History
gsj
renaissance101.pptThe Renaissance (1350-1550)
Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus (1486)
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Michelangelo, David (1501-04)
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The Renaissance (1350-1550)
A cultural “rebirth” of antiquity. A movement that sought to imitate and understand the culture of antiquity (of ancient Greece and Rome).
- Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1452 C.E.)
- Papal secretary
- Citizen of Florence (later Chancellor of Florence)
- Quintilian (35-100 C.E.), The Training of an Orator
Ancient Roman Writers and Thinkers
- Cicero (Roman lawyer and moral philosopher)
- Virgil, Horace, Lucretius (poets)
- Vitruvius (architect and engineer)
- Tacitus; Suetonius (historians)
studia humanitatis
- Renaissance humanism was the product of the urban and commercial environment of fourteenth and fifteenth-century Italy and it developed in response to the particular social and political needs of urban elites.
- The studia: grammar (Latin), rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy/ethics
- I. Political and Social Context: Communes, Oligarchs, and Despots
- II. Renaissance Humanism
- III. The Appeal of the Ancient World
I. Political and Social Context: Communes, Oligarchs, and Despots
- 1. The Government of the Commune
- The Republic of Florence
- 2. Importance of Merchants and Guilds
- 3. Despots
- Condottiere (mercenary captains)
- Federico II Duke of Urbino (1422-82)
- Podestas (judges)
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The Commune of Florence
By vote
Eligible
candidates
Sixteen
Standard-bearers of the parish militias
Twelve
Goodmen
Signoria
(Priors and
Standard-bearer of Justice)
Podestá
Council of the Popolo
(300)
Council of the Commune
(400)
laws
Exercise of authority
Source of personnel
Florentine Citizens
At least 30 years old
Members of the 21 guilds
Economically solvent
(6,000 men)
Laws and administrative posts
By review
By lot
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II. Renaissance Humanism
- 1. The Humanists’ Curriculum
- 2. A Program for Ruling Elites
III. The Appeal of the Ancient World
- 1. Skills for urban politics (Machiavelli)
- 2. Provided arguments in favor of republican government (civic humanism)
- Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444); ethic of public service
- 3. Enhanced the reputation of new elites and their authority
- Cosimo de’Medici (1389-1464)
- 4. Legitimated questionable wealth
- The sin of usury and ill-gotten gains
- “Humanism was not merely an interest in antiquity, but a certain way of looking at antiquity and of relating it to the present. Antiquity provided humanists not only with certain classical forms of thought, literary expression, and action, but with new norms (values) for determining the suitability and rightness of thought, word, and deed.”
- Aesthetic and social ideal of balance and proportion
- Politically a stable society built on the foundation of well-balanced and educated individuals
- Searching for the harmonies in nature, which meant employing geometry and the mathematics of proportion in drawing, sculpting and designing buildings
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The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages
- 1. The Avignese Papacy or “Babylonian Captivity” (1305-1378)
- Boniface VIII (1294-1303)
- 2. The Great Western Schism (1378-1417)
- Election of multiple popes and divided obediences
- Concilar Movement
- 3. Renaissance Popes as Princes and Patrons
- Alexander VI (1492-1503) Rodrigo Borgia
- Sought to create a central Italian principality for his son Cesare Borgia
- Julius II (1503-13) Nephew of Sixtus IV
- Julius Exclusus and patron of the Sistine Chapel
- Leo X (1513-1521)
- Son of Lorenzo de Medici “the Magnificent”
- Oversaw the building of the new St. Peters in Rome
European Political Scene at the End of the Middle Ages
- 1. Monarchical Consolidation
- France [Valois] (post-1453)
- Consolidation of Royal Authority after Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
- Spain [Trastámara]
- Marriage of Isabel and Fernando unite the Crowns of Castile and Aragon (1469)
- England [Tudor]
- After the “Wars of the Roses” (1455-1485) establishment of a new dynasty
- 2. Efforts to end the Independence of Aristocracy and Clergy
- Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438)
- Defeat of the Duke of Burgundy (1477)
- 3. A Military Revolution: Standing Armies
- Large well-drilled infantries (pikesmen)
- Gunpowder firearms (harquebus and cannon)
- 4. Systematic Expansion of Taxation
- French Estates General vote for the taille
5. Continued Political Fragmentation
Italy (a patchwork of Republics and Principalities)
The Holy Roman Empire (Hundreds of independent political states in Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Bohemia)
Flanders/The Netherlands (multiple independent provinces)
- 6. French and Spanish Intervention in Italy
- French Invasions
- Charles VIII in 1494 to claim Kingdom of Naples
- Louis XII in 1499 to claim the Duchy of Milan
- Spanish (Trastámara) control of the Kingdom of Naples
Machiavelli (1469-1527)
- An administrator and official for the Republic of Florence
- Exiled from Florence with the restoration of the Medici family (1512)
- Wrote The Prince (c. 1513)
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