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Renaissance DBQ
Directions: Read through the following documents and make notes in the margin, as well as, underlining,
and circling information that could help you answer the overall DBQ question. At the end of each
Document answer the short question. After you have read the Documents write your theses statement
(main idea in an essay) to answer the overall question.
DBQ Question:
The Renaissance completely revolutionized European life, effecting carious aspects such as the art, science,
and ideology of the time. Each of these aspects were deeply interconnected with each other. Assess the
validity of this statement (how true is this opinion).
Document 1
“Is it better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be
both, but it is much safer to be feared than loved when one of the two much be chosen… In general (men)
are ungrateful fickle, false, cowards, covetous. As long as you succeed, they are your entirely… Men have
fewer scruples (principles) in offending (going against) one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love
is preserved by the link of obligation which… is broken at every opportunity, but fear preserved you by a
dread of punishment that never fails.
You must know there are tow methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force; the first method is of
men, the second of beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, one mush have recourse to the
second. Therefore it is necessary for a price to understand how to use the methods of the beast and the
man… A prince… ought to choose the fox and the lion/ because the lion cannot defend himself against
traps and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover
the traps and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand this.”
Source: The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)
Ideology is your belief/ideas in anything (politics, science, faith, life). What is Machiavelli’s ideology of
Renaissance government and the behavior of the Renaissance man?
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Document 2
Source: Celestial models of heliocentric theory, Nicholas Copernicus (1514)
Describe how Copernicus saw the universe (what’s in the center, what circles what). Do you think this was
a new idea for the people of the Renaissance?
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Document 3:
Source Vitruvian Man, Da Vinci (1487)
Examine this picture from Da Vinci. How is this an example of Renaissance art and science? Do you think
either aspect was important in the renaissance world? ___________________________________________
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Document 4:
Source: David, Michelangelo (1504)
Examine this world famous statue by Michelangelo. How does it illustrate what was important to the
renaissance time? (think humanism and the classics) ___________________________________________
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Document 5:
“ You are now devoted to God and the church: on which account you ought to aim at being a good
ecclesiastic, and to shew that you prefer to honor and state of the church and the apostolic see to every
other consideration. Nor, while you keep this in view, will it be difficult for you to favor your family and
your native place. On the contrary, you should be the link to bind this city closer to the church, and our
family with the city; and although it be impossible to foresee what accidents may happen, yet I doubt not
but this may be done with equal advantage to all: observing, however, that you are always to prefer the
interests of the church.”
Source: Letter written by Lorenzo D’Medici to his son
Medici’s son has joined the church. Where is D’Medici telling his son his loyalties are? What does this
say about Renaissance thinking and how this effects the church? __________________________________
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Document 6:
Source: The Birth of Venus, Botticelli (1485)
Examine this picture of the Greek Goddess Venus. How does it illustrate the interest in the classics and
Humanism? ____________________________________________________________________________
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Document 7:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O not! It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Source: Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare
How does this poem explain what is important to renaissance men and their ideology?
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Document 8:
“His genius was so versatile that you might almost judge all the fine arts to be his.. He played ball, hurled
the javelin, ran, leaped, wrestled, and above all delighted in the steep ascent of mountains… He learned
music without teachers and his compositions were approved by learned musicians… When he had begun to
mature in years, neglecting everything else, he devoted himself entirely to the study of letters, and spent
some years of labor on canon and civil law… At the age of twenty-four he turned to physics and the
mathematical arts… Thus showing by example that men can do anything with themselves if they will…”
Source: Self Portrait of a Universal Man, Alberti
How does this statement describe what a renaissance man should be like? (this is part of their ideology)
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Document 9:
Source Telescope; Invented during the Renaissance
How would this invention revolutionize European life/science? ___________________________________
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Document 10:
B.
C.
Source: A. Astrolabe attributed to Johann Anton Linden (1583)
B. Astrolabe from workshop of Jean Fusoris (1450)
C. Astrolabe signed by Gillis Coignet (1560)
How would this invention revolutionize European life? _________________________________________
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A.
Document 11:
Source: Printing Press Guttenburg (1436)
Examine this picture of Guttenburg and his printing press. How would this invention revolutionized
European life? _________________________________________________________________
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Document 12:
“Anatomy should be recalled from the dead, so that if it did not achieve with us a greater
perfection that at any other place or time among the old teachers of anatomy, it might at least
reach such a point that one could with confidence assert that our modern science of anatomy was
equal to that of old, and that in this age anatomy was unique both in the level to which it had sunk
and in the completeness of its subsequent restoration.”
Source: De Fabrica, Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
What Science is this document speeking of? How would it revolutionize European life? ___________
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Now if you were writing a paper to answer of the overall DBQ question, what would your main idea/point
be? Did the Renaissance completely revolutionized life? How? The documents should have helped you
form an opinion about if and how life was revolutionized during the Renaissance. What was new in art?
How did the science of the time change things? What were the new ideas that shaped what would become
our world? This main idea that you would use to answer the question is usually called the theses statement.
In fact it is often the opening sentence to an essay that sets the stage for the reader and lets them know what
you opinion is and how you might defend it. Today I want you to create a theses statement to answer the
question. You should give reason/examples as to how life was effected in the arts, science and ideology, or
how it was not. Your argument should have some basic support from the documents should be mentioned
above.
Theses:
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