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THE RENAISSANCE : THE BIRTH OF A NEW AGE

16th century

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_7n1BCSSg

The dawn (l’aube = la naissance) of the Renaissance began in Italy and then has spread (s’est

répandue) in all Europe. It marked the end of the middle Ages in Europe. In the 15th century,

there was a rebirth, or "renaissance", of interest in the arts and sciences.

The Renaissance began in Florence because it was a rich state at that time. Traders, bankers

(banquiers), merchants (commerçants) and lawyers (avocats) had enough money to build nice

houses, buy books and employ artists and musicians.

During the Renaissance, works of the great Latin and Greek writers (écrivains, penseurs)

inspired (inspirèrent) artists and scholars (grands penseurs). Famous people such as Leonardo de

Vinci, Erasmus, Raphael concentrate on human rather than (plutôt que) on religion and the fear

of God. That is why this movement is also called Humanism ( L'Humanisme). Renaissance

painters (peintres) and sculptors began to explore the beauty of the human body, and poets wrote

about human feelings.

THE AGE OF PRINTING

Before the age of printing all books were copied by hand. It was a long and expensive process. It

also meant that every book was different and full of mistakes!

For centuries the Chinese had been printing using carved wooden blocks but the idea of using

letters to create various pages of a text was revolutionary. (->les Chinois maîtrisaient depuis

des siècles l’imprimerie à caractères fixes sur planchettes de bois =impression page par page, à

la différence de la presse de Gutenberg qui permit de recomposer des textes avec les mêmes

caractères). In the middle of the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg, of Mainz in Germany,

introduced movable print to Europe. The metal letters were arranged in trays to make up the

words and lines of text, inked and put on the press. That way, it could be reproduced thousands

of times. At the same time, expensive parchment was being replaced by paper.

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TASK : Research at home :

Answer to the following question :

How did the development of the printing press contribute to the Renaissance? How did it effect

medieval society (quelles conséquences l’imprimerie a-t-elle eu sur la société médiévale des XV

et XVI siècles)

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Renaissance italienne: http://www.musenor.com/vt/renaissanceitalienne/index.html

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GREAT PERSONNALITIES OF THE RENAISSANCE

Use these categories to identify the accomplishments of each person; painting, literature,

architecture, politics

PERSON COUNTRY+

DATES OF LIFE

CATEGORY CONTRIBUTION

Leonardo da

Vinci

Raphael

Erasmus

Rabelais

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Shakespeare

Gutenburg

Cervantes

Galileo

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L’homme de Vitruve, Leonardo de Vinci, around 1490.

According to Leonardo's preview in the accompanying text, written in mirror writing, it was

made as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body based on the work of the ancient

Roman architect Vitruvius.

BIOGRAPHY

Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps most famous as the painter of masterpieces like the Mona Lisa

and The Last Supper. However, Leonardo’s skills (dons, abilités) and interests went far beyond

painting.

He was fascinated by how and why things worked and he studied engineering (ingénieurie),

anatomy and botany as well as architecture, physics and meteorology. He made great advances in

science and learning, many of which were years ahead of his time. From his detailed notebooks

came designs for helicopters, tanks and submarines (sous-marins).

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A flying machine (machine volante)

Une machine à polir les miroirs

http://www.vinci-closluce.com/fr/decouvrir-le-clos-luce/visites-virtuelles/

http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/

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ART during the Renaissance

Look at the two following paintings, knowing the first one has been painted ( a été peinte) during

the middle Ages and the second one during the Renaissance. What differences do you see?

Répondez en français

- Thèmes:

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- Techniques:

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Peinture du Moyen Age

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Portait d’une femme à sa toilette, Titien, 1512-1515

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L’école d’Athènes, Raphaël, 1509-1510

Détail des personnages : 1 : Zénon de Cition ou Zénon d'Élée – 2 : Épicure – 3 : Frédéric II de Mantoue – 4 : Boèce ou Anaximandre ou Empédocle de Milet – 5 : Averroès – 6 : Pythagore – 7 : Alcibiade ou Alexandre le Grand – 8 : Antisthène ou Xénophon – 9 : Hypatie ou Francesco Maria Ier della Rovere – 10 : Eschine ou Xénophon – 11 : Parménide – 12 : Socrate – 13 : Héraclite (sous les traits de Michel-Ange) – 14 : Platon tenant le Timée (sous les traits de Léonard de Vinci) – 15 : Aristote tenant l’Éthique – 16 : Diogène de Sinope – 17 : Plotin – 18 : Euclide ou Archimède entouré d'étudiants (sous les traits de Bramante) – 19 : Strabon ou Zoroastre – 20 : Ptolémée – R : Raphaël en Apelle – 21 : Le Sodoma Quentin Augustine (Le Protogène).

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Portrait des époux Arnolfini, Van Eyck, 1434 ( le mariage)

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THE GREAT EXPLORERS

The Age of Exploration (also called the Age of Discovery) began in the 1400s and continued

through the 1600s. It was a period of time when the European nations began exploring the

world. They discovered new routes to India, much of the Far East, sailed around Africa

and the Americas.

An expedition could be expensive and risky. Many ships never returned. So why did the

Europeans want to explore? The simple answer is money. Although, some explorers wanted

to gain fame or experience adventure, the main purpose of an expedition was to make

money…

Some expeditions became rich by discovering gold and silver, such as the expeditions of the

Spanish to the Americas. They also found new land where colonies could be established and

crops such as sugar, cotton, and tobacco could be grown.

A precursor: MARCO POLO (1254-1324)

Marco Polo is famous for his travels through Asia. He was one of the first Europeans to travel

into Mongolia and China.

The Age of Exploration began in the nation of Portugal under the leadership of Henry the

Navigator. Henry sent out ships to map and explore the west coast of Africa. They went further

south than any previous European expedition and mapped much of western Africa for the

Portuguese. In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeo Dias was the first European to sail around

the southern tip of Africa and into the Indian Ocean.

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HOMEWORK

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TASK :

NOW with the help of the previous documents and the Internet complete the chart

Christopher Columbus

Vasco de Gama

Ferdinand Magellan

Origin

Life date

Achievement

= réussite,

exploit

Main route

followed

Obstacles

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MORE ABOUT CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1451-1506)

Christopher Columbus is one of the best-known of all explorers. He is famous for his voyage in

1492, when he "discovered" America while he was looking for a way to sail (naviguer) to Asia.

Columbus was probably born in Genoa, Italy, around 1451. His real name was Christoforo

Columbo. He made several voyages to the New World, which he thought was Asia. His first

voyage took place in 1492.

Columbus and his men set sail on Friday, August 3, 1492 from Palos, Spain. Columbus had a big

ship, the Santa Maria (the St. Mary) and two smaller ships, the Pinta and the Nina. They stopped

for fresh water at the Canary Islands. Then they sailed southwest. Twenty-one days later the

sailors on Columbus' ships were beginning to feel afraid. They wanted Columbus to turn the

ships around and go back home to Spain. Just then they saw a flock of birds! Can you guess what

that meant? Well, Columbus sailed in the direction that the birds had come from and at two

o'clock on the morning of October 12, they saw land! It was the island we now call San

Salvador, but Columbus thought it was the Indies, so the new world was called 'the Indies' and

the people Columbus found living there he called 'Indians’.

Columbus stayed and looked around the islands. He got a lot of things together to take as

presents back to Spain. (He got parrots, seashells (crustacés), unusual plants and some Indian

people!) On March 15, 1493 he returned to Spain. Cannons boomed, people cheered, and all the

church bells rang to welcome Columbus home again!

His second voyage was from 1493 to 1496. This time, he took 17 ships and 1200 sailors and

colonists looking for riches in the New World and a quick route to Asia. On this trip, he explored

Cuba and discovered the islands of Jamaica, Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico. He went again to the

New World from 1498 to 1500. His final voyage was in 1502-1504. Christopher Columbus died

in 1506.

Columbus is important because he helped to encourage more exploration of North and South

America in the 1500s.

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The “Vinland map” possibly the first map to show the New World, Yale university, USA

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Portugal and Spain became the early leaders in the Age of Exploration. Through the Treaty of

Tordesillas (1494) the two countries agreed to divide up the New World. Spain got most of the

Americas while Portugal got Brazil, India, and Asia.

Portugal sent out Vasco da Gama who found a trade route around the southern tip of Africa and

to India. They also explored much of the Far East and were the first Europeans to establish a

trading colony in China at Macau.

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THE FIRST COLONIAL EMPIRES

Spain sent over conquistadors to explore the Americas and to conquer the peoples there. Hernan

Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire

in Peru. They made Spain rich with the gold and silver they found in the Americas.

The conquistadors forced Native Americans to work under the most brutal conditions, mainly in

the gold and silver mines as well as on sugar plantations. Those who resisted were killed.

Disease (maladies), starvation (faim), and cruel treatment (traitements inhumains) caused drastic

declines in the Native American population (causa un déclin dramatique de la population locale

“indienne”).

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The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange. The potato, the pineapple

(ananas), the turkey (dinde), sunflowers (tournesol), magnolias, maize (maïs), chilies (chili), and

chocolate (cacao) went East (Est càd en Europe) across the Atlantic Ocean. Smallpox (variole)

and measles (rougeole) but also the horse and the gun traveled West (Ouest càd aux Amérique).

Over the first century and a half after Columbus's voyages, the native population of the Americas

fell by an estimated 80 percent (from around 50 million in 1492 to eight million in 1650), mostly

by Old World (Vieux monde = Europe) diseases but also by several massacres and forced labor

(travail forcé).

Black African slaves were introduced to substitute (remplacer) for Native American labor in

some locations—most notably the West Indies ( les Antilles), where the indigenous population

was nearing extinction on many islands.

Film de synthèse en anglais

http://study.com/academy/lesson/effects-of-european-colonization-christopher-columbus-and-

native-americans.html

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THE REFORMATION

Martin Luther, a monk (moine) from Germany begins to criticize the power and the corruption of

the Church in 1517. According to him, the Bible and the Catholic Church disagree in some area.

On October 31, 1517 Luther writes a list of 95 points he wished to change in the Catholic

practices (pratiques) and in the Catholic Church. He nails (clouer) it to the door of a Catholic

Church.

Luther asks for reform (réformes= changements importants) of the Church- he did not want to

rebel against the Pope. Soon his ideas are supported (approuvées) by thousands of people.

Luther’s supporters are called Protestants or Reformers. This is because they protest against the

Church.

In response (en réponse) the Pope (le Pape) kicked him out of the church and called him a

heretic. This may not sound bad today, but in those times heretics were often put to death.

Some of Luther’s criticisms of the Church

• Indulgences – paying for forgiveness (pardon) : “Pardoners”, with permission from the

Pope, travel all across Europe selling indulgences. They say all you have to do is to buy

one and you will go to heaven – even for someone already dead.

• The Bible – only in Latin: Luther says that ordinary people can’t read Latin and therefore

(par consequent) can’t read themselves the Bible. They can only believe what their priest

tells them

• The use of statues in churches

• Praying to saints

• Going on pilgrimages

• Fasting

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Luther believes that all you need to be a good Christian is your faith (foi) in God. You don’t even

need a priest to help you to pray or to speak to God. This was completely against the teaching of

the Catholic Church.

Soon the Reformation divides the Christian World and even turns into a civil war during four

decades (décennies), from 1562-1598 in France.

The most important event is known as the the massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day, a general

slaughter (massacre) of Protestants throughout France. Catherine de Medicis plots (complote) the

assassination of the protestant French leader Gaspard de Coligny on August 22,1572. But it fails.

King Charles IX is then sure that the Huguenots would take revenge against the crown (les

Huguenots = les Protestants chercheraient à se venger du roi). In fact, many Huguenots were in

Paris for the marriage of Marguerite de Valois, the king’s sister, to Henry of Navarre. King

Charles approves of a massacre of the Protestants. On the 24th August 1572, 3,000 French

Protestants are killed in Paris, and as many as 70,000 in all of France.

Later on, King Henry IV will understand that the civil religious wars have to come to an end. In

1598 the Edict of Nantes will grant (assurera) freedom of worship (liberté de culte) to the

Protestants.

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