UNIT ESSENTIAL QUESTION: BASED ON SOCIAL, POLITCAL, ECONOMIC AND MILITARY CHARACTERISTICS, WAS THE RENAISSANCE TRULY A “REBIRTH” OR A NEW BEGINNING

WARM UP: Reflect back on our unit on the Middle Ages. Write down five things you learned about life during that time period. Then, answer the following questions:• Was the life good during the medieval period?

Why or why not? Explain your position.

• Consider the quote below from John Hale what point was he trying to make about the Renaissance?

What was the Renaissance? Term literally means “Rebirth” in French

A New World view:

New attitudes toward culture & learning

‘Renaissance Man’

People became interested with the world around them and individual achievement

Emphasis of life shifts (Spiritual Human experience)

“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”

Knowledge is Power!

Monay! Monay! Monay!

Be curious! Explore!

“This century like a golden age has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music”

~ Marsolio Ficino

Humanism: a cultural movement that promoted the study of the humanities—the languages, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome.

Humanist scholars used the works of ancient authors as models in writing, scholarship, and all aspects of life.

Focused on worldly subjects rather than religious issues

emphasized the potential for individual achievement and stipulated that humans were rational beings capable of truth and goodness on their own

“Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.”

~ Kurt Vonnegut

“Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose.”

― Jean-Paul Sartre

King: “Just because I do not accept the teachings of the devotaries does not mean I've discarded a belief in right and wrong."Young Woman: "But the Almighty determines what is right!"King: "Must someone, some unseen thing, declare what is right for it to be right? I believe that my own morality -- which answers only to my heart --is more sure and true than the morality of those who do right only because they fear retribution.”

~ Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

Why Italy?Reawakening of ancient Roman Empire-

reminders of former ancient glory remained.

Northern City-states like Florence, Milan, Venice, Genoa were prosperous trade centers

Wealthy merchant class promoted the arts and learning

Florence and the Medici Family

Rich banker family came to rule the government

Lorenzo ‘the Magnificent’ was a generous patron of the arts

Why Italy?

The Lost Art of Patronage

The term “patron”, in Latin, means “Father” Therefore, a patron of the Arts is one who

"begets" and protects the Arts.

The concept of the patron originated in the times of Rome. Various Roman citizens became a

“patronus” who made themselves the protector of a foreigner who had settled in Roman territory.

During the Renaissance there was a return to the classical notion of art as something distinct and set apart from religion. Art became a kind of new religion, and the

artist began to emerge as a kind of hero or prophet.

Lorenzo de’Medici

Gutenberg Changes the World

Johannaes Guttenberg: began work on the printing press around 1436 BC

First book ever printed in Europe from movable type, was the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible (Gutenberg Bible), completed around 1455.

The invention of mechanical movable type printing led to a huge increase of printing activities across Europe

As early as 1480, there were printers active in 110 different places

European printing presses of around 1600 were capable of producing 3,600 impressions per workday.

Gutenberg Changes the World Effects of Guttenberg’s invention:

Information could now spread quickly and accurately. Literacy rates rose dramatically

New political and religious views could be disseminated widely Luther, Locke, Machiavelli

Helped propel the “Scientific Revolution” Scientists working on the same problem

could print the results of their work and share it accurately with a large number of other scientists.

Took book copying out of the hands of the Church and made it much harder for the Church to control or censor what was being written.

led to consistent spelling, grammar and punctuation. Enabled readers to more easily interpret

an author's writing and intentions.

Gutenberg Changes the World

Publishing books became easier & faster; Gutenberg’s Printing Press could copy 240 per hour

Books (while still expensive to purchase) became much more accessible to much more people (upper & Middle classes)

“Vernacular Literature” became more common

Authors (Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, etc.) actually had “Best Sellers”

Literacy, Education, & Criticism increased!!!

Fight Against the Free Press Effects of Guttenberg’s invention:

Information could now spread quickly and accurately.

more and more books of a secular nature were printed

The Church quickly realized the potential of the printing press as a challenge to its influence.

Censorship was introduced into the print shop in 1487, when Pope Innocent VIII required that Church authorities approve all books before publication.

Index Librorum Prohibitorum: a list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious, and banned by the Church.

What does it mean to be a “Renaissance Man?”