Chapter 15: The

Renaissance in Europe
1350-1600
The Major Italian States
● In the late Middle Ages, Italy was much more urban than the rest of Europe
and a thriving trade network was based in Italy’s many cities.
● Italy had failed to develop a centralized monarchical state, making it possible
for a number of city-states in northern and central Italy to remain independent
and offer patronage to artists and thinkers.
● The 5 major city-states were Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States
centered on Rome, and the Kingdom of Naples.
● Because of their economic power, these states played crucial roles in the
development of the Renaissance.
● Italian cities such as Venice had taken the lead in establishing merchant fleets
and trading with the Byzantine and Islamic civilizations to the east.
● Other merchant ships traded with England and the Netherlands.
● The ideas of the Renaissance, developed in Italy, spread north along trade
routes to the rest of Europe.
● Byzantine scholars fled to Italy after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans
in 1453, bringing new forms of thought and literature.
Economics and Politics in the Major Italian States
● Each of the 5 major territorial states dominated the economic and political life
of its region.
● Milan, Venice, and Florence were locatinn in northern Italy.
● Milan
○ One of the richest city-states
○ Crossroads of the main trade routes from the Italian coastal cities to the Alpine passes
○ In the 14th century, the Visconti family established themselves as rulers of Milan and extended
their power over Lombardy
○ The Viscontis used mercenaries and efficient tax systems to create a strong centralized state
with high revenues.
● Venice
○ Served as the commercial link between Asia and Western Europe
○ Venice was a republic with an elected leader called a doge.
○ In reality, a small group of merchant-aristocrats ran the government of Venice for their benefit.
○ Venice’s trade empire was tremendously profitable and made the city-state an international
power.
● Florence
○ Florence dominated the northern Italian region of Tuscany.
○ In 1434, Cosimo de Medici took control of Florence.
○ The wealth Medici family ruled Florence from behind the scenes and helped make the
city-state a cultural center of Italy
○ During the late 1400s, Florence experienced economic decline from the competition of English
and Flemish cloth makers.
○ At the same time, A Dominican preacher named Girolamo Savonarola condemned the Medici
family and their excess. The French helped drive the family out of power in 1494.
○ Later, the people of Florence grew tired of Savonarola’s strict rule and criticisms of the pope.
○ After Savonarola’s execution in 1498, the Medici family was restored to power.
● The Papal States
○ Ruled by the Catholic Church
○ Capitol was Rome
● Kingdom of Naples
○ Ruled by a hereditary monarch
○ Dominated southern Italy
The Italian Wars
● The French king, Charles VIII, had his eye on Italy for their resources and
profitable trade routes.
● In 1494, King Charles VIII send 30,000 men to invade the Kingdom of Naples.
● The Northern Italian states turned to the Spanish for help.
● For the next 30 years, the French and Spanish battled in Italy as they sought
to dominate the region.
● On May 5, 1527, thousands of troops from Charles I, king of Spain and ruler
of the Holy Roman Empire, arrived in the city of Rome.
○ This group included mercenaries who had not been paid for months.
○ They smashed the gates of Rome and looted the city as payment for their services.
● The Italian Wars continued until 1559.
Machiavelli on Power
● Political power fascinated the people of the Italian Renaissance.
● In his book The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli addresses the issue of how to get
and keep political power.
● He dedicated his study of politics to one of the Medici rulers.
● Machiavelli believed that morality is unrelated to politics.
● He said that a prince’s attitude toward power must be based on an
understanding of human nature.
● He believed that human beings were motivated by self-interest.
● For the state’s sake, a leader must do as good as possible, but be ready to be
evil when necessary.
Renaissance Society
● In the Middle Ages, society had been divided into 3 classes of people: the
clergy, the nobility, and the peasants and townspeople.
● Although the social order continued into the Renaissance, some changes
became evident.
● Nobility
○ Nobles and aristocrats made up a small percentage of the population but made the majority of
the decisions.
○ The aristocracy committed to the ideas presented in The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare
Castiglione- a noble was born, not made, and must have character, grace, and talent.
○ Nobles would aspire to these principles for hundreds of years.
● Peasants and Townspeople
○ Peasants still constituted the vast majority of the total European population.
○ Serfdom continued to decrease with the decline of the manorial system.
○ By 1500, most peasants in Western Europe were essentially free.
○ At the top of urban society were the burghers- members of the middle class who lived in a city
or town. These were shopkeepers, artisans, guild masters, and guild members.
○ Below burghers were the workers and the unemployed. Both of these groups lived miserable
lives and made up the majority of the urban population.
○ Many of the rich had little sympathy for the poor.
Family and Marriage
● The family bond was a source of great security during the Renaissance.
● Parents carefully arranged marriages to strengthen business or family ties.
● In upper-class families, parents often worked out the details when their children
were only 2 or 3 years old.
○ These marriage contracts included a dowry, or sum of money that the wife’s family paid to the
husband upon marriage.
● The father/husband was the center of the Italian family.
○ He managed all the finances and decisions for his children. Wives had no share in wealth.
● The mother’s chief role was to supervise the household and raise her children,
including moral education.
● Children were expected to be subservient to their fathers.
● Males became adults when they left home, reached a certain age, or were
emancipated.
● Women never became legal adults while the father lived unless they were
emancipated.
The Development of Humanism
● Secularism and an emphasis on the individual characterized the
Renaissance.
● Humanism, an intellectual movement of the Renaissance based on the study
of humanities (grammar, rhetoric, poetry, moral philosophy, and history), is
based on the study of classic Greek and Roman subjects.
● Humanists wanted to use classic literature to revitalize their culture. They saw
the ancient Greeks and Romans as their intellectual equals.
● They often described an intellectual life as one of solitude.
● They rejected family and a life of action in the community.
● In the 15th century, humanists changed their viewpoints and took active roles
in civic life. Many of them put their studies into the state’s service and served
as secretaries to states,princes, and popes.
Francesco Petrarch
● Francesco Petrarch is often called the father of Italian Renaissance
humanism.
● He looked for forgotten Latin manuscripts and set in motion a search for
similar manuscripts in monastic libraries throughout Europe.
● He also developed his own sonnet. This poem contains 14 lines of iambic
pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE or CDCDCD.
●
Vernacular Literature
● The humanist emphasis on classical Latin led to its widespread use in the writing of
scholars, lawyers, and religious writers.
● Some writers wrote in the vernacular.
● People in different parts of Italy spoke in different dialects, making the vernacular
more popular.
● Works of Dante Alighieri, and Christine de Pizan became more accessible to more
people.
● These authors argued that using Latin for their writing would mean that only
scholars could read and understand their work.
● Christine de Pizan, an Italian writer who lived in France and spoke French,
denounced many male writers who insisted that women were incapable of learning.
She fought for women to be able to attend the same schools as their male peers.
Renaissance Education
● The humanist movement had a profound effect on education in the 14th and
15 centuries.
● Education during this time became increasingly secular.
● Renaissance humanists believed that education could change human beings.
● They believed that studies in history, ethics, public speaking, grammar, logic,
poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music prepared students for life.
● The aim of Renaissance education was to create well-rounded citizens, not
scholars.
● Students also learned physical fitness in order to prepare themselves for
future leadership positions.
The Printing Press
● In the 1440s, Johannes Gutenberg, a German printer, developed a method of
printing using blocks of movable type on a mechanical press.
● With this invention, literature became cheaper and faster to print.
○ Prior to this invention, monks would hand-copy books.
● This also led to an increase in the general public’s literacy rate.
Italian Renaissance Painting
● Renaissance artists sought to imitate nature.
● Frescos, or paintings done on wet plaster, became popular forms of art in
homes and churches.
● By mastering the laws of perspective, Renaissance artists were able to
create 3D images on a 2D surface.
● Many artists relied on geometry to create perspective and anatomically
correct human forms.
Sculpture and Architecture
● The Renaissance produced equally stunning advances in sculpture and
architecture.
● Like painters, Renaissance sculptors and architects sought to express a
human-centered world.
● Architecture reflected the classical styles of rounded arches and classical
columns.
● These designs aimed to create an environment that does not overwhelm the
audience, thus serving the human needs.
High Renaissance Masters
● The final stage of Italian Renaissance painting flourished from about 1490 to
1520.
● This period is associated with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, and
Michelangelo Buonarroti.
● Da Vinci was an artist, scientists, inventor, and visionary.
○ He mastered the art of realistic painting, even dissecting human bodies to better understand
their workings.
● At 25, Raphael Sanzio was already one of Italy’s best painters.
○ He was admired for his numerous madonnas and frescoes in the Vatican Palace.
● Michelangelo Buonarroti, an accomplished painter, sculptor, and architect is
known for his figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
The Northern Artistic Renaissance
● Like the Italian artists, the artists of Northern Europe sought to portray their
world realistically.
● However, they relied on circumstance (determining the condition) of their
subjects.
● Northern European artists painted illustrations for books and wooden panels
for altar pieces in their large gothic cathedrals from the Middle Ages.
● Many of these artists also focused on everyday life rather than divine images.
● The invention of oil paints, mixing linseed and nut oils with resins, allowed
artists to create a variety of bright colors.
● Italy remained the center of artistic studies despite the advances made in
Northern European artistic techniques.
Conclusion Questions
1. How did the lack of a single strong ruler benefit Italy during the Renaissance?
2. How did consumers’ demand for goods affect the power of the Italian states and the power
of the Catholic Church?
3. Explain the importance of the family bond and marriage contracts during the Renaissance.
4. Summarize Machiavelli’s theory for political leadership.
5. Explain how the increase in wealth for the Italian states during the Renaissance impacted
the position of the Church.
6. Explain the significance of the use of the vernacular.
7. Why is Christine de Pizan’s argument for women’s intelligence so convincing?
8. What were fresco artists able to convey that medieval painters could not?
9. How did the humanist movement influence the arts in the European Renaissance?
10. How did Renaissance artists learn to create more realistic art than their predecessors?
11. Explain how the Renaissance was a rebirth.