The Renaissance

Chapter 22b

Recovery in Western Europe: State Building• Political Consolidation and Centralization

• Europe develops new taxes– Italian states: bonds– France: salt tax, sales tax– England: hearth tax, head tax, plow tax

France

• Louis XI (1461-83)– “The Spider” – preferred to trap enemies in

diplomatic webs rather than fight them– Standing Army (about 15,000 men)– Duke of Burgundy

• Charles VIII (1483-98)– War to reclaim Italy – Spain also claims Italy

Spain

• Fernando of Aragon marries Isabel of Castile, 1469– Heir to be called King of “Spain”

• Major political and economic alliance

• reconquista, the Spanish Inquisition

• Funded Columbus’ quest for China

Spanish Inquisition

• Reconquista – 11 year “Crusade” (1481-92)– Jews expelled 1492– Moors of Granada expelled 1502

England

• War of the Roses (1454-85)– House of Lancaster vs. House of Tudor

• Henry VII (1485-1509)– No foreign wars– Encourages trade– Restores sources of royal revenue– Eliminates all pretenders to the thrown

• Henry VII (1509-47)

The Humanists

• Humanities: literature, history, moral philosophy• Renaissance humanists deeply devoted to

Christianity– Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch (1304-74)– Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) publishes critical

Greek-Latin edition of New Testament

• Also devoted to rediscovering classical Latin texts, often ignored in monastic libraries

Humanist Moral Thought

• Rejection of monastic lifestyle in favor of morally virtuous life while engaged in the world– Marriage, business

• Reconciliation of Christianity with rapidly changing European society and economy

The Renaissance, 14th-16th centuries• “rebirth” of classical culture

• Architecture: domed cathedrals– Imitation of Roman domes

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – 1446)Cupola, Santa Maria del Fiore

Renaissance Art

• Italian artists use perspective

Sistine Chapel ceiling – hand of God and Adam

Sculpture

• Donatello (1368-1466)– David

Painting

• Masaccio (1401-28?)– Founder of

renaissance painting

Michelangelo(1475-1564)• David

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Work with real human anatomy and musculature

• Study of proportions

Skull 1489

Last Supper

Renaissance Europe and the Larger World• Artists express interest in Byzantine, Asian

worlds

• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) tries to reconcile Plato, Aristotle, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism– Illustrative failure– Gave voice to desire to understand the world

Pico della MirandolaOration

• Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hands We have place thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature… We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer.