WHY ITALY WAS THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE

RENAISSANCE

The Birth

The Renaissance lasted from about 1300- 1600.

Renaissance means rebirth. Art Learning Literature Values

Italy had three reasons why the Renaissance started there: $$$ Its unique location to Ancient Greece and Rome Thriving cities from trade

$$$

Because many traders came through Italy, money was exchanged between traders and merchants leading to mass amounts of wealth.

As a result, bankers such as the Medici family became rich and powerful.

Although the Catholic church has lost some prestige during the Dark Ages, they remained quite wealthy.

With that wealth, the Medici’s and the Church wanted to invest in art projects that built up their own prestige.

Location, location, location

The Italians naturally looked to their own past for inspiration in art & learning, the Roman Empire.

They also looked to their neighbors of the past, Ancient Greece.

Looking at these two cultures led to a new movement called humanism, or the study of human achievements which is similar to that of the Greeks and Romans.

Humanist mostly focused on history, literature, education & philosophy, today called the humanities.

Thriving Cities

Because of the large amount of trade in Italy, many large cities popped up, the rest of Europe was still mostly rural.

Since there were so many cities people could easily exchange ideas with one another leading to a revolution in culture.

With many merchants businesses increasing after the Black Death they turned to being patrons or supporters of the arts.

All of the aforementioned reasons led to Europeans becoming more secular, trying to aquire the finest things the world had to offer.