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Historical Dictionary

First posted on June 10th 2006

Narratives : Renaissance (Rinascimento) http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narrren.html

Italy, in the 14th and 15th century, was a - by the standards of the time - highly urbanized, economically advanced and politically fragmented region. Most of Europe's major cities - Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples (Rome, by terms of population and economic importance being a second-rate city at that time) - were located here, their prosperity based on a diverse urban production, an advanced agriculture, new industries such as Venetian glass production, and, most notably, their trade with the Byzantine Empire, Syria, Egypt and the remainder of Europe. The wealth generated from the crusades (shipping provided by Venetians and Genoans, at a price) and by trade with the East was concentrated in the hands of a few families which dominated trade and shipping, and enabled them to enter into a new business - banking, which in the 14th century was identified with the Lombards. The most notable of the banking families was the Medici family of Florence. The same region of Italy, from 497 to 1309, had been the center of the church administration. Yet the papacy had relocated to Avignon in 1307-1309; ever since the end of the Investiture Conflict in 1254, the reputation and authority of the church had suffered, in Italy more than elsewhere. Hitherto, Italian artists and theologians could expect to be employed by the church; from 1309 onward most offices in the papal administration were given to Frenchmen (and new popes were elected from among French bishops). Artists and scholars alike needed new sponsors - and found them in form of the nouveau riche of the time, wealthy merchants of cities such as Florence. Here the Medici became the patrons of, one may say, Renaissance. Lorenzo de Medici founded the Academia Laurenziana in 1473. The term Renaissance was coined by Jakob Burckhardt in his "Kulturgeschichte der Renaissance in Italien" (1867). The writers Dante Alighieri (1265-1327), Petrarca and Boccaccio may be regarded predecessors or early representatives of the Renaissance. Dante is (typical for Italian Humanists) very critical of the church; in his divine comedy he states "I have visited hell. I have seen the pope there". Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio mark the beginning of vernacular literature; hitherto most writing as done in Latin. Vernacular literature also emerged in France, England (Chaucer), Germany. Renaissance artists and writers developed a concept of history we still use today : the church administration - which dominated education, the written word ever since the fall of the western Roman Empire - was responsible for the situation society was in; Graeco-Roman art and science had been superior (Antiquity); Renaissance men strove to revive the spirit of antiquity, regarding their era as modern. The time in between, the years when the church was in control - the "Middle" or "Dark Ages". Scholasticism defined man as consisting of temporary flesh and eternal soul. The life on earth had no value at all; only the soul was worthy of concern. Hence the practice of torturing, burning perceived witches and heretics - their souls were believed to be possessed by the devil; in order to free the soul, pain had to be inflicted. The Renaissance philosophy is Humanism; it disagrees with he Scholastic definition of man. Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) perceived "l'uomo nuovo", new man. Life on earth has a value, virtu and dignita - virtue and dignity. The bible (genesis) states God shaped man after his own image; thus man, in Humanist interpretation, was the most perfect being on earth. Medieval art tried to depict the religious devotion or sanctity of a person rather than the details of his physical appearance, and regarded nudity/sexuality a taboo. Renaissance artists attempted to return to the artistic concept of Hellenism - attention to detail, the attempt to create sculptures matching reality, paintings to be of almost photographic quality, observing technical aspects such as perspective. Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) were more than just artists. Leonardo was painter, anatomist, engineer of weaponry, and probably the highest paid man of his time. Humanists (Renaissance writers) redefined society. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), in "Il Principe" (The Prince; written c.1513, published in 1532) described ruthlessness and opportunism as virtues of rulers. Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) wrote essays on the role of women and is regarded the first feminist; Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) wrote the "Book of the Courtier" (1528). Thomas More (1478-1535) went further, describing an entire ideal society, Utopia (1516). Other Humanists mocked the role models propagated by pre-Renaissance feudal society or the church - Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) describes his title hero Don Quixote (1605) as completely out of touch with reality, attempting to live up to outdated, unpractical ideals. Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), in the Praise of Folly (published in 1511), mocked monks (Erasmus himself was a monk, with a papal dispense permitting him to live outside of a monastery). A person of immense importance is Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457). After twice having failed to find employment in papal administration, he proved the Constantinian Donation a falsification, and creating the science of Linguistics in the process. The Donation was a document belonging into the 8th rather than the 4th century A.D. and is, most probably, to be attributed to King Pippin of the Franks. Renaissance Humanists regarded the knowledge of Greek as the key to scientific progress; they attempted to find 'new' Greek texts which had long been hidden in libraries of monasteries, or to procure them in the Byzantine and Arab world. When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, a good number of - now homeless and unemployed - Byzantine diplomats, in order to make a living, turned to translating books into Latin. Johann Gutenberg's invention of the single letter printing press provided for the quick and comparatively cheap spreading of Humanist publications. Of more fundamental importance than the Constantinian Donation was the bible. The commonly known Latin version, the Vulgata, was known to be poor (hence the name). The University of Alcala in 1514 published the Complutensian Polyglot Bible (New Testament) - in Hebrew, Greek, Latin). Erasmus worked on a new Latin translation - with official permission of the church. Luther, le Fevre d'Etaples, Tyndale and others would build up on what Valla had begun (see Reformaton). The Renaissance began in Florence / Italy and, in the 15th century, spread. Historians distinguish the Italian and the Northern (including all other countries) Renaissance; the most productive center of Northern Renaissance was the Burgundian court at Brussels (as England and France were involved in the Hundred Years War). In Italy, Florence was the center of Early Renaissance, Rome that of Later Renaissance. In 1431 a unified papacy was restored to Rome, the revenues of Catholic christianity would now flow into one (instead of 2-4) papal treasury. The Renaissance popes wanted to build churches more magnificent than those in he merchant cities of Florence and Venice, beginning with the Sistine Chapel (1475-1483) and ending with St. Peters Cathedral (1546-1564), providing a lot of employment opportunities for artists. Italian Renaissance art and Humanist writing emerged in a region characterized by political fragmentation. The political landscape was dominated by a number of prosperous city-republics - Venice, Genoa, Florence, by the Papal State, by monarchies such as the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, the Duchy of Milan. The term 'state' derives from Italian 'stato', a Renaissance term. The Renaissance states developed the beginning of modern state bureaucracy. In Italy, Renaissance warfare emerged, armies commanded by paid military officers (Condottiere) in the service of monarchs, republics or popes. Italian Renaissance saw a series of regional wars. However, by European standards, the Italian states were small, and the wealth of the country invited outsiders to interfere. On the other hand, no power could afford to permit another power to control Italy, so a series of European wars over Italy was fought - the Italian Wars (1494-1535), mainly fought between the Habsburgs (Austria, Spain) and France; in these wars regiments of Swiss soldiers were to play a prominent role. Conflicts were not only fought between states, but also within states. Florence began as a republic. However, the Medici, due to their wealth, acquired a position so powerful that they were perceived as a threat to the republican constitution, and expelled twice. The expelled turned to the Emperor and were returned twice; Florence was transformed from a republic into a monarchy.

EXTERNAL FILES

REFERENCE

David Rundle (ed.), The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, Oxford : Westview 1999, KMLA Lib.Sign. R 940-28 R941t Eugene F. Rice Jr., Anthony Grafton, The Foundation of Early Modern Europe 1460-1559, NY : W.W. Norton (1970) 1994, KMLA Lib.Sign. 940.2 N882h v.1 Christopher Hibbert, The Rise nd Fall of the House of Medici, NY : Morrow Quilt 1980, KMLA Lib.Sign. 945.51 H624h Evelyn Welch, Art and Society in Italy, 1350-1500 (Oxford History of Art), Oxford : UP 1997, KMLA Lib.Sign. 709.45 W439a Otto von Simson, The Gothic Cathedral, Princeton : UP (1956) 1989, KMLA Lib.Sign. 726.64 S614t Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance Bazaar, From the Silk Road to Michelangelo, Oxford : UP 2002 [G] Gene Brucker, Florence : The Golden Age, 1138-1737, Berkeley : Univ. of California Press 1998 [G] The Life and Times of Michelangelo, Philadelphia : Curtis 1967 [G] The Life and Times of Leonardo, Philadelphia : Curtis 1967 [G]

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