court that tried heretics, people who disagreed with Church teachings.

Question 31

dowry

Answer 31

money paid to the family of a groom by the bride’s family

Question 32

hypothesis

Answer 32

a proposed explanation

Question 33

theory

Answer 33

an explanation supported by the observation of evidence

Question 34

Who was the most famous Medici?

Answer 34

Lorenzo Medici was the most famous Medici

Question 35

Why was Lorenzo so famous?

Answer 35

An assassin killed his brother and injured him, so the people of Florence attacked the assassins.

Question 36

What did Lorenzo become?

Answer 36

Lorenzo became the absolute ruler of Florence from 1469-1492

Question 37

What were Lorenzo’s achievements?

Answer 37

He sponsored many great artists and thinkers (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Mirandola) founded a university in Pisa, and an academy in Florence. He could talk about any subject as an equal to a scholar not just a rich man. He wrote excellent music an poetry.

Question 38

How did Lorenzo stay popular?

Answer 38

He spent his money making Florence beautiful and running the city well, bad guys were sent to exile.

Question 39

What happened to Lorenzo’s son?

Answer 39

Lorenzo’s son, Giovanni, was made a cardinal at 14 yrs old, and later became Pope Leo X

Question 40

What are sumptuary laws?

Answer 40

Sumptuary laws are laws governing how much food courses you serve depending on the social status of your guest. These law governed consumption, or how you spend your money. By 1460 the government banned banquets and certain foods like partridge, pheasant and peacock. These laws most often affected the growing middle class.

Question 41

What is the importance of family in Renaissance Italy?

Answer 41

large families, died young, share house with extended family, kids learned parents trade and worked in family business, poor/middle class could choose who to marry, but wealthy arranged marriage for better social status. Weddings were flashy events, men married women much younger, and were given large dowries from the wife’s family.