The Renaissance

Question 1

Renaissance Humanism as defined by Donald R. Kelly

Answer 1

“a European cultural movement based on a fascination with classical and patristic antiquity, its sources, and its ideals.”

Question 2

Etymology of Renaissance

Answer 2

‘Rinascenza’ – Italian – C16th - Vasari
‘Renaissance’ – French – C19th (Balzac, Michelet)
Term consolidated by Burckhardt (1860 - The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy)

Question 3

What was the Renaissance? Some General Themes:

Answer 3

Some general themes

1) A Revival (Humanism, ad Fontes)
2) A revolution (Against the church and the established order?)
3) An artistic movement
4) A force for social change (Individualism)

Question 4

What was the Renaissance? Some Historiography:

Answer 4

Burckhart (1860): 
The State 
Individualism 
Revival of Antiquity 
The Discovery of the World and of Man 
Society and Festivals 
Morality and Religion 

Gombricht:
Revival
Progress

Question 5

The Nature of the Renaissance: Period, movement, philosophy?

Answer 5

• Period of change but elitist and fluid boundaries

- Can be considered a movement but very broadly. All-encompassing definition would not be fit for purpose

Question 6

Renaissance Humanism: Educational Reform

Answer 6

“Humanist Curriculum”
Began to “crystallise” in the early 1400s
st —> Studia Humanitatis
Contrasted with medieval studies of trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic), quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music), natural philosophy (maths and science at uni). Other uni degrees were theology, law and medicine

‘umanista’ was a term for students studying liberal arts (studia humanitatis)
grammar and rhetoric, also “poetry, history and modern philosophy”
agenda was simply “a scholarly, literary and educational ideal based on the study of classical antiquity (P.O. Kristeller)

Question 7

Humanist treaties on educational reform

Answer 7

De ingenius moribus et liberalibus studiis adulescentiae by Pier Paolo Vergerio (1370-1444)
Argues benefits of a humanist education
studies “worthy of a free man”
“appears to be shaping a curriculum exclusively for elite students” yet “he appears to address all potential students, not merely the future ruler”

Treaties by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464), later Pope Pius, writes De liberorum Educatione in 1450

Maffeo Vergio (1406-1464) writes De educatione liberorum et eorum claris moribus
emphasis on “the development of moral excellence”
anti-corporal punishment + advocates education for girls

Question 8

Humanist schools

Answer 8

Paul Grendler: nearly all the latin schools in italy were humanist by 1500

Vittorino de Feltre(Vittorino Rambaldoni) 1378-1446 establishe(house of joy) in Mantua
School for talented children
Inc children of despot’s family and others

Guarino (verona) establishes similar school in 1429
Trained future leaders

Question 9

Donald R. Kelly on the education-centric origins of Renaissance Humanism

Answer 9

Humanism began as an “insurrection” of the arts against the “intellectual hegemony of the ‘sciences’

Question 10

The Rediscovery of antiquarian literature

Answer 10

Poggio Bracciolini (1381-1459) found two of Cicero’s speeches previously unaccounted for, and Quintilian’s (35-c-100CE) Institutio Oratoria 
“Works of Seneca, Cicero and Virgil, among others, were known to authors and philosophers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries…” 

Many humanists collated the works of multiple authors; Francesco Filefo had the works of forty when he returned from Constantinople in 1429.

Arguably the most significant aspect of this contribution was the recovery and translation of Greek texts with the aid of Manuel Chrysoloras’ (1353-1415) Greek Grammar.

Question 11

The Renaissance and womens’ education

Answer 11

Impressively, some women received a humanist education. Laura Cellette, Olympia Moranda and Casandra Fedele were orators and letter writers learned in Latin. As progressive as this sounds, the number of female humanists was minimal and their studies were still constrained by their social status.

Question 12

Periodisation and Renaissance Humanism

Answer 12

Nauert argues that Francesco Petrarch’s (1304-1374) pioneering of ‘historical discontinuity’ was ‘the crucial innovation associated with the Renaissance’.

As Petrarch “…dwelt especially upon antiquity, for [his] own age has always repelled [him]…”, he had necessarily identified the present and what had come before it. In turn, he and his contemporaries saw a classical revival as a means to improve their condition.

This ‘change of mentality’ allowed the efforts at such a revival to occur when they did despite humanists and classical texts being available earlier: Lovato dei Lovati of Padua could be described as a humanist, and Petrarch was only five when he died in 1309.

Question 13

Pico della Mirandola

Answer 13

Pico della Mirandola
Wrote De hominis dignitate oratio
Human beings uniquely placed to reason, and “has the capacity to approach the infinity of God”

Capacity
“Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand we have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature.”
Nature
Freedom “granted by God in the act of creation”
Oration never delivered. Intended as an introduction to 900 thesis but 13 found to be heretical by papacy —> arrested —> handed over to Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence, 1488

Question 14

Evidence of Scholastic Philosophy conflict

Answer 14

Petrarch in conflict in 1366: “it is better to will the good than to know the truth!”

Ermoalo Barbaro the Younger vs Giovani Pico
Barbaro: “that which procures for an author immortal reputation is a shining and elegant style…”

Pico’s philosopher friends respond: “We do not expect the applause of the theater…but we expect the silence which comes rather from astonishment on the part of the few who are looking very deeply into something…”

Question 15

Development of the State: Civil Humanism

Answer 15

Civic Humanism is a term coined by Hans Baron to denote the harmony between humanism and integration with “the republican spirit of the italian city states”:

Whereas before people had retreated to the cloister, now, the city became the hub of intellectualism

As laymen in Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406), the chancellor of Florence, advised Peregrino Zambeccani not to assume “that to flee the crowd…is the way of perfection.”.

Proto-Capitalism (Also evidence of Renaissance individualism)

his is evident in the proto-capitalist views of Poggio Braccilioni in his De Avarita, describing city states as ‘“the workshops of avarice”’.

Republicanism: 
 Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) praises Florentine government and political participation in Laudio Florentinae Urbis and Historiarium Florentini Populi. 

Aurelio Brandolini’s lesser-known De comparatione reipublicae et regni is contrastingly critical of Florentine republicanism.

Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ is not, argues Hankins, “a blueprint for actual societies of sinful men.”

Question 16

Lorenzo Valla

Answer 16

Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) famously proved that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery by identifying inconsistencies in its writing style

Question 17

Evidence of Renaissance Individualism

Answer 17

Machiavelli publishes ‘the Prince’

his is evident in the proto-capitalist views of Poggio Braccilioni in his De Avarita, describing city states as ‘“the workshops of avarice”’.

Picco della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (De hominis dignitate) is a famous public discourse pronounced in 1486 by Pico della Mirandola

Question 18

Francesca Petrarca

Answer 18

1304-1374

Poet:
- first large scale work, Africa, an epic in Latin about the great Roman general Scipio Africanus, Petrarch emerged as a European celebrity.
-On April 8, 1341, he became the first poet laureate since antiquity
Canzoniere (“Songbook”) and the Trionfi (“Triumphs”)

Humanist:
1345 he personally discovered a collection of Cicero’s letters not previously known to have existed, the collection ad Atticum.

‘“Plato is praised by the greater men”….“Aristotle by the bigger crowd”

In his work Secretum meum he points out that secular achievements did not necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God. Petrarch argued instead that God had given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to their fullest

“he stood with one foot in the middle ages, while with the other he saluted the rising star of the Renaissance”

Question 19

Niccolo Machiavelli

Answer 19

1469-1527

In 1494 Florence restored the republic, expelling the Medici family that had ruled Florence for some sixty years.

Shortly after the execution of Savonarola, Machiavelli was appointed to an office of the second chancery, a medieval writing office that put Machiavelli in charge of the production of official Florentine government documents.

However, Machiavelli’s success did not last. In August 1512 the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato,

After the Medici victory, the Florentine city-state and the republic were dissolved, and Machiavelli was deprived of office in 1512. In 1513 the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him imprisoned. Despite having been subjected to torture, he denied involvement and was released after three weeks.

Wrote ‘The Prince’

Virtu

Virtù is a concept theorized by Niccolò Machiavelli, centered on the martial spirit and ability of a population or leader,[1] but also encompassing a broader collection of traits necessary for maintenance of the state and “the achievement of great things.”

Aristotle had early raised the question “whether we ought to regard the virtue of a good man and that of a sound citizen as the same virtue”;[2] Thomas Aquinas had continued to stress that sometimes “someone is a good citizen who has not the quality…[of] a good man”.[3]

Virtu, as opposed to the Christian virtues, includes pride, bravery, civic humanism, strength and an amount of ruthlessness.

Florentine republicans at the turn of the 16th Century like Francesco Guicciardini rediscovered the classical concept of the virtue of the active citizen, and looked to it for an answer to the problems of preserving their city-state’s independence.

Question 20

Poggio Braccilioni

Answer 20

his is evident in the proto-capitalist views of Poggio Braccilioni in his De Avarita, describing city states as ‘“the workshops of avarice”’.

Question 21

Renaissance Art: What was new?

Answer 21

The use of Proportion, The first major treatment of the painting as a window into space appeared in the work of Giotto di Bondone, at the beginning of the 14th century. True linear perspective was formalized later, by Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. In addition to giving a more realistic presentation of art, it moved Renaissance painters into composing more paintings.

foreshortening - The term foreshortening refers to the artistic effect of shortening lines in a drawing so as to create an illusion of depth.

sfumato - The term sfumato was coined by Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci, and refers to a fine art painting technique of blurring or softening of sharp outlines by subtle and gradual blending of one tone into another through the use of thin glazes to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. This stems from the Italian word sfumare meaning to evaporate or to fade out. The Latin origin is fumare, to smoke.

chiaroscuro - The term chiaroscuro refers to the fine art painting modeling effect of using a strong contrast between light and dark to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. This comes from the Italian words meaning light (chiaro) and dark (scuro), a technique which came into wide use in the Baroque Period.

Balance and Proportion: proper sizes.

Question 22

Important examples of Renaissance Art

Answer 22

Boticelli, the Birth of Venus

Michaelangelo, The Creation of Adam, David

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper

Raphael, School of Athens, Angels

Donatello: Free standing bronze statues

Pierro Della Francesca, Flaggelation of Christ

Question 23

Burckhart on individualism

Answer 23

“In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness… lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil… Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family or corporation – only through some general category… In Italy, this veil first melted into air… man became a spiritual individual and recognised himself as such”.

Question 24

Florence - The Cradle of the Renaissance?

Answer 24

Coluccio Salutati (1331-1405)

Chancellor of Florence – 1375

Acquires many of Petrarch’s mss

Builds up own library – c.600 mss

1396 – establishes Chair of Greek at Florence (1st in Europe)

Manuel Chrysoloras

Florence becoming a centre of learning – growing reputation

Question 25

Civic Humanism: The Italian City States

Answer 25

At times, they conceived of Florence as a new Athens, a small self-sufficient and culturally advanced city-state, but more often they portrayed their city as a new Rome, an expansive empire aspiring to become world ruler.

The War of the Eight Saints (1375-78), which saw the Florentine republic openly contest papal leadership in central Italy, spelled the end of the Guelf league and opened up a new chapter in the Italian power game. From having served the cause of the Church and the French monarchy, Florence now began to fashion itself as the champion of liberty against tyranny, Good against Evil, and true Christianity against its perverted form embodied by the Roman Church.

Republicanism

The civic humanist notion of citizenship as active and participatory was rooted in the Florentine republican experience. The rapid rotation of office and a proliferation of public offices at the turn of the fifteenth century xxx a high level of political participation.

Trade

The Florentine banking houses, Acciaiuoli, Bardi och Peruzzi, were among the most prosperous of the day and had branches all over Europe - from Seville i the west to Constantinopel in the east, from Bruges in the north to Palermo in the south.

Leonardo Bruni, the most widely read of the civic humanists, argued that wealth and worldly goods can “serve as an aid to such virtues as magnanimity and liberality, and they are useful to the republic” since “money … is necessary to maintain the state and safeguard our social existence.” Bruni’s successor on chancellorship, Poggio Bracciolini, established that the desire for wealth and the pursuit of riches is not to be regarded as a vice, but as a civic virtue.

Question 26

Renaissance Architecture: The Duomo

Answer 26

Brunelleschi,
Major influences were linear perspective and the Roman concept of Fixed proportions (esp in domes) as opposed to variable heights of Gothic domes or spires

, Brunelleschi’s daring design utilizes the pointed Gothic arch and Gothic ribs that were apparently planned by Arnolfio. It seems certain, however, that while stylistically Gothic, in keeping with the building it surmounts, the dome is in fact structurally influenced by the great dome of Ancient Rome

San Lorenzo 1425 Santo Spirito 1428: Shaped like a Latin Cross,

Question 27

The Renaissance - why did Italian City States grow?

Answer 27

New trade in Europe –>

• Venice, aided by the stability of her government, became the most prosperous.
• Florence became outstanding in banking and woolen manufacture

Initially ruling class or ‘grandi’ annexing feudal land in Northern Italy and growing fast,

Military growth

powerful city and the surrounding towns and countryside. Italian city-states conducted their own trade, collected their own taxes, and made their own laws. Some city-states, such as Florence, were governed by an elected council. During the Renaissance groups of guild members, called boards, often ruled Italian city-states. Some wealthy families gained long-term control; city-states were ruled by a single family, such as the Medicis

Question 28

Northern Renaissance: Desiderius Erasmus

Answer 28

Dutch humanist, Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536).

in Germany, France, England, Italy, and especially Switzerland. The most influential and cosmopolitan of the northern humanists, he corresponded with nearly every
prominent writer and thinker in Europe and knew personally popes, emperors, and kings.

The Praise of Folly, (1511) was critical of merchants (“they lie, swear, cheat, and practice all the intrigues of dishonesty”), lawyers (“they of all men have the greatest conceit
of their own abilities”), scholastic philosophers (“that talk as much by rote as a parrot”), and scientists (“who esteem themselves the only favorites of wisdom, and look upon the rest of mankind as the dirt and rubbish of the creation”). Most roughly handled are churchmen, in particular monks, who are “impudent pretenders to the profession of piety,” and popes, cardinals, and bishops, “who in pomp and splendor have almost equalled if not outdone secular
princes.”

Greek edition of New Testament to be used by Luther

Question 29

The English Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare and Marlowe

Answer 29

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Question 30

Northern Renaissance: Thomas More

Answer 30

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

More is best known for his Utopia, the first important description of an ideal state since Plato’s Republic:

governments are a conspiracy of the rich, who, in pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, … first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labor for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please.
VS
Utopia, where every man has a right to every thing, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want any thing; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity; and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich;

Question 31

The Northern Renaissance: Montaigne

Answer 31

1533-1592
Humanist education

Essais (1580) eg On Cannibals, influenced Shakespeare, radical thought

107 treaties on various topics

Question 32

The Northern Renaissance: Artists

Answer 32

Rubens
Holbein
Van Eyk (1390-1441) Portrait of a Man, Oil Glazing, Arnolfini Wedding