Chapter 11: The Renaissance: Priniting, Thought and ...



Chapter 11: The Renaissance: Printing, Thought and Literature – Lesson 2

Opening the Lesson:

1. What was the most important invention of the Renaissance?

2. Who is credited with its invention? When?

3. What was the first book printed?

4. Why was the invention so important?

Developing the Lesson:

I. The Vernacular vs. Latin

A. The Vernacular: Whaat is it?

1. Where once Latin and Greek had been the universal languages, there were now many in the same area

2. Who is credited with giving us the first major work in the Vernacular?

a. Dante and The Divine comedy

b. The work takes the reader through hell, purgatory and heaven

B. Latin

1. Latin remained the language of the Church

2. Most writers continued to write and publish in Latin

C. Humanism and the Humanists

1. What was humanism?

a. a philopsophy that emphasized the importance of humans and their ability to think and understand the world and the universe without the help of Scripture and the Church

b. a philosophy that emphasized the value of new ideas

2. What caused humanism to develop?

a. the seeds were sown in the 14th century with the rediscovery of Latin classics

b. the fall of Constantinople in 1453 revived Greek learning as scholars fled West carrying Greek manuscripts which the West thought no longer existed

c. the desire for historical accuracy and truth

3. Who were the humanists? The humanists were –

a. were inspired by the Greek and Romans

b. wnated to learn more about this world

c. stressed the importance of individual achievement and the individual’s worth and dignity

d. were strong advocates of the liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, art, music, history, politics, philosophy

1) the liberal arts were seen as a joy in themselves and as a means of preparing people for a life of virtuous action

2) a major goal was to be wise, speak eloquently, know what is good, and practice virtue; the knowledge of which came thru the humanities

e. believed in education for the sake of education

f. were devout Christians, but threatened the authority of the Church

page 2

1) they preached the importance of life here and now

2) they emphasized wisdom could be derived from the classics; not just religious sources

3) they talked about the earthly good of all humanity and not just the salvation of one’s soul whereas the Church had taught that life on earth was irrelevant

4) they became critical of the abuses within the Church

5) they did not challenge basic Christian belief or question the validity of the Bible

g. they stimulated educational and religious reform

4. Characterisitics of Renaissance humanism are illustrated in Italian literature of the 14th century. The best was produced by the Tuscan Triumvirate

II. Writers of the Early Italian Renaissance: The Tuscan Triumvirate

A. Dante 1265-1321

1. Often viewed as the greatest of the late medieval writers

2. The D.C. is full of medieval Christian lore and theology, and there is also much of the humanistic spirit in this work and his other works

3. Dante’s love lyrics, addressed to a lost love clearly illustrate the humanistic spirit and are considered among the most beautiful in any language

B. Francesco Petrarch 1304-1374

1. He is generally thought to be the father of Humanism

a. traveled in search of Greek and Roman manuscripts

b. collected and copied manuscripts

c. uncovered new evidence of the ancient world

2. He also wrote love poems to a lost love

3. Considered one of the founders of modern vernacular literature

C. Giovanni Bocaccio 1313-1375

1. Friend and pupil of Petrarch

2. He did for prose what Dante and Petrarch did for poetry

3. Wrote Decameron

a. a collection of one hundred stories

b. stories of those who move to the contryside to escape the Black Death

III. Classical Scholarship

A. Three Groups of Writers – What wre they?

1. Those who sought to conserve chassical writings

2. Vernacular writers

3. Those who worked to bring Christianity and classicism together in one human philosophy

B. Greek vs. Latin

1. Greek did not achieve the same popularity as Latin – why?

page 3

2. The result –

a. the study of Greek drama was discouraged

b. Greeks were studied in their Latin translations

C. Desiderus Erasmus 1466-1536

1. Probably the greatest philosopher of the Renaissance

2. He is seen as part of the Northern Renaissance

3. He was a monk and scholar who was interested in using clasical knowledge to rethink religious ideas

a. believed the Church had caused people to overlook the original intent of religion

b. encouraged better translations of the Bible so people could read and understand it on their own terms

c. he said it doesn’t help people to simply go through the motions of doing what the authorities tell us to do

4. He was a devout Christian and Catholic, but he unceasingly attacked the corrupt practices of the Church

a. his works make clear that many wanted reforms long before they became reality

b. he attacked only the abuses and corruption of the Church and clergy

c. he never questioned the basic principles of the Christian faith or the Church

d. he thought he could resolve the abuses of the Church and keep Christendom in intact; thought change should come about within the Church sturcture, but he miscalculated

e. he intended his writings for a small elite audience, but his writings became best sellers

5. In Praise of Folly

a. the most influential of his works published in 1509

b. a satire which made fun of those groups whose egos were inflated with a sense of their own importance

c. attacked the corruption and empty rituals of the Church

6. A major target of his works was Pope Julius II – the warrior pope

a. the pope is at the gates of heaven, but St. Peter will not let him enter

b. Peter asks the pope what he has done for Christianity and Julius answers that he has done more than any other pope

1) raised revenue, invented new offices and sold them

2) he tore up treaties, kept armies in the field

3) he built new palaces and left a huge surplus

c. Julius then tells Peter that he had misfortunes by getting syphilis and showing favoritism to one of his sons

1) popes with wives and children asks Peter

2) no, not wives, answers Julius, but why not children

d. Peter asks if there is any way to remove a wicked pope

page 4

1) Julius says no, not even for murder

2) Julius says a pope may be the wickedest of men, yet safe from punishment

e. Peter refuses to let Julius into heaven and Julius threatens to excommunicate Peter

f. Peter responds, “If Satan needed a vicar he could find none fitter than you.”

7. There are two important themes in Erasmus’ work

a. education is the key to all improvement

b. his devout faith

1) Christianity is live and charity; it is what Christ said and did; it is not special ceremonies, etc.

2) The Sermon on the Mount is the essence of the faith

3) His personal philosophy revolved around the words, “Imitation of Christ”

8. Was a good of Sir Thomas More and spent much of his time in England as a guest of Henry VIII

D. Francois Rabelais 1490-1553

1. Student of the classics

2. Taught and practiced medicine

3. Believed in the importance of free-will and self-improvement

4. Believed in right to be free and to enjoy the world; not to live in fear of a vengeful God

5. His stories of Gargantua and Pantagruel

a. satires like Erasmus

b. the two travel and discuss religion, politics, etc.

IV. The Italian City-States in the Renaissance

A. The Five Major States

1. Milan—highly centralized, taxation created enormous revenue.

2. Venice—maritime republic, ruled by a small oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats

3. Florence—republic, ruled by a small merchant oligarchy (Cosimo de’ Medici and Lorenzo [1434-1464] the Magnificent [1469-1492])

4. the Papal States—individual city-states under the control of the pope.

5. Naples—Kingdom in southern Italy and Sicily, backward and poor.

B. Independent City-States

1. Other wealthy city-states existed independent of the five major states.

2. Including, Mantua, Ferrara, Urbino.

C. Warfare in Italy

1. The decentralized Italian peninsula gave rise to a new, modern form of politics that would be used throughout Europe—the balance of power.

2. The European geopolitical system based on the assumption that nations are inherently expansionist, which maintained peace by pitting various camps or alliances of equal power against each other, thereby minimizing one nation's ability to conquer and disrupt the peace.

3. Warfare amongst the Italian city-states led to a break down of the balance of power in Italy and as a result forced the Italian city-states to invite the newly formed powerful monarchies of France and Spain to help them in their struggles.

4. Consequently, Italy became a playground/pawn between two powerful ruling families: Valois of France and Hapsburgs of Spain.

5. There was very little Italian nationalism and so Italy remained divided until 1870.

D. The Birth of Modern Diplomacy

1. During the Italian wars, city-states began sending out ambassadors/diplomats for information and negotiation.

2. This practice spread to the rest of Europe.

E. Niccolo Machiavelli 1469-1527

1. He may have left a deeper mark in history than any other of his age

2. He wrote The Prince which became a handbook for rulers

3. Politics before Machiavelli

a. treated idealistically within the framework of religion

b. medieval writers on politics always wrote of justice, right and God’s will

4. Machiavelli described politics realistically; explained what rulers actually did – acted in their own interests according to their own needs

5. Machiavelli was also concerned about the conditions in Italy and his book as a call to someone to rise up and lead

a. Italy consisted of a number of city-states and kingdoms controlled by dictatorships or oligarchies

b. those who controlled the city-states hired professionals – condottierie – to fight for them because the citizens wouldn’t

c. dictators rose and fell

Concluding the Lesson:

1. Have students prepare five characteristics of a good ruler.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download