European Society in the Age of the Renaissance

1. Ch. 13 European Society in the Age of the Renaissance

2. Key Terms • Renaissance – rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity. • Patronage – financial support of writers and artists by cities, groups, and individuals, often to produce specific works or works in specific styles. • Humanism – a program of study designed by Italians that emphasized the critical study of Greek and Latin literature with the goal of understanding human nature. • Christian Humanists – northern humanists who interpreted Italian ideas about and the attitudes toward classical antiquity and humanism in terms of their own religious traditions. • Signori – government by one-man rule in Italian cities such as Milan

3. Key Terms • New Christians – a fourteen-century term for Jews and Muslims who accepted Christianity in many cases they included Christians whose families had converted centuries earlier. • Virtu – the quality of being able to shape the world according to one’s own will. • Signori – government by one-man rule in Italian cities such as Milan. • Courts – magnificent households and palaces where signori and other rulers lived, conducted business, and supported the arts.

4. Key Figures • The Medici Family – huge banking family who held power in Florence from 1434-1737. • Johann Gutenburg – Inventor of the printing press. • Niccolo Machiavelli – author of the book The Prince, which teaches how a king should rule his people. • Baldassare Castiglione – author of the book The Courtier. This book explained how a young man should grow up to be like as well as how a lady should grow like. Talked about how they should be educated, disciplined, and how they should look physically.

5. Key Figures • Pico – student of Marsilio Ficino, wrote in his essay, On the Dignity of Men, that man possesses great dignity because he was made as Adam in the image of God. • Ficino – interpreted Plato’s ideas; which focused on love, that the highest form of love was spiritual desire for pure, perfect beauty uncorrupted by bodily desires.

6. Main idea • The Renaissance began in Italy due to its position as a trade and banking center as well as the reintroduction of Greek and Roman classics. • The Renaissance was a time of cultural flowering and new (and reintroduced) ideas in art and education. Societal changes were mostly confined to the wealthy. • Northern Europe experienced the Renaissance differently as it centered on Christian Humanism. • Monarchs in Western Europe worked to consolidate their power in their lands.

7. Wealth and Power in Renaissance Italy • Italian peninsula controlled by city – states and the balance of power. • Signori and patronage • Ex. - Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States, and the kingdom of Naples. • Medici Family controls Florence.

8. Intellectual Change • Humanism, Education, Political thought and Christian Humanism. • Machiavelli's The Prince, The Courtier, and the printing press. • Johann Gutenburg inventor of the printing press.

9. Art and the Artist • Patronage and power • Art style – Realism and perspective • Realism – treatment of the body and face replace stiffness and focus on the true features. • Perspective – linear representation of distance and space on a flat surface.