the italian renaissance. useful definitions renaissance is a french word meaning rebirth- rebirth in...
TRANSCRIPT
The Italian Renaissance
Useful definitions
• Renaissance is a French word meaning rebirth- rebirth in that they resumed a civilization like that of the Greco-Romans
• The basic institutions of Europe originated in the Middle Ages
• Renaissance marked a new era in thought and feeling
• It pertained to high culture and hence to a limited number of persons
Definitions Continued
• Italian Renaissance involved the whole area of culture which is neither theological nor scientific but concerns moral and civic questions about what man ought to be or ought to do.
• Purely secular attitude appeared
• Life was no longer seen by leading thinkers as a brief preparation for the life after
Why Italy?
• Geography is Destiny
• Benefits of Medieval trade routes
• Venice and Genoa
Why Italy Continued
• Merchants made fortunes in commerce
• Lent money to Princes and Popes and thus made more money as bankers
• Rejoiced in the beautiful things and psychological satisfactions that money could buy
• Outlook was secular
Why Italy Cont.
• Italian towns were independent city –states
• Italy did not exist as a unified state
• Towns competed against each other-civic pride
Changing Attitudes
• What arose in Italy was a new conception of man himself
• This world was so exciting that another world need not be thought of
• What captivated the Italians was a sense of mans tremendous powers.
• Formerly there was a disdain for the things of the world. Now a life of involvement was also prized.
Terms and Quotes
• “The whole glory of man lies in activity” Leonardo Bruni
• Virtu: The quality of being a man- demonstration of human powers
Italian Humanism
The Birth of “Literature”
The greatest writers wrote about man, not God, placing man in the foreground, exalting him, praising him, questioning him, criticizing him, but not despising him and his worldly city as the Augustinians had been doing for a thousand years.
Birth of Humanism
• The literary movement of the Renaissance• Modern literature first appeared in the 14th
and 15th centuries in Italy• A class of men who saw themselves as
writers• Humanists used writing to please and
amuse their readers
Humanism: Thoughts• Humanism was the scholarly study of the
Latin and Greek classics and the ancient Church fathers for both their own sake and in the hope of a rebirth of ancient norms and values
• Unlike their scholastic rivals, Humanists were less bound to tradition; they did not focus all of their attention on summarizing and comparing the views of recognized authorities on a text or a question, but went directly to the original sources themselves. Their most respected sources were classical and biblical, not medieval.
Humanists
• Wrote a good deal in Latin• Preferred Latin style of the classical Roman period
– Complained that Middle Age Latin was too monkish, scholastic
• Also wrote in the Vernacular, Italian• Definition: Vernacular
– Using a language native to a region rather than a literary language (Italian in place of Latin)
• In the ancient writers the humanists found a new range of interests, discussion of political and civic questions
The birth of Italian HumanismPetrarch, Dante, Boccaccio
Francesco Petrarch 1304-1374
• “The first man of letters”• First Italian humanist• Trained for law and the clergy he criticized both
professions for their “Scholasticism”• Wrote Sonnets to Laura-clearly meant to be
literary productions• Wrote in Italian to popularize his ideas• Along with Boccaccio sought to create the
renaissance
Outside events
• The invention of the printing Press
• The fall of Constantinople in 1453
Petrarch
• His critical textual studies, elitiism and contempt for the allegedly useless learning of the scholastics were features that many later humanists shared
Sonnets to Laura
• May or may not have existed
• Lara in Latin means fame
• Married to another man
• Inspiration for Poetry
Petrarch, Cont.
• Literature became a kind of calling
• A consideration of moral philosophy no longer subordinate to theology
• How human beings should adjust to the world– what a good life could or ought to be, – where the genuine rewards for living were
to be found
Euro trivia
• In what European country would you find the city of Antwerp?
• Belgium
Other Italian Humanists• Christine de Pisan 1363-1434 The city of ladies
chronicle of great woment in history• Leonardo Bruni- Florentine Historian. Showed a
need for authentic sources• Pico della Mirandola Oration on the dignity of man• Baldasare Castiglione 1478-1529 The Book of the
Courtier– “must converse with facility, be proficient in sports, know
how to dance and appreciate music, should know Latin and Greek
• Macchiavelli The Prince 1513
Boccaccio 1313-1375
• Friend of Petrarch
• Pioneer in humanist studies
• Decameron, 100 often bawdy tales told by three men and 7 women
• Stinging social commentary and a sympathetic look at human behavior
Humanist Education
• Medieval schooling had been chaotic and repetitious
• Renaissance separated students by age and class
• Latin was the Principal subject with Greek added
• Learned Latin and Greek to read the ancient writings
Dante Alighieri 1265-1321
• Divine Comedy written in Italian in 1300• Broken into three parts, Hell, Purgatory and
heaven• The classical poet Virgil leads him through Hell
and Purgatory• His muse Beatrice leads him through heaven• Allegorically, symbolically and mystically his
vision of a universe structured by reason and unified by faith came together and worked
Neo Platonism
• Plato had expressed a very flattering view of human nature• Eternal sphere of being and a perishable world in which humans
actually lived• Pico Della Mirandola’s oration on the dignity of man was very
platonic.
Neo Platonism is based on one central doctrine: the human soul is immortal and the center of the universe. It is the only thing that sits midway between the abstract realm of ideas and the physical world—as such, it is the mediator between these two worlds.