Download The Renaissance was a cultural movement from the 14th to the 17th

The Renaissance was a cultural movement from the 14th to the 17th
century, beginning in Italy and later spreading to the rest of Europe.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE [ edit ]
Describe the influences of the Renaissance and historical perspectives by modern­day writers
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
The Renaissance encompassed the flowering of Latin languages, a change in the artistic style and
gradual, widespread educational reform.
The development of conventions of diplomacy and an increased reliance on observation in science
were also markers of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance is probably best known for it's artistic developments and for the development of
‘Humanism' a movement which emphasized the importance of creating citizens who were able to
engage in the civil life of their community.
There is a consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century, most likely
due to the political structure, and the civil and social nature of Florence.
Some historians debate the 19th­century glorification of the "Renaissance" and individual culture
heroes as "Renaissance men".
Some have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the
Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for classical antiquity.
TERMS [ edit ]
studia humanitatis
Specifically, a cultural and intellectual movement in 14th­16th century Europe characterised by
attention to Classical culture and a promotion of vernacular texts, notably during the
Renaissance.
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was an
Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Renaissance
A cultural movement from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy and later spreading to
the rest of Europe.
Medici
A last name of a powerful and influential aristocratic Florentine family from the 13th to 17th
centuries.
Give us feedback on this content: FULL TEXT [ edit ]
There is a consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century. The
Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the
17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of
Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the
dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not
uniformly experienced across Europe.
Italy ­ 1494
It was in Italy, speciifcally Northern Italy, where the Renaissance movement took shape. Florence was a
key city to give rise to this artistic and cultural phenomenon.
Cultural, Political and Intellectual Influences
As a cultural movement, the Renaissance encompassed the innovative flowering of Latin and
vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th­century resurgence of learning based on
classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch, the development of linear
perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting, and gradual
but widespread educational reform.
In politics, the Renaissance contributed the development of the conventions of diplomacy,
and in science an increased reliance on observation. Historians often argue this intellectual
transformation was a bridge between the Middle Ages and Modern history. Although the
Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political
upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such
polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance
man".
Michelangelo's David (original statue)
David, by Michelangelo (The Accademia Gallery, Florence) is an example of high Renaissance art.
Renaissance Humanism
Renaissance humanism is a collection of Greek and Roman teachings, undertaken by
scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists, taking
place initially in Italy, and then spreading across Europe. It developed during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of medieval scholastic education,
emphasizing practical, pre­professional and scientific studies. Scholasticism focused on
preparing men to be doctors, lawyers or professional theologians, and was taught from
approved textbooks in logic, natural philosophy, medicine, law and theology.
Humanists reacted against this utilitarian approach and the narrow pedantry associated with
it. They sought to create a citizenry (frequently including women) able to speak and write
with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging the civic life of their communities
and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. This was to be accomplished through
the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric,
history, poetry and moral philosophy.
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man shows clearly the effect writers of Antiquity had on Renaissance
thinkers. Based on the specifications in Vitruvius' De architectura (1st century BC), Leonardo tried to
draw the perfectly proportioned man.
Beginnings
Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing
on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time; its
political structure; the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici; and the migration of
Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople at the hands of the
Ottoman Turks.
Historical Perspectives on the Renaissance
The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography, and in line with general skepticism
of discrete periodizations, there has been much debate among historians reacting to the
19th­century glorification of the "Renaissance" and individual culture heroes as "Renaissance
men", questioning the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical delineation.
It is perhaps no accident that the factuality of the Italian Renaissance has been most
vigorously questioned by those who are not obliged to take a professional interest in the
aesthetic aspects of civilization—historians of economic and social developments, political
and religious situations, and, most particularly, natural science—but only exceptionally by
students of literature and hardly ever by historians of Art.
Some have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the
Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for classical antiquity,
while social and economic historians of the long term especially have instead focused on the
continuity between the two eras, linked, as Panofsky himself observed, "by a thousand ties".
The word Renaissance, whose literal translation from French into English is "Rebirth",
appears in English writing from the 1830s. The word occurs in Jules Michelet's 1855
work,Histoire de France. The word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical
and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the
12th century.