Renaissance

The Renaissance defined.-- "Renaissance," French for "rebirth," perfectly describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. During the era known by this name, Europe emerged from the economic stagnation of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought turned in new directions.

DANTE AS A FORERUNNER OF THE RENAISSANCE
Dante Alighieri, "the fame of the Tuscan people," was born at Florence in 1265. He was exiled by the Florentines in I,302, and at the courts of friends learned how hard a thing it is " to climb the stairway of a patron." He died at Ravenna in 1321, and his tomb there is a place of pilgrimage to-day. It was during the years of his exile that Dante wrote his immortal poem, the Commedia as named by himself, because of its happy ending; the Divina Commedia, or the " Divine Comedy," as called by his admirers. This poem has been called the " Epic of Mediaevalism." It is an epitome of the life and thought of the Middle Ages. Dante's theology is the theology of the mediaeval Church; his philosophy is the philosophy of the Schoolmen; his science is the science of his time.
THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY
Inciting Causes of the Movement.--Just as the Reformation went forth from Germany and the Political Revolution from France, so did the Renaissance go forth from Italy. And this was not an accident. The Renaissance had its real beginnings in Italy for the reason that all those agencies which were slowly transforming the mediaeval into the modern world were here more active and effective in their workings than elsewhere. A second circumstance that doubtless contributed to make Italy the birthplace of the Renaissance was the fact that in Italy the break between the old and the new civilization was not so complete as it was in the other countries of Western Europe. The Italians were closer in language and in blood of the old Romans than were the other new-forming nations. They regarded themselves as the direct descendants and the heirs of the old conquerors of the world. This consiousness of kinship with the menof a great exerted an immense influence upon the imagination of the Italiansand tended not only to preserve the continuity of the historical development in the peninsula but also to set as the first task of the Italian scholars the recovery and appropriation of the culture of antiquity.

THE TWO PHASES OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE.
The movement here consisted of two distinct yet closely related phases, namely, the revival of classical literature and learning, and the revival of the classical art. It with the first only, the intellectual and literary phase of the movement, that we shall be chiefty concerned. This feature of the movement is called distinctively “humanism,” and the promoters of it are known as “Humanist,” because of their interest in the study of the classics, the literate humaniores, or the “more human letters,” in opposition to the devine letters, that is, theology, which made up the old education.
PETRARCH, THE FIRST OF THE HUMANISTS.
Petrarch was the first and greatest representative of the humanistic phase of the Italian Renaissance. He was the first scholar of the medieval time who fully realized and appreciated the supreme excellence and beauty of the classical literature and it’s value as a means of culture. He made a collection of about two hundred manuscript volumes of the classics. Among his choices Latin treasures were some of Cicero’s Letters, which he had himself discovered an an old ordinary at verona, and reverently copied his own hand. He gathered Greek as well as Latin manuscript. THE ITALIANS ARE TAUGHT BY CHRYSOLORAS.
Just at the close of the fourteenth century the Eastern Emperor sent an embassy to Italy to beg aid against the Turks. The Comssion was headed by Manuel Chrysoloras, an eminent greek scholar. No sooner has he landed at venice than the florentines sent him a pressing invitation to come to their city. He acceded to their request, was received by them with such honor as they might have shown a celestial being, and was given a Professors’s Chair in the University (1396)
BLACK DEATH/PLAGUE
One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation caused by the Black Death in Florence, which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th-century Italy. The plague was carried by fleas on sailing vessels returning from the ports of Asia, spreading quickly due to lack of proper sanitation: the population of England, then about 4.2 million, lost 1.4 million people to the bubonic plague. Florence's population was nearly halved in the year 1347. As a result of the decimation in the populace the value of the working class increased, and commoners came to enjoy more freedom. The spread of disease was significantly more rampant in areas of poverty. Epidemics ravaged cities, particularly children.
The Black Death caused greater upheaval to Florence's social and political structure than later epidemics. Despite a significant number of deaths among members of the ruling classes, the government of Florence continued to function during this period. Formal meetings of elected representatives were suspended during the height of the epidemic due to the chaotic conditions in the city, but a small group of officials was appointed to conduct the affairs of the city, which ensured continuity of government.

CULTURAL CONDITIONS IN FLORENCE
It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life which may have caused such a cultural movement. The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo came to power; indeed, before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage, encouraging his countrymen to commission works from Florence's leading artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.Some historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e. because "Great Men" were born there by chance.[42]Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the time.
ARTS
The Renaissance marks the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the Modern world. It represents a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries. Early Renaissance, mostly in Italy, bridges the art period during the fifteenth century, between the Middle Ages and the High Renaissance in Italy. It is generally known that Renaissance matured in Northern Europe later, in 16th century. The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the arts.[49] To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method, was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated by other artists.[50] Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others.
RELIGION
The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages saw a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome.[65] While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the 15th century saw a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism, which sought to limit the pope's power. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four illegitimate children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more power.

SCIENCE
In the first period of Italian Renaissance, humanists favoured the study of humanities over natural philosophy or applied mathematics. And their reverence for classical sources further enshrined the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the universe.
Even though, around 1450, the writings of Nicholas Cusanus were anticipating Copernicus' heliocentric world-view, it was made in a philosophical fashion. Science and art were very much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. He set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics; he devised principles of research method that led to Fritjof Capra classifying him as "father of modern science".
Some have seen this as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age.[57] Others as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day.[58] Regardless, there is general agreement that the Renaissance saw significant changes in the way the universe was viewed and the methods sought to explain natural phenomena.[59] Traditionally held to have begun in 1543, when were first printed the books De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius, which gave a new confidence to the role of dissection, observation, and mechanistic view of anatomy,[59] and also De Revolutionibus, by Nicolaus Copernicus.