TIMELINE

1308 - Dante wrote "Divine Comedy"

1347 - Bubonic Plague

1378 - Ciompi Revolt in Florence

1405 - Christine de Pisan wrote The City of Ladies

1440 - Lorenzo Valla proved Donation of Constantine was a forgery

1440 - Gutenberg invented printing press

1453 - Fall of Constantinople

1469 - Lorenzo de Medici became head of Florence

1485 - Henry VII (first Tudor) became king of England

1486 - Botticelli finished Birth of Venus

1492 - Columbus first sailed to America

1494 - French King, Charles VIII invaded Italy

1494-1498 - Savonarola was de facto ruler of Florence

1495 - Leonardo da Vinci painted Last Supper

1498 - Vasco da Gama (Portugal) arrived in India

1501 - Michelangelo began David

1503 - Leonardo began Mona Lisa

1508 - Michelangelo began painting ceiling of Sistine Chapel

1509 - Henry VIII became king of England

1509 - Erasmus wrote Praise of Folly

1511 - Raphael painted School of Athens

1513 - First version of Machiavelli's Prince distributed

1516 - Thomas More published Utopia

1517 - Luther posted 95 Theses

1519 - Ferdinand Magellan began voyage around the world

1527-1600 - Mannerism

1527 - Rome sacked by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1528 - Castiglione wrote The Courtier

1534 - Henry VIII created Anglican Church - Thomas More executed by Henry VIII

1558 - Elizabeth I became queen of England

1588 - Spanish Armada

1599 - Shakespeare built Globe Theater

1610 - Galileo discovered moons of Jupiter

1618-1648 - Thirty Years War

BEFORE THE RENAISSANCE

GREECE

• Greek philosophy, science, art

• Socrates

• Argued with Sophists

• Socratic method

• Plato (427-347 BC)

• Socrates student

• Plato's Cave

• Deductive reasoning

• Believed humans should use powers of reason to conceive of things beyond our senses (like beauty or truth)

• Aristotle (384-322 BC)

• Epistemology - study of knowledge

• Inductive reasoning

• Tutor to Alexander the Great

• "All men, by nature, desire to know" - valued human reason

• Believed that natural laws of life could be discoverable by rational man

• When man becomes self-aware, he becomes aware of nature as well

• Science

• Pythagoras, Euclid, Eratosthenes, Ptolemy

• Humanism

• Celebration of human being

• Protagoras (490-420 BC)- "Man is the measure of all things"

• Art

• Glorification of human body (see also Olympics)

• Ex. Discus thrower

• Crusades (1095-1291)

• Pope Urban II, Council of Clermont

• Called on Christians to liberate the Holy Land (Palestine) from the Muslim "infidels" in 1095

• 4th Crusade - crusaders turned on Constantinople (capital of Byzantine Empire) which never fully recovered

• Route of crusaders through Italy (especially Venice) brought prosperity

MIDDLE AGES

• Began after invasions by Germanic tribes

• Rome fell to Odoacer (Odovacer) in 476 CE

• Phases

• Early Middle Ages - ca. 500-1000 (Dark Ages)

• High Middle Ages - ca. 1000-1300

• Late Middle Ages - ca. 1300-1500

• Term "Dark Ages" coined by Petrarch

• City life withered

• Manorialism

• People confined to villages ruled by lords, protected by knights, worked by serfs

• Education declined

• Replaced by superstition

• Monks took responsibility for education

• Technology in disrepair

• No one knew how to maintain Roman technology

• Aqueducts etc. broke down

• Trade collapsed

• Threat of Vikings, Magyars and Muslims made travel difficult

• Feudalism

• Lords (former Roman aristocrats) ruled the communities from manors

• Knights got fiefs (land grants) from Lords in exchange for military service

• They eventually became social elite passing land to their descendants

• Serfs were peasants who worked the fields in exchange for military protection

• Religion

• Great fear of purgatory and hell

• Reinforced by writers like Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) who wrote Divine Comedy

• Dante led by Roman poet Virgil (who represented human reason)

• Traveled through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory)

• Beatrice (represented divine knowledge) led Virgil to Paradiso (Heaven)

• Superstition

• Believed Bubonic Plague (Black Death 1346-1353) was a curse from God

• Caused 25 million deaths in Europe

• Feared hell and the afterlife

• Feared natural world (cats, omens, witches etc.)

• Art

• Artist was humble servant honoring God

• Hierarchical sealing (figures were sized in proportion to spiritual significance

• Purpose was to tell a story and educate public about Bible

• Not realistic

• Architecture

• Romanesque (ca. 800-1200)

• Name: based on Roman architectural elements

• When Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne was crowned in 800 CE he began building churches in the Roman style

• Known in Britain as "Norman" because they were instigated by William the Conqueror who invaded Britain 1066 from Normandy

• Result of monasticism which doubled as defensive structures

• Features

• Stone barrel vaults

• Rounded Roman arches

• Thick walls, massive, small windows

• Horizontal

• Dark and gloomy

• Plain exterior

• Examples: St. Sernin Basilica, Toulouse, France

• Gothic (12th -16th centuries)

• Name: From Goths (Visigoths, Ostrogoths) who eventually converted to Christianity

• First one developed by Abbot Suger at Saint Denis in 1100s

• Features

• Exterior flying buttresses

• Large stain-glass windows

• Groin vaulted

• Pointed arches

• Ribbed stone vaults

• Vertical, soaring

• Exterior was ornate with a lot of delicate sculptures

• Tall, light-filled

• Examples: Church of Saint-Denis near Paris and Chartres Cathedral

FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1453)

• Ottomans under Mehmet (Mehmed) II defeated Constantinople

• Ended the Byzantine Empire

• Greek scholars from Byzantine Empire fled to Western Europe

• Brought Greek ideas and art

• Some Greek and Roman texts had been translated and preserved by Muslims

ITALIAN CITY-STATES

FLORENCE (northwest Italy)

• Ciompi Revolt 1378

• The people (popolo) staged a violent revolt against the government

• Government (Republic/Oligarchy)

• Independent republic ruled by a small oligarchy

• Ruled unofficially by Medici family

• Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464)

• Piero de Medici (1416-1469)

• Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492)

• Interrupted by Savonarola (1452-1498)

• Franciscan friar

• Puritanical rule, "bonfire of the vanities"

• Excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI in 1497

• Same year, Florence in war with Pisa - failed

• New cases of the plague blamed on Savonarola

• Burned at stake at the Piazza della Signoria in 1498

• After Savonarola, Florence was under Piero Soderini

• Democracy

• Elected ruler for life

• 1512 War of the League of Cambrai

• Cardinal Giovanni de Medici captured Florence with help from Papal troops

• Medici rule restored in Florence

• Pope Julius II died 1513

• Giovanni was elected new pope taking name Leo X (1513-1521)

• Giovanni appointed his brother, Giuliano de Medici to rule in his place

• Giuliano ruled until his death 1516

• Succeeded by Lorenzo II, Duke of Urbino

• Father of Catherine de Medici (married Henry II of France)

• 1533 End of the Republic

• Alessandro de' Medici created Duke of Florence by his uncle Pope Clement VII

• His successor became Grand Duke of Tuscany

• Medici ruled as grand dukes until 1737

• Economics

• Major center of handicrafts, textiles and banking

KINGDOM OF NAPLES

• Charles of Anjou of France controlled the kingdom 1266

• Charles was invited by pope

• Charles moved capital from Palermo, Sicily, to Naples

• Harsh rule led to Sicilian Vespers 1282

• Resulted in separation of Sicily from mainland

• Spanish house of Aragon took control of Sicily

• Robert, king of Naples (1309-1343)

• Dynastic disputes within Angevin house mid 14th -15th .

• 1442 Naples fell to ruler of Sicily, Alfonso V of Aragon

• Became "king of the Two Sicilies" (Sicily and Naples)

• Title kept by his son (Ferdinand I) and grandson (Ferdinand II)

• 1495 Kingdom of Naples held by Charles VIII (France)

PAPAL STATES

• Governed by the Pope

• Church had tremendous wealth because it owned land and collected tithes from all Catholics

VENICE (northeast Italy)

• Government (Oligarchy)

• Great Council elected doge (duke), the chief executive of Venice for life.

• Doge was figurehead ruler under control of oligarchy (Council of Ten)

• Ruled by sons of wealthy merchants - names in Golden Book.

• Economics

• At northern end of Adriatic = prosperity from trade

• Had monopoly of spices and luxury goods from East

DUCHY OF MILAN (northern Italy)

• Visconti family

• Lords of Milan from 1277-1447

• After the Florence Ciompi Revolt (1378)

• Milan was ruled by a tyrant (signor), Gian Galeazzo Visconti

• Golden Ambrosian Republic (1447-1450)

• After Filippo Maria Visconti died with no male heirs.

• Caused succession battle

• Sforza

• 1450 Milan dominated by family of a mercenary (condottiero) named Sforza

• Francesco Sforza became duke in 1450, then despotic ruler

• Ludovico Sforza (il Moro) ruled as duke 1480-1494

• Dark-skinned (Moor), ruthless prince

• Second son of Francesco Sforza

• Patron of Leonardo da Vinci

• Became part of Spanish empire 1535

• Political decline early 16th c.

• Economics

• Center of overland trade between Italy's seaports

• Produced silk and armor

HUMANISM

TERM

• Term came from Leonardo Bruni, Italian Humanist and Chancellor of Florence

• Considered first modern historian (wrote History of Florentine people)

DEFINITION

• Rejected medieval scholarship ("scholasticism")

• Scholasticism = based on Aristotelian logic + writings of early Church fathers

• To reconcile Christian theology with classical philosophy

• Turned to the classical world (ancient Greece and Rome) for inspiration

• Human experience

• Celebration of life and experience of being human

• As opposed to fear of God and fixation on afterlife.

• Focus on worldly knowledge (as opposed to transcendental spirituality)

• Didn't reject Christianity, but shifted to intellectual approach

• Emphasis on free will and human reason ("liberal" arts)

• Liberal Arts

• Subjects studied by free men - not slaves

• Subjects that impart a general knowledge and develop rational thought

• As opposed to vocational subjects that required specialization.

HUMANISTS

• Petrarch (1304-1374)

• Considered "father of humanism"

• First to coin term "Dark Ages" - a culture in decline

• Distinguished between primary and secondary sources

• One of first to study literary classics in their original form (not commentaries)

• Especially the works of Cicero (106-43 BCE)

• Roman statesmen who wrote about collapse of Rome

• Goal of humanists was to write in the Ciceronian style

• Inspired "civic humanists" - using classical education for public good.

• Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444)

• First modern historian

• Said history was "a subject which must not be neglected by one who aspires to true civilization"

• Study of past can help us understand the present and predict the future

• Wrote biography of Cicero

• And History of the Florentine People

• Said Italy was going through a new age, a Renaissance (Rebirth)

• Also created educational program for women (without rhetoric)

• Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457)

• Italian Humanist

• Critical textual analysis (language can tell a story on its own)

• Donation of Constantine (1440)

• Document about Emperor Constantine (272-337 CE) donating control of western half of his empire to the papacy

• Valla said it was not authentic because word "fief" was used - a term that was not in use until 8th c. CE

• Valla examined the Vulgate Bible - standard Latin Bible of the Middle Ages

• Determined that author Jerome mistranslated passages from Greek

• Pico de Mirandola

• Wrote "Oration on the Dignity of Man" (1486)

ART, ARCHITECTURE and LITERATURE

ART

• Art style

• Patrons wanted naturalistic style

• New techniques - no more hierarchical scaling

• Used oil painting (instead of frescoes on wet plaster or tempera on wood)

• Some employed chiaroscuro - contrast between light and dark.

• Used single-point perspective

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• From Vinci

• Painted

• Mona Lisa

• Last Supper

• Vitruvian Man

• Raphael (1483-1520)

• From Urbino

• Painted "The School of Athens"

• At Vatican

• Shows Plato, Aristotle and a number of other Greek and Roman philosophers

• Single-point perspective

• Michelangelo (1475-1564)

• From Florence

• Sculpted David

• Commissioned by Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican

ARCHITECTURE

• Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)

• Designed the dome of the Florence Cathedral (feat of engineering)

LITERATURE

• Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)

• ​Wrote The Courtier (1528)

• Described the ideal man of the age ("Renaissance Man") who knew several languages and skilled in the arts.

• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)

• Was Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence 1498-1512

• When Medici were not in power

• When the Medici, with the help of papal troops, defeated the government, Machiavelli was imprisoned and tortured for "conspiring against the Medici"

• Wrote "The Prince" in 1513 while in exile (published 1532)

• Dedicated to Giuliano de Medici - then Lorenzo II after Giuliani died in 1516

• In an attempt to regain his status.

• Christine de Pizan (Pisan) (1364-1430)

• Daughter of physician to French King Charles V

• Wrote "The City of Ladies" (1405) to counter notion that women were intellectually inferior to men

• Said women have to carve out their own space or move to a "City of the Ladies" to allow their abilities to flourish.

• Inspiration for Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" (1929)

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE (Late 15th c.)

REGIONS

• North of the Alps

DIFFERED FROM ITALY

• Focused more on religion than Italian Renaissance

• Looking for ways to deepen their Christian beliefs and understanding

• Christian Humanist (e.g. Erasmus)

• Criticized Catholic Church - but didn't want to abandon it like Martin Luther

NORTHERN HUMANISTS

• Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

• Northern Humanism

• Wrote "In Praise of Folly" using satire to criticize problems of the church.

• In "Handbook of the Christian Knight" he emphasized inner faith rather than outward worship like sacraments.

• Latin translation of New Testament

• Textual analysis of Acts of the Apostles.

• At first impressed with Martin Luther but then disagreed because Erasmus wanted to reform the Church, not abandon it.

• Sir Thomas More

• From England

• Wrote Utopia (1516) (which means "nowhere")

• Depicted a future that minimized social and political injustice by having property in common.

• In 1534, More refused to take an oath recognizing Henry VIII as the head of the Anglican Church - he was executed.

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE ART

• Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

• German painter and printmaker

• Engravings

• Altarpieces, portraits

• Like Saint Jerome in his Study (1514)

• Woodcuts

• Like Apocalypse series (1498) - more gothic

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE

• Geoffrey Chaucer

• Wrote Canterbury Tales based on The Decameron by Boccaccio

RELIGION

POPES

• After Great Schism

• Pope Martin V (r. 1417-1431) (papacy back to Rome)

• Pope Eugenius IV (r. 1431-1447)

• Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455)

• Pope Callixtus III (1455-1458)

• Pope Pius II (1458-1464)

• Pope Paul II (1464-1471)

• Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484)

• Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492)

• Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503)

• Pope Pius III (1439-1503)

• Pope Julius II (1503-1513) ("Warrior Pope," built St. Peter's Basilica)

• Pope Leo X (1513-1521) (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, fought War of Urbino to protect nephew Lorenzo II, Indulgences criticized by Martin Luther)

• Pope Adrian VI (1522-1523)

• Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) (Giulio di Guliano de' Medici)

• Pope Paul III (1534-1549)

• Pope Julius III (1550-1555)

• Pope Marcellus II (1501-1555)

• Pope Paul IV (1555-1555)

• Pope Pius IV (1559-1565)