Download introduction to the renaissance

INTRODUCTION TO
THE RENAISSANCE
AIM #1: Were the intellectual achievements
of the Renaissance a continuation of the
Middle Ages, or completely new and
innovative ideas?
Document 1
(As found in Wallace Ferguson, The Renaissance, 1940)
The idea that there was a great revival or rebirth of literature and the arts, after a
thousand years of cultural sterility [no cultural achievements], in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries originated with the Italian writers of the Renaissance themselves.
Finding the feudal and ecclesiastical [church] literature and Gothic art of the Middle
Ages uncongenial [uninteresting] to their taste, they turned for inspiration to the
civilization of Roman and Greek antiquity.... Thus, from the beginning, the double
conception of medieval darkness and subsequent cultural rebirth was colored by
the acceptance of classical [Greek and Roman] standards.
1. According to Ferguson, how did the writers and thinkers of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries view themselves? Why did they believe that they
were part of a new era (the Renaissance) that was very different from the
Middle Ages?
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Document 2
(As found in Jacob Burchhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 1878 )
In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness lay dreaming or half-awake
beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish
prepossession .... Man was conscious of himself only as member of a race, people,
party, family, or corporation only through some general category. In Italy this veil
first melted into air . . .; man became a spiritual individual, and recognized himself as
such. In the same way the Greek had once distinguished himself from barbarian ....
When this impulse to the highest individual development was combined with a
powerful and varied nature, . . . then arose the "all-sided man" . . . . in Italy at the time
of the Renaissance we find artists who in every branch created new and perfect
works, and who also made the greatest impression as men.
2. According to historian Jacob Burchhardt, was there a difference between
the people of the Middle Ages and people of the Renaissance? Explain.
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Document 3
(As found in W.T. Waueh, A History of Europe from 1378 to 1494)
It has become evident that there was no suspension of intellectual life in Medieval
Europe. If there was a revival of learning, it occurred [during the Middle Ages] in
about the year A.D. 1000, since then human knowledge has never ceased to advance.
It cannot even be said that the humanists [Renaissance thinkers] of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries revived the study of the classics. Scholars had been
nourished on the classics for centuries.... In the first place, the classical writer most
studied in the Middle Ages was a Greek, Aristotle.... And actually the medieval
scholars of Western Europe were acquainted with most of the [Roman] authors
familiar to us…
3. According to historian W.T. Waueh, why are intellectual ideas of the
Renaissance just a continuation of the ideas of the Middle Ages?
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Document 4
Universities founded in the twelfth through fifteenth centuries
Italy
France
England
Bologna
Paris
Oxford
Vicenza , 1204
Orleans , 1231
Cambridge , 1209
Naples , 1224
Avignon , 1303
St. Andrews , 1415
Siena , 1246
Grenoble , 1339
Glasgow , 1451
Rome ( Studium Urbis) ,
Poitiers , 1431
Aberdeen , 1494
1303
Bordeaux , 1441
Pisa , 1343
Nantes , 1460
Florence , 1349
Besancon , 1485
Pavia , 1361
Ferrara , 1391
Catania , 1444
4. What does the chart tell you about the times and places where universities
were founded? What conclusion can you draw about learning during the
Middle Ages?
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Document 5
As found in The End of Europe’s Middle Ages, compiled by the University of Calgary
(http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20o
f%20Magic/Dante.%20etc/Philosophers/End/FRAMES/langframe.html).
In the late Middle Ages, the rise of universities led to more Europeans learning how
to read and write. Before this, Latin was the official language of law, government,
business, education and religion in Western Europe. Now, a growing number of
books and documents started to be published in the vernacular, which is the
language of a particular country or region. So people in Spain could read books in
Spanish, and people in France could read books in French. While the aristocrats
turned up their noses at this vulgar innovation, the common people gobbled up this
new vernacular literature. For the first time, the economically and educationally
(that is, not trained in Latin) disadvantaged could own and read a family Bible in
their own language. However, one can only own so many Bibles and the public soon
began to demand a broader range of writings and secular (non-religious) literature
experienced an explosion in popularity.
5. What was vernacular literature? What does its popularity tell us about
Europe during the late Middle Ages?
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Task:
1. With your group members, discuss the Aim question (Were the
intellectual achievements of the Renaissance a continuation of the
Middle Ages, or completely new and innovative ideas?). Then, write
a paragraph answering the question. Use specific information from
at least TWO documents to support the argument you are making
(these documents should be cited in your paragraph).