Renaissance Facts

1. Renaissance Facts Webb Senior English

2. The Basics • Fewer than 73 million people live in Renaissance Europe • All of England population combined smaller than modern day Chicago • Largest cities are Paris, Naples, and Venice with 150,000 people • Over 80% of locals live in tiny villages that are about a day’s walk from one another

3. Basics cont. • To correct time differences the Julian calendar (set up by Julius Caesar) Pope Gregory XIII sets up the Gregorian calendar (closer to actual solar year) • Common folk speak local languages: Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian • Scientists, officials, judges, and priests speak Latin • People begin to use last names--usually taken from their trade (Miller, Tailor, Smith) or become known as the son of their father (John’s son-Johnson)

4. Money Matters • A variety of coins are in circulation: pfennings, hellers, ecus, florins, gulden, orrt, anglots, ducats, and stuivers. • The coins are made from gold and silver and carried in bags--paper money doesn’t exist • People sometimes shave a bit off the coin, reducing the value--weighing coins determines their worth • Trade often takes place instead of money: spices like pepper are easy to sell at profit

5. Money Matters cont. • Every city has it’s own currency--moneychangers will exchange money for correct currency • Rich merchant bankers are available for people from commoners to kings to lend money--Jakob Fugger “Jakob the Rich” becomes one of the most powerful men in Europe • Prices: a small, unbound book--1 ducat a horse-6 ducats yearly salary for a servant--7 ducats yearly salary for a professor--100 to 150 ducats(a ducat was worth roughly about $2.00 modern)

6. Clothing • Clothing is very important (for distinction) • Only nobles may wear fur • Lepers wear a gray coat and a red hat • Jews by law must wear a large yellow circle on their shirts • A wealthy person might have over forty gowns and shoes, but a peasant may own only one change of clothes

7. Clothing cont. • Clothes help set apart people: scented gloves, pink capes, velvet shoes, gold chains--men • Women wear dresses of ornate patterns with jewels and gold thread • Blondes are the ideal for women, but fake blonde in way of hair bundling works too (extensions?) • Short hair and pointy beards for men

8. Size and Shape and Body Stuff • Average man is around five foot tall and about 135 lbs. Women are smaller • Bathing and washing hair not stressed • Perfume popular • Washing clothes a few times a year • Cosmetics not in much use, but white complexions are prized • Aristocrats wear plenty of jewelry • Knights wear their signet ring; men have daggers or swords

9. Arts and Entertainment • Leonardo D Vince paints the Mona Lisa between 1503 and 1506. Portrait is of Lisa del Giocondo • Festivals are very popular • Late 1400s religious productions; 1500s Shakespeare • Chess is a favorite board game from rich to peasants • Horse races, as well as cattle and pig races • Jousting, and fake battles • Cruel animal sports take place, as well as criminals and prisoners in place of animals

10. Arts/Entertainment cont. • No museums--art belongs to the wealthy; churches contain art; wealthy commission artists to create art • Art is realistic, using math to create depth, angles and perception • Cabinet of curiosities • Only churches, universities, kings own books; large collections fewer than three hundred titles • 1457 Johannes Gutenberg prints first book- The Bible • Textbooks among first books to be printed • 1460s and 1470s books bought from book printers; 1480s booksellers • Albrecht Durer carves pictures into wood blocks to spread works • Catholic Church begins to censor books, such as Copernicus (sun is center)

11. Home Sweet Home • Inns not readily available- travelers might stay in a private home • Well-off peasant: dung heap outside, animals inside with everyone else in one single room; everyone in one big bed; rushes cover clay floors, but changing isn’t too often, maybe after 20 years • Prosperous Merchant: two or three stories high; ground floor is shop, first floor large kitchen; upper floor is bedroom. • Wealthy: townhouses with columns and arches with courtyards; precious stones, furs, tapestries cover walls; several rooms available as living space • Inns: some nice, some dirty; might sleep on a bench or everybody in one big bed; people hang out in dining room to share stories. There might be entertainers. • Monasteries are open to travelers. Make a donation or stay for free.

12. Eats • Two meals: breakfast-between 9 am and 10 am; supper at 5 pm • Forks are rare--hands are fine; knives are available. • Wealthy diet: 15 to 20 dishes at dinner; gold dust might be sprinkled on food; herons, swans, peacocks, larks, robins storks are on menu • Peasant diet: thin soup and black bread plus eggs and poultry; not much meat; slaughtered meat is salted--no refrigeration; pigs for selling instead of eating; deer, boar, seal, porpoise, goat, hedgehog, mice, whatever— • Water is filthy; no coffee or tea; wine, beer, or ale for adults; milk for kids

13. Safe and Sane • The body has four humors: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile; balance is key • Blood letting helps remove bad blood; leeches are used, as well as lancing • Kings and queens believed to have healing powers. • Many babies die at childbirth • No antibiotics--watch out for even a common scrape • Religious groups run hospitals • Ringworm, sprains, colds, and cataracts are common • No anesthesia--four strong men hold the patient down

14. Safe and Sane cont. • Famine comes about every four years • Black Death: 10 percent of English population die of outbreak in 1471 • Plague dealt better second half of 1500s: government keeps ships at port; streets closed off; gatherings banned; infected families quarantined; infected wear white armbands; strangers observed or 40 days • Hundred Years’ War: 1337-1453 (England and France) • Thirty Years’ War: 1618-1648 (mainly in Germany) • Cannons create need to strengthen walls

15. Safe and Sane cont. • Renaissance soldiers age: between fifteen and sixty • Clergy, lawyers, heads of households, and servants exempt from military • Sieges: last for months--if you can’t help defend you could get thrown out because of food supply; Women repair walls while men fight • Common punishments: cut off ears, pluck out eyes, rip out tongues, forced fasts, confiscate money, whipping, clubbing, walking hundreds or thousands of miles barefoot--in chains around neck or ankles, drowning, beheadings. Yet crime is still abundant. • Tip: if a criminal--have an education (sign your name, read lines from Bible), and get a lighter sentence (thumb branding maybe) Flunk--you hang

16. Source • Day, Nancy. Your Travel Guide to Renaissance Europe. Minneapolis, MN Runestone Press, 2001.