The Renaissance pt. 2
aspects of Italian Renaissance
- more artistic patronage -more book in Italy -going back to roman and greek text -more secular -fresco painting - sought a moral regeneration of society through renewal of faith and education -study of antiquity usually meant writings of church fathers
Christine de Pisan (1364-1430)
A frenchwoman of Italian origin who wrote. Italian female humanist are among the first authors to make public of the issues of females in education and women's participation in civic life. She was a court writer for several dukes. She wrote a lot about chivalry. She wrote that women should be virtuous like the woman in the book of solomon.
Ambroise Paré
Ambroise Paré was an innovative French surgeon who served as royal surgeon for a number of French kings, including Henri II. Having been apprenticed to a barber, Paré joined the army in 1536, and spent much of the next 30 years as a military surgeon. He improved or invented many techniques, especially in the treatment of war wounds.
Changing role of the nobility in the north
Its nobles commissioned artists who became known across Europe.
Copernicus
Polish priest who studied at University of Italy and read ancient Greek text. Copernicus became interested in astronomy and published an early description of his "heliocentric" model of the solar system in Commentariolus (1512). In this model, the sun Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy was actually not exactly the center of the solar system, but was slightly offset from the center using a device invented by Ptolemy known as the equant point. The idea that the Sun Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy was the center of the solar system was not new (similar theories had been proposed by Aristarchus and Nicholas of Cusa), but Copernicus also worked out his system in full mathematical detail. It challenged church and traditional european thought.
Problem with prostitution
Problem of prostitutes is that they were beneficial for girls at risk because they would be taxed so it would give revenue to the city. Another problem was that prostitutes were a concern for confraternities for the peoples salvation; confraternities built houses for girls at risk and gave them doweries; comfort for the condemned.
Isabella of Castille
Queen of Castille. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile of their Muslim and Jewish subjects in the Spanish Inquisition, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as the first global power who dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century.
church corruption
There had always been corruption on a limited scale, however, this corruption reached olympian proportions under the Medici Popes, Leo X and Clement VII. These two men were the son and adopted son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. They had been raised in all of the riches and splendors of Lorenzo's Florence and were accustomed to the best of everything. When Leo became Pope he went on a spending spree that all but wiped out the Vatican treasury in a single year. Desperately short of cash to maintain his extravagent lifestyle, Leo authorized the sale of offices and indulgences on a massive scale, unprecedented in Church history. His excesses were carried on by his cousin/brother, Clement, and the Protestant Reformation was born. To recap, a certain amount of corruption had been present throughout church history, but this corruption and excess reached alarming heights during the corrupt reigns of the Medici Popes.
Hanseatic League
a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns. It dominated Baltic maritime trade (c. 1400-1800) along the coast of Northern Europe.The League was created to protect economic interests and diplomatic privileges in the cities and countries and along the trade routes the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and furnished their own armies for mutual protection and aid. The league typically used gifts and loans to foreign political leaders to protect its commercial privileges, and when this proved inadequate, it threatened to withdraw its trade and occasionally became involved in embargoes and blockades. New maritime connections between the Baltic and Mediterranean seas and between the Old World and the Americas caused a gradual diversion of trade westward to the great Atlantic ports.
Spanish Inquisition
established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. The lead to ethnic/ religious cleansing of Jewish and Muslim Moors in Spain.
Corruption in the Church
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Reconquista
is a period of approximately 781 years in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, the period of the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires which followed.
Machiavelli
worked as diplomat for 14 years for the republic. -implicated in plot against Medici family in 1512, jailed -wrote the prince in 1513, dedicated to Medici's -dope clement VIII condemned book -didn't get back into the good grace of family -influences: casare Borgia, Louis XII, and Medici he Prince is an extended analysis of how to acquire and maintain political power. It includes 26 chapters and an opening dedication to Lorenzo de Medici. The dedication declares Machiavelli's intention to discuss in plain language the conduct of great men and the principles of princely government. He does so in hope of pleasing and enlightening the Medici family.
Ways of controlling women's sexuality in the renaissance
1. Putting them in confraternities 2. Sumptuary laws
William Grocyn (1446-1519)
studied for years in Italy before returning to England. He was a contemporary of Erasmus. He launched humanism in England. He taught at oxford college
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1445. The labor that went into creating them made each book very expensive. Because Gutenberg's press could produce books quickly and with relatively little effort, bookmaking became much less expensive, allowing more people to buy reading material.
Significance of Copernican theory on belief systems
Copernicus' work had a significant impact not only on the spheres of strictly understood mathematic and physical sciences. With all its power it also had a major influence on the newly founded field of modern humanist philosophy...Earth is one of several planets revolving around a stationary Sun in a determined order..Earth has three motions: daily rotation, annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis..Retrograde motion of the planets is explained by Earth's motion..Distance from Earth to the Sun is small compared to the distance to the stars.
Philosophia Christi
The Education of a Christian Prince is a Renaissance "how-to" book for princes, by Desiderius Erasmus, which advises the reader on how to be a "good Christian" prince. The book was dedicated to Prince Charles. Erasmus stated that teachers should be of gentle disposition and have unimpeachable morals. A good education included all the liberal arts. The text was written in part to secure Erasmus a position as Prince Charles's tutor.
Andreas Vesalius
The Flemish physician Andreas Vesahus is widely considered to be the founder of the modern science of anatomy. He was a major figure of the Scientific Revolution. Vesahus's book "De Humani Commis Fabrica" (On the Structure of the Human Body) is one of the most important works about human anatomy. It contained over 200 anatomical illustrations. The work was the earliest known precise presentation of human anatomy. It disgraced several of Galen's doctrines. the book laid down a solid understanding of human anatomy as the groundwork for all medical practice and curing.
Dowries
The sum in cash, goods, or land paid by a bride's family to her new husband. Brides, especially in Florence, were typically much younger than grooms. Dowries saved many at-risk girls from prostitution. In Renaissance Italy, most women from the upper classes had only two options in life: marriage or the cloister. Whether marrying a mortal man or Jesus, they needed a dowry. Since well-born women did not work, the dowry offset the cost of keeping a wife and family. The husband used the money to invest in property or business, but on his death the capital was returned to the woman. The expense of a dowry led some families to marry off only one daughter, while the rest were sent to a convent as nuns' dowries were considerably smaller. Nuns needed to bring dowries to ensure that their convents would continue to run smoothly and be able to house and feed them. -gift of payment given to a potential groom for the marriage of a bride from the father of the bride. Sometimes dowries were seen as a measure of wealth by the potential male suitor. Dowries were also given to men when a man's daughter was on the verge of prostitution due to poverty. It was thought that marriage would save them from a life of destitution.
Juan Luis Vives
a Valencian scholar and humanist who spent most of his adult life in the Southern Netherlands. His beliefs on the soul, insight into early medical practice, and perspective on emotions, memory and learning earned him the title of the "father" of modern psychology. Vives was the first to shed light on some key ideas that established how we perceive psychology today. He believed that understanding how the soul functions is more valuable than understanding the soul itself. Vives is acknowledged for integrating psychology and medicine.
Paracelsus Ferdinand II
a swiss physician who preferred empirical observation of wounds and diseases to the medical theories of the learned. His explorations were preliminary to William Harvey's discoveries about circulation of the blood.
Malleus Maleficarum
a treatise on the prosecution of witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic clergyman. Kramer wrote the Malleus shortly after being expelled from Innsbruck by the local bishop after a failed attempt to conduct his own witchcraft prosecution. Kramer's purpose in writing the book was to explain his own views on witchcraft, systematically refute arguments claiming that witchcraft does not exist, discredit those who expressed skepticism about its reality, claim that those who practised witchcraft were more often women than men, and to convince magistrates to use Kramer's recommended procedures for finding and convicting witches.
Office of Decency (Onestà)
aimed to manage prostitution in Florence by establishing state-run brothels and importing foreign prostitutes to work in them.Prostitution, while immoral, was seen as a necessary way to combat the greater sin of male homosexual behaviour, which led to reduced rates of marriage as the population struggled to recover from the ravages of the Black Death.The authorities were able to control prostitutes with various pieces of legislation which limited their location within the city, dress and movement, and attempted to impose registration, tax and various fees upon them. However, over the course of the fifteenth century, the number of registered prostitutes in Florence doubled and native Florentines made up an increasing proportion, causing concern for civic authorities. -to avoid sodomy
Role of confraternities in public life
confraternities- committed laypersons who voluntarily joined an association that was committed to various religion and charitable functions, had rules. they were patterned like guilds. -helped forge communal identities, membership usually based on a geographic region; gave a ritual kinship -normally divided by sexes; exception -charity work: food, hostels, comfort for the condemned, dowries, houses for converted prostitutes, great concern of confraters is their salvation. -assisted in social mission of the church -many clergy belonged to them as well -state often saw as means to give aid to the poor -fearful that they have too much freedom -greatest concern and regulation for women's confraternities
response to prostitution
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In Praise of Folly
written by Erasmus in 14th century.Folly praises self-deception and madness and moves to a satirical examination of pious but superstitious abuses of Catholic doctrine and corrupt practices in parts of the Roman Catholic Church—to which Erasmus was ever faithful—and the folly of pedants.The essay ends with a straightforward statement of Christian ideals. He addresses gentlemen as "most foolish" Men shouldn't try to live as mortal gods. He compares mortals to flies.
aspects of northern renaissance
-erasmus: simplicity of faith -less sponsorship of church -more peasants -luther didn't like idolatry -printing press begins in Italy -concerned about societal structure -going to church sources -based on christian ideals and morals -oil paintings During the Renaissance there was an increase in traveling (which wasn't as prevalent in the middle ages), the printing press was invented AND books started to be published in local languages, so ideas were able to spread much more quickly than ever before.
controlling nuns
-role of the male confessor -control learning, writing, communication -ending medieval power that they had over mixed communities --enforcing laws of closure 1) how much is an issue of church authority? 2) how much control sexuality and marriage market
changes in warfare and statecraft
-states able to effectively extract taxes, construct bureau, sufficient territory for resources grow in power. -first artillery piece 1360; invention of pistols 1510 -cannons 1st shot rocks, by 1400s using cast irons>castle walls were obsolete -development of standing armies- by 1500, spain had approx. 25,000 -kings increasing their control of legitimized violence -state crafted thru strategic marriages
Different responses to the problem of the prostitute and girls at risk
1. dowries 2. Confraternaties -committed to various religious and charitable functions -did charity work: food, hostels, comfort for codemned, houses for prostitutes.
Exploration and the renaissance
Beginning in the early fifteenth century, European states began to embark on a series of global explorations that inaugurated a new chapter in world history. Known as the Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, this period spanned the fifteenth through the early seventeenth century, during which time European expansion to places such as the Americas, Africa, and the Far East flourished. This era is defined by figures such as Ferdinand Magellan, whose 1519-1522 expedition was the first to traverse the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and the first to circumnavigate the globe. The European Age of Exploration developed alongside the Renaissance. Both periods in Western history acted as transitional moments between the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Competition between burgeoning European empires, such as Spain and England, fueled the evolution and advancement of overseas exploration. Motivated by religion, profit, and power, the size and influence of European empires during this period expanded greatly. The effects of exploration were not only felt abroad but also within the geographic confines of Europe itself. The economic, political, and cultural effects of Europe's beginning stages of global exploration impacted the long term development of both European society and the entire world.
Sumptuary laws
Common through 13th-18th century Italy. Sumptuary laws were to restrict excess in dress and jewelry. The laws were especially directed at women, whose fashion excesses were viewed as harmful to social order. Prostitutes were prohibited to wear clothes that were for noble women. Nobel men were required to wear black robes, showing that economics were tied into morality.
More on confraternities
Confraternities were the lay face of the Renaissance and early modern Catholic Church. Present in every city, village, and parish, these voluntary groups had millions of male and female members throughout the Catholic Church who gathered to achieve collectively a range of spiritual and social goals. For many laypeople these were the vehicles through which they engaged with the Catholic Church and acted out their faith, supplementing and sometimes replacing the local parish. As a result, the impact on the laity of devotional movements, doctrinal change, or ecclesiastical disputes cannot be understood apart from confraternities. Members could receive the key sacraments of confession, communion, and last rites and fulfill most ritual and charitable observancesthrough their confraternity. The range of groups was such in most urban communities that members could choose between active or moderate devotional observances; tight or light discipline; varying degrees of cultural, educational, or charitable activity; and different levels of mutual assistance in sickness or death. Members joined groups for a diverse range of reasons: to access spiritual resources, to achieve social and political advantages, to secure mutual assistance, and to enjoy group sociability.
Devotio moderna
Devotio Moderna, or Modern Devotion, was a movement for religious reform, calling for apostolic renewal through the rediscovery of genuine pious practices such as humility, obedience and simplicity of life. It began in the late fourteenth-century, largely through the work of Gerard Groote, and flourished in the Low Countries and Germany in the fifteenth century
Erasmus
Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a pure Latin style. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation; but while he was critical of the abuses within the Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and continued to recognise the authority of the pope. Erasmus emphasized a middle way, with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, and rejected Luther's emphasis on faith alone.rasmus remained committed to reforming the Church and its clerics' abuses from within. Erasmus wrote Praise of Folly.
illegitimate vs legitimate children
Illegitimate children were NOT entitled to ANYTHING whatsoever. Illegitimate children could live and die in abject poverty, and billions did just that, completely ignored and totally forgotten. Unless the father officially acknowledged their birthright, they were no body. If the child was the result of an illicit tryst between the "master" and a maid in the household, many times forced, the child simply grew up as just another servant within the household. If the father was a peasant, the child was usually ignored, another mouth to feed was never a good thing. If the father was an artisan or tradesman AND a decent man, AND everyone knew the kid was his, he might take the boy in as an apprentice. Any entitlement like property or money would go to the man's legitimate child or the bastard child might receive something in a will. If the father was of the aristocracy and the mother was not, but in his household, the child was simply raised as a fatherless servant if the mother was not sent away --- many times she was. No entitlement whatsoever. There have been stipulation in a will that this particular child could remain in the employ of the household for as long as they pleased without any reason given. If both the parents were members of the aristocracy AND on equal social standing, some sort of family arrangement would be made --- contractual marriage, the relocation of one of the guilty parties to another area with other relatives, financial restitution, adoption, or any number of other things. Depending on the family agreement, the child might or might not be claimed by the real father.
Thomas More
Saint Thomas More was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord Chancellor.More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an ideal and imaginary island nation. More opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church. More was convicted and beheaded. More's best known and most controversial work, Utopia is a novel written in Latin. Utopia has many of the characteristics of satire. It went against his catholic teachings. Utopia is a society without private property, despising gold and silver. He believe humans can use reason to build a society that is both moral and just. it was a vision
Siglo de oro of Spain
Spain's Golden Age, Siglo de Oro, began in the late 1400s with the marriage of Catholic royals Isabella and Ferdinand, which united the kingdoms of Aragon and Castille. The moors were pushed out of Spain wight his powerful union. The 16th and 17th centuries were a golden age for Spain in terms of politics, military, wealth, and culture. However, Christian religious fervor accompanied Spanish expansion. This was also a time of religious intolerance towards people who did not embrace Catholicism. Indigenous peoples in the Americas and other conquered territories suffered greatly under the Spanish quest for gold and glory.
Northern Renaissance
The Renaissance in the Low Countries was a cultural period in the Northern Renaissance that took place in around the 16th century in the Low Countries. Two factors determined the fate of the region in the 16th century. The first was the union with the kingdom of Spain through the 1496 marriage of Philip the Handsome of Burgundy and Juana of Castile. A second factor included religious developments. The Middle Ages gave way to new modes of religious thinking. Devotio Moderna practices, for example, were particularly strong in the region, while the 16th-century criticisms of the Catholic Church that spread throughout Europe also reached the Low Countries. Humanists such as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam were critical but remained loyal to the church. However, the spread of the Protestant Reformation, started by Martin Luther in 1517, eventually led to outright war.
Basic categories of social classes in Renaissance Italy
The basic social structure of the Renaissance society would be divided by: 1. very wealthy, the nobility, the high clergy - the upper class, 2. in the middle artisans and merchants, 3. and the working poor, wandering poor, and the special class of poor women and children,
Witches
Witches were considered patently evil during the Renaissance and baroque periods, or until about 1630. They were thought to be empowered by Satan to act as his agents, and hence they were strikingly dangerous adversaries of humans. While men could be witches and sometimes were indeed put on trial for being witches, women increasingly outnumbered them in this capacity during this period. At the end of the greatest period of persecution of witches, women accounted for about eighty percent of those accused. There were a number of reasons for this, but the most important was the belief that women were sexually insatiable and that Satan seduced them to his cause. Devils appeared to women as incubi to copulate with them (devils in female form, succubi, supposedly seduced the less-willing men). In many images of witches, especially those by Hans Baldung Grien, such as his chiaroscuro woodcut print The Witches Sabbath (1510), there are numerous phallic symbols as well as poses and gestures of the figures that are sexual in character. They could take away the strength of young men and sometimes went on to kill them. They could make men impotent, and hence they struck at the ability of humans to reproduce.
Female monasticism
monastery- a community of person who have take vows of poverty, chastity, an obedience, living together in seclusion and engaged in worship, study, service and necessary labor. monasticism lead to the survival of education and culture after fall of rome. Was a response to prostitution
Absolutism
the acceptance of or belief in absolute principles in political, philosophical, ethical, or theological matters.Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right. Rulers who were tutored by advisors and machiavelli writings developed a grand self-concept. They made and enforced laws. The greatest absolute monarch was Louis XIV of France.
Alchemy
the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir. Renaissance Humanism and Renaissance Neoplatonism guided alchemists away from physics to refocus on mankind as the alchemical vessel Proponents of the supernatural interpretation of alchemy believed that the philosopher's stone might be used to summon and communicate with angels. Isaac Newton devoted considerably more of his writing to the study of alchemy.
Conrad Celtis
was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and Neo-Latin poet. He was the first to teach the history of the world as a whole. Celtes was more of a free-thinking humanist and placed a higher value on the ancient pagan, rather than the Christian ideal.
John Colet
was an English churchman and educational pioneer. Colet is an important early leader of Christian humanism as he linked humanism and reform. John Colet was a friend of Erasmus, a key figure in Christian humanism. Later critics went on view Colet as Protestant-like, though historical revisionists believe that Colet was a reform preacher that wanted to improve the quality of the Church.Colet then moves on to discuss the needed clergy reform.
Savonarola
was an Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He wrote the Doctrine of Damnation. He thought ppl should honor one god. Men do not get justice because they turn away from god. He said the church divided christian law into two parts; positive and negative laws.
Fran. Guicciardini
was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli. The History of Italy, Guicciardini paved the way for a new style in historiography, with his use of government sources to support arguments and the realistic analysis of the people and events of his time.