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Chapter 14, Section 1
The Renaissance in Italy
World History Connections to Today, Prentice Hall (2003)
The Middle Ages
(500 – 1350)
Fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth
century.
Invasion of:
Magyars (Hungarians)
Northmen (Norse or Vikings)
Arabs
Mongols
A History of Modern Europe From the Renaissance to the Present (1996)
The Black Plague “Bubonic
Plague”
The Culprits
The Disease Cycle
Flea drinks rat blood
that carries the
bacteria.
Bacteria
multiply in
flea’s gut.
Human is infected!
Flea bites human and
regurgitates blood
into human wound.
Flea’s gut clogged
with bacteria.
The Symptoms
Bulbous
Septicemic Form:
almost 100%
mortality rate.
The Middle Ages (500 –
1350)
The Middle Ages
(500 – 1350)
Three Social Groups
Clergy
Nobles
Peasants
The Middle Ages
(500 – 1350)
Nation-states did not exist
Economic, Political, and Judicial
institutions were overwhelmingly local.
Town walls were used to protect
communities.
Government of the Middle
Ages: Feudalism
King
Autocratic Monarchy (Top of the food
chain)
Nobles (A seat at the table)
Titles assigned by the King.
Peasants (The food)
85% of the population in Europe.
Also called Serfs.
The Italian City-States
The Renaissance began in Italy, then
spread north to the rest of Europe.
Why Italy?
The Renaissance was marked by a
new interest in the culture of ancient
Rome. Because Italy had been the
center of the Roman empire, it was a
logical place for this reawakening to
begin.
In the north, city-states like Florence,
Milan, Venice and Genoa grew into
prosperous centers of trade and
manufacturing.
Why Italy?
A wealthy and powerful merchant
class in these city-states further
promoted the cultural rebirth. These
merchants exerted both political and
economic leadership, and their
attitudes and interests helped to
shape the Italian Renaissance. They
stressed education and individual
achievement. They also spent lavishly
to support the arts.
The Medici (Godfathers of
the Renaissance)
In the 1400s, the Medici family of
Florence organized a successful
banking business.
The Medici were generous patrons of
the arts. A patron is a financial
supporter. Poets and philosophers
frequently visited the Medici palace.
Artists learned their craft by
sketching ancient Roman statures
displayed in the Medici gardens.
What was the Renaissance?
The Renaissance was a time of
creativity and change in many
areas- political, social, economic,
and cultural. Perhaps most
important, however, were the
changes that took place in the way
people viewed themselves and their
world.
A New Worldview
Their era, they felt, was a time of rebirth
after what they saw as the disorder and
disunity of the medieval world.
Unlike medieval scholars, who were more
likely to focus on life and death,
Renaissance thinkers explored the
richness and variety of human experience
in the here and now.
A New Worldview
At the same time, there was a new
emphasis on individual
achievement. Indeed, the
Renaissance ideal was the person
with talent in many fields.
A Spirit of Adventure
The Renaissance supported a spirit
of adventure and a wide-ranging
curiosity that led people to explore
new worlds.
The Italian navigator Christopher
Columbus, who sailed to the
Americas in 1492, represented that
spirit.
Humanism
At the heart of the Italian Renaissance
was an intellectual movement known as
humanism. Based on the study of
classical culture, humanism focused on
worldly subjects rather than on the
religious issues that had occupied
medieval thinkers.
Humanists believed that education should
stimulate the individual’s creative
powers.
Humanism
They returned to the humanities, the
subjects taught in ancient Greek and
Roman schools.
The main areas of study were grammar,
rhetoric, poetry, and history, based on
Greek and Roman texts.
Humanists did not accept the classical
texts without question, however. Rather,
they studied the ancient authorities in light
of their own experiences.
A Golden Age in the Arts
Renaissance artists studied ancient
Greek and Roman works and revived
many classical forms.
The sculptor Donatello, for example,
created a life-size statue of a soldier
on horseback. It was the first such
figure done since ancient times.
New Techniques
Renaissance artists learned the
rules of perspective. By making
distant objects smaller than those
close to the viewer, artists could
paint scenes that appeared threedimensional.
Three Geniuses of
Renaissance Art
Raphael
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Three Geniuses of
Renaissance Art
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Raphael
Italian Renaissance Writers
A literature of “how-to” books
sprang up to help ambitious men
and women who wanted to rise in
the Renaissance world.
Castiglione’s Ideal Courtier
The most widely read of these
handbooks was The Book of the
Courtier. Its author, Baldassare
Castiglione, describes the manners,
skills, learning, and virtues that a
member of the court should have.
Castiglione’s Ideal Courtier
Castiglione’s ideal courtier was a
well-educated, well-mannered
aristocrat who mastered many
fields, from poetry to music to
sports.
Castiglione’s Ideal Courtier
Castiglione’s ideal differed for men
and women.
Castiglione’s Ideal Courtier
The ideal man, he wrote, is athletic but
not overactive. He is good at games,
but not a gambler. He plays a musical
instrument and knows literature and
history but is not arrogant.
Castiglione’s Ideal Courtier
The Ideal woman offers a balance to
men. She is graceful and kind, lively
but reserved. She is beautiful, “for
outer beauty,” wrote Castiglione, “is
the true sign of inner goodness.”
How about now?
“Every Magazine tells her she’s not good enough. The
picture that she sees makes her cry.”
-Jon McLaughlin
Beautiful Disaster
Machiavelli’s Successful
Prince
In The Prince, published in 1513,
Machiavelli combined his personal
experience of politics with his
knowledge of the past to offer a
guide to rulers on how to gain and
maintain power.
Machiavelli’s Successful
Prince
The Prince looked at real rulers, such as
the Medicis, in an age of ruthless power
politics. Machiavelli stressed that the end
justifies the means. He urged rulers to
use whatever methods were necessary to
achieve their goals. On the issue of
honesty in government, for example, he
taught that getting results was more
important than keeping promises.
Machiavelli’s Successful
Prince
“How praiseworthy it is for a prince
to keep his word and live with
integrity rather than craftiness,
everyone understands; yet…those
princes have accomplished most
who paid little heed to keeping their
promises, but who knew how craftily
to manipulate the minds of men.”
-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Partner Question, Chapter
14, Section 1
Describe two ways that today’s
society still reflects beliefs that
originated in the Renaissance.
Do you and your partner think a
political leader today would be wise to
follow the advice of Niccolo
Machiavelli? Why or why not?
Chapter 14, Section 1
The Renaissance in Italy
World History Connections to Today
Prentice Hall 2003