A Rebirth of what??

The Greeks and Romans

Ancient Culture

THE RENAISSANCE COULD BE CONSIDERED A BRIDGE:

The Middle Ages

The Modern World

“By celebrating the beauty of nature and the dignity of mankind, Renaissance artists and scholars helped shape the intellectual and cultural history of the modern world.”

Nations as we know them today did not exist City States

What is a City State?

What are the advantages? Disadvantages?

2% - 12% (depending of the city) of the male population in these city-states actually had the right to vote.

Examples: Venice, Siena, Lucca and Florence (until the Medici family)

1. Executive Bodies – dominated by the most powerful families

2. Legislative or advisory councils

3. Special Commission

Signori – run by a single family. Example: Milan was ruled the Sforza family What does this

seem like that exists in today’s society?

Example: Venice – its constitution had a balance of political interests

The doge – an official elected for life by the Senate – executive authority (like a monarch)

The Great Council – 2,500 patricians – elected a Senate which represented nobility - No one represented the peasants who were ½ the population

Pope – the spiritual prince He was elected for life

by cardinals Ran just like any other

city-state There was a declining

role of the papacy over the city-states after the Babylonian Captivity

Why was it so necessary in this type of political environment to have a strong military?

Development of banking – How does this help to stimulate the economy?

Florence’s currency the gold florin became the standard currency in European trade.

Positives?

They were able to provide credit to purchasers – stimulating trade.

International Trade

Negatives?

Risky – the King of England had forced Florentine merchants to loan him money – he defaulted when he failed during an invasion of France in the 100 years’ War – many bankers went into bankruptcy.

POPULO GROSSO: “fat people” – 5% of the population – elite/nobles, wealthy merchants, and manufacturers.

MEDIOCI: middle – smaller merchants and master artisans.

POPULO MINUTO: “little people” – bulk of the urban population.

There was some social mobility – Why?

What were the social classes based on?

Center of the Southern Renaissance

Why? Why did it become the center of the Renaissance?

1. The Arno Rivier – which flowed through the port of Pisa, helped trade and commerce (Florence conquered Pisa)

2. Medici Family – encouraged a cultural movement

3. City honored accomplishments of citizens

4. Education – many schools(civic as well as private) – university – highest literacy rate in Europe

Wealthy Banking Family – provided stability

Banished rival clans

Manipulated electoral process

Cosimo’s Grandson – survived an assassination attempt – hours later enemies of the family were hanging upside down from a government building – including the archbishop of Pisa

Botticelli was commissioned to paint them as they swung.

Petrarch – Tuscan poet – copied ancient works from manuscripts

Discovered texts no one new about

Inspired successors to find and copy other classical manuscripts

Gutenberg – development of Printing

Diffusion of a variety of

Histories

Treatises

Biographies

Autobiographies and poems

LIBRARIES

Scholasticism Humanism

The study of law, medicine and theology

To

The study of grammar, rhetoric, and metaphysics

Petrarch mocked scholastics:

They can tell you “how many hairs there are in the lion’s mane. . . With how many arms the squid binds a shipwrecked sailor. . . . All these things or the greater part of it is wrong . . . . And even if they were true, they would not contribute anything to the blessed life. What is the use, I pray you, of knowing the nature of beasts, birds, fishes and serpents, and not knowing, or spurning the nature of man, to what end we are born, and from were and whither we pilgrimage.”

What is a Renaissance Man?