Changing Patterns of LifeChapter 14:iii

“Only men of noble birth can obtain perfection. The poor, who work with their hands and have not the time to cultivate their minds, are incapable of it.”

- Lorenzo de’Medici

Early books cost a lot because they were copied by hand.

Europeans learned how to make paper from the Arabs.

Engravers experimented with printing books from wood blocks in the 1300s.

They carved a page on the block, which was then inked and pressed on paper.

German engravers developed moveable type by the 1400s.

Johann Gutenberg of Mainz is the German printer credited with developing moveable type.

There were over 250 presses in Europe turning out books by 1500.

Fewer than fifty original

editions of the Gutenberg

Bible survive.

Because of the use of paper and the advent of the printing press, ideas spread rapidly.

Much of the newly-printed material covered such diverse topics as:

• religion

• mining

• medicine

• philosophy

• politics

The new methods of

printing allowed the

ideas of church

reformers like Martin Luther to circulate.

The writings of the Belgian

Valerius corrected many

of the errors about human anatomy held by physicians of the time.

Social and Economic Changes in Renaissance

Europe

People mostly

lived and worked in extended families during

Medieval times.

During the Renaissance, nuclear families gradually began to emerge in towns and cities.

The Bubonic Plague killed close to one-third of the

population of Western Europe.

Physicians wore bizarre-looking

clothing to avoid being

contaminated by people sick

with the plague.

Women’s occupations changed little during the

Renaissance.

Their main responsibilities were raising the

children and taking care of

the family.

Women and children worked alongside the men in the fields

during sowing and harvesting time.

Some women

worked as household servants.

Many women earned

money as spinners

and weavers.

Women in the merchant class helped

manage family

businesses.

A few women played central roles in

governingcity-states or nations.

Catherine de’Medici, widow of King Henry II of France, acted as regent for her sons until they

were old enough to rule.