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Lecture 30: 15 th C Renaissance

Lecture 30: 15 th C Renaissance. Dr. Ann T. Orlando 6 November 2014. Introduction. Renaissance movement Language Political pragmatism Popular northern devotion. Renaissance = Rebirth. Name given by 19 th C historians

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Lecture 30: 15 th C Renaissance

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  1. Lecture 30: 15th C Renaissance Dr. Ann T. Orlando 6November 2014

  2. Introduction • Renaissance movement • Language • Political pragmatism • Popular northern devotion

  3. Renaissance = Rebirth • Name given by 19th C historians • Begins in Italy in 14th C, extends to mid-16th C when it becomes Baroque • Renaissance is said to begin when Petrarch reads Confessions when he ascends Mt. Ventoux, April 26, in 1336 • Catholic Intellectual and artistic movement • Michelangelo (1475-1564) is usually considered both a Renaissance and a Baroque artist • Rejects the Aristotle of the schoolmen • Embraces rhetoric and language over philosophy • Embraces a certain pragmatism about human life and society

  4. Humanism • Starts in Italy as part of Italian Renaissance • Although outside universities, very much a Catholic-oriented intellectual movement • Therefore, not to be confused with later atheistic humanism • Wants to get back to the original religious and classical sources, ad fontes • Funding for intellectuals, scholars, artists comes from wealthy princes, merchants • Medici’s • Popes • In art, man becomes the ‘measure of all things’ Protagoras of Abdera ( c. 480-410 B.C.) • Examples in architecture

  5. Beauvais Cathedral So large, collapses twice, in 13th C and 16th C http://archive.cyark.org/cathedral-of-beauvais-info Pazzi Chapel, Florence Brunellesci 15thhttp://reference.findtarget.com/search/Pazzi%20Chapel/ Architecture Gothic and Renaissance

  6. Renaissance and Language • Rejection of ecclesial, scholastic Latin • Development of vernacular literature • Italian: Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374), and Boccaccio (1313-1375) • English: Chaucer (1343-1400) • French: Rabelais (1483-553) • Study of works in original languages (ancient Latin, Greek, Hebrew) • Bible • Classical Greek and Roman literature

  7. Petrarch (1304 – 1374) • ‘Father’ of Renaissance • Family wanted him to study law, but he preferred studying the classics • Spent time a minor court official in Avignon • Became a wandering poet • Returning to Italy he gathered around himself a ‘school’ in Florence • Dedicated to literature and the classics • Emphasis on writing in Italian • Secular subject matter • Boccaccio his most famous student

  8. Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) • ‘Adjunct’ professor of ancient Latin • Find employment in court of Naples • At the time, Naples is in a feud with papal states (Pope Eugene IV) • Papacy using Donation of Constantine to justify its claims • Through critical analysis, Valla demonstrates it is a forgery • Valla obtained an appointment to Curia by Nicholas V (Vatican Library) • Wrote a treatise, “On Pleasure,” among the first pro-Epicurean and anti-Stoic works since antiquity

  9. Dutch, Augustinian canon regular Humanist who encouraged return to Bible and early Fathers of Church as a way to reform Scripture as the philosophy of Christ Optimistic about man’s ability to know and understand; ancient maxim that if one knows what is right, one will do it Detailed textual work on Bible and Augustine Most famous scholar of his time Erasmus portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.138 Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536)

  10. New Technologies in 15th C • Printing Press • Last great information leap forward was codex rather than papyrus in 3rd C and Carolingian Script of 8th C • 15th C development of Printing Press allowed rapid communication my ‘instantly’ creating multiple copies of a work • Guttenberg assembled multiple technical advances to create an efficient press; Bible printed 1454 • Spurred increase in literacy; • Also removed production of manuscripts from monasteries to secular world • European Voyages of Discovery

  11. The Medici Family • Powerful Florentine family • Power based on banking • Subterfuge to evade usury laws • Adroitly developed ‘banks’ managed by family members throughout much of Europe • Usually managed to back the ‘winning’ side in Papal-Imperial-French-Italian city state rivalries • Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464) • Established Medici family as economic and political powers in Florence • Humanist, patron of arts • Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449 – 1492) • Grandson of Cosimo the Elder • Brother Giuliano assassinated on Easter in 1478 in Pazzi Chapel; Archbishop of Pisa (present at the time) complicit in the assignation (executed in his Easter vestments) • Lorenzo went to war with Pope Sextus IV; ends with an uneasy peace between Medici and papacy • Lorenzo’s son Giovanni became Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521) • Lorenzo educated Giuliano’s son, who later became Pope Clement VII (r. 1523-1534) • …and his granddaughter, Catherine (1519-1589) becomes Queen of France

  12. Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) • Public life fell in and out of favor with the Medici’s as they went in and out of power in Florence • Basis of political theory is that power makes an authority legitimate, not ‘goodness’ • Legitimacy of law is wholly dependent on ability to enforce law • Prince’s virtues are those qualities which ensure his ability to effectively wield power • Most likely the ‘prince’ that Machiavelli is advising is the illegitimate son of Alexander IV and sometime cardinal; known for his cruelty

  13. Popular Devotion in Northern Europe • Beguines • Begin in 13th C as a loosely connected group of reclusive religious women in Netherlands • Beguine houses spread throughout Europe, but no vows • Sometimes accused fo heresy and suppressed, but then rehabilitated • Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) may be associated with the later Beguine movement

  14. Popular Northern devotions (cont.) • DevotioModerna • Begun in Netherlands by Gerharde Groote (1340-1384) • Call to simpler more personal from of Christina life and meditation • Little emphasis on ecclesial Church and ritual • Brethren of Common Life lay community founded by Groote, communities spread throughout Europe • Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Imitation of the Life of Christ • During the Reformation many of these communities break from the Church and are basis of pietism movements

  15. Assignments • 1. Petrarch, Ascent of Mt. Ventoux, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/petrarch-ventoux.html • 2. Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Dedication, Chapters I,XI, XVIII, available at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/machiavelli-prince.html#DEDICATION

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