Europe and The New World (Volume C)

Renaissance Values

• well-defined, restrictive social roles

• play or constraint?• revolution in

education, politics, science, and economics

• literacy in vulgar languages

• transience/ pleasure

“Their lives were not ordered and governed by laws and statues and rules, but according to their own free will.

—because free men and women, wellborn, well taught, finding themselves joined with other respectable people, are instinctively impelled to do virtuous things and avoid vice” (p. 147).

Rabelais “Do What You Will”

Renaissance Scientific Discoveries

COPERNICUS GALILEO

Three Important Inventions

• Gutenberg printing press, 1439

• compass

• gun

• Old World centrality questioned

• exploiting the New World cultures

• converting inhabitants to Christianity

• destabilizing effect on European economy and social strata

Exploration and Change

Geographical Explorations

• Columbus, navigations

• tabula rasa

Indigenous Populations“I will simply say that the manner of living among the people is very similar to that of Spain, and considering that this is a barbarous nation shut off from a knowledge of the true God or communication of the enlightened nations, one may well marvel at the orderliness and good government which is everywhere maintained” (p. 555). Cortés, The Second Letter

“So we may well call these people barbarians, in respect to the rules of reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity. Their warfare is wholly noble and generous, and as excusable and beautiful as this human disease can be; its only basis among them is their chivalry in valor. They are not fighting for the conquest of new lands, for they still enjoy that natural abundance that provides them without toil and trouble with all necessary things” (p. 359). Montaigne, “Of Cannibals”

Learning About Self from Other

“They define virtue as living according to nature; and God, they say, created us to that end. When an individual obeys the dictates of reason in choosing one thing and avoiding another, he is following nature. The first rule of reason is to love and venerate the Divine Majesty…the second rule is to lead a life free of anxiety and full of joy, and help all one’s fellow men toward that end” (p. 243). More, Utopia

Learning About Self from Other (cont.)

Protestant / Catholic Conflict

• Protestant Reformation

• simony, abuses of the Catholic Church

• nationalizing religious authority

• monarchies claim power separate from Pope

Absolute Rule“Anyone who determines to act in all circumstances the part of a good man must come to ruin among so many who are not good. Hence, if a prince wishes to maintain himself, he must learn how to be not good, and to use that ability or not as is required” (p. 186). Machiavelli, The Prince.

• Renaissance (“re-birth”): a return

• classical texts inspire morality and politics

• “republic of letters” • age of discovery• life is transitory, so

cultivate earthly interests

Humanism

“My ship laden with forgetfulness passes through a harsh sea, at / midnight, in winter, between Scylla and Charybdis, and at the / tiller sits my lord, rather my enemy…My two usual sweet stars are hidden; dead among the waves are / reason and skill; so that I begin to despair of the port” (from Petrarch, Sonnet 189)

Arts

Albrecht Dürer: Rhinoceros (1515)

Melancholy

• futility• skepticism• response to “change”• problems with

absolute authority• social contract, liberty• education• contemplation

Hapsburgs / Spanish Inquisition

Lazarillo de Tormes

Renaissance Literary Characters

• introspection over impulsive or grandiose acts (contemplative rather than active life)

• characters enjoy greater autonomy

• examples: Hamlet, Don Quixote

Major European Explorations by Sea

Europe

During the Renaissance, which of the following generally took precedence in the arts?

a. the skill of the artistb. raw emotionc. religious devotiond. originality

Test Your Knowledge

“Melancholy,” as that term was understood during the Renaissance, can best be described as:

a. a sense of futilityb. a temporary sadnessc. a kind of “blue” feelingd. a manic depressive state

Test Your Knowledge

The Renaissance was a time of great global exploration, and the discovery of new cultures on the other side of the world from the Europe influenced literature of the time. Which of the following was inspired by reports of newly discovered cultural traditions and social arrangements?

a. Thomas More’s Utopiab. William Shakespeare’s Hamletc. Nicolaus Copernicus’ On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheresd. Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince

Test Your Knowledge

The term Renaissance means “re-birth.” What literary traditions did European Renaissance writers and thinkers focus on as part of this re-birth?

 

a. Ancient Chinese literatureb. New World literaturec. Greek and Roman literatured. Classical Spanish literature

Test Your Knowledge

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