A movement that began in the 14th century and extended throughout Europe until the 16th century is called Cultural Renaissance.
The Renaissance typically refers to a period in European history between approximately 1400 and 1600. Many historians claim that it started earlier or ended later, depending on the country. It linked the periods of the Middle Ages and modern history and, depending on the country, overlaps the periods of early modernity, the Elizabethan period and the restoration. The Renaissance is most closely associated with Italy, where it began in the 14th century, although countries like Germany, England and France went through many of the same cultural changes and phenomena.
Many historians, including UK-based historian and writer Robert Wilde, prefer to think of the Renaissance as a mainly intellectual and cultural movement, and not as a period. historic. Wilde said that interpreting the Renaissance as a period of time, while convenient for historians, "masks the Renaissance's long roots."
“Renaissance” comes from the French word for “rebirth”. According to the City University of New York at Brooklyn, the intense interest and learning about the classical antiquity was “reborn” after the Middle Ages, when classical philosophy was largely ignored or forgotten. Renaissance thinkers regarded the Middle Ages as a period of cultural decline. They sought to revitalize their culture by emphasizing classical texts and philosophies. They expanded and interpreted them, creating their own style of art, philosophy and scientific inquiry. Some of the main developments of the Renaissance include astronomy, humanist philosophy, the press, language vernacular in writing, the technique of painting and sculpture, the exploration of the world and, at the end of the Renaissance, the works of Shakespeare.
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Contrary to popular belief, classical texts and knowledge never completely disappeared from Europe during the Middle Ages. Charles Homer Haskins wrote in "The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century" that there were three main periods that saw resurgences in art and philosophy of antiquity: the Carolingian rebirth, which took place during the reign of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Holy Empire Roman. (eighth and ninth centuries), the Ottonian renaissance, which developed during the reigns of emperors Otto I, Otto II and Otto III (10th century) and the twelfth century Renaissance.
The twelfth-century Renaissance was especially influential on the later renaissance, Wilde said. Classical Latin texts and Greek science and philosophy began to be revived on a larger scale, and early versions of universities were established.
The Crusades played a role in the early Renaissance, Philip Van Ness Myers wrote in "Medieval and Modern History". During the Crusades, Europeans encountered advanced Middle Eastern civilizations that had made progress in many cultural fields. Islamic countries retained many classical Greek and Roman texts that had been lost in Europe, and they were reintroduced through returning crusaders.
The fall of the Byzantine and Roman empires at the hands of the Ottomans also played a role. “When the Ottomans sacked Constantinople in 1453, many scholars fled to Europe, taking classic texts with them,” said Susan Abernethy, a historian and writer from Colorado. “The conflict in Spain between the Moors and Christians has also caused many academics to flee to other areas, particularly the Italian city-states of Florence, Padua and others. This created an atmosphere for a revival in learning.”
The 14th century plague known as the Black Death is believed to have killed up to 60% of the population in parts of Europe. This image, from an illustrated Flemish manuscript from 1349, shows victims of the Black Death being buried in the city of Tournai, now Belgium.
Many historians consider Florence to be the birthplace of the Renaissance, although others extend this designation to all of Italy. From Italy, Renaissance thinking, values and artistic technique spread across Europe, according to Van Ness Myers. Military invasions in Italy helped spread ideas, while the end of the Hundred Years War between France and England allowed people to focus on things beyond conflict.
“The search for perfect reproductions of texts and the renewed focus on studying them helped to unleash one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history: printing with movable type. For me, this is the easiest and most unique developed of the Renaissance and allowed culture to develop,” Wilde told Live Science. The printer was developed in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. It allowed more Bibles, secular books, printed music, and more to be made and to reach more people.
Wilde said that one of the most significant changes that took place during the Renaissance was the “evolution of the Renaissance humanism as a method of thinking … This new perspective sustained much of the world then and of today".
Wilde described Renaissance humanism as "man's attempts to dominate nature's rat."
Renaissance humanism sought classical Greek and Roman texts to change contemporary thinking, allowing for a new mentality after the Middle Ages. Renaissance readers understood these classic texts as focused on human decisions, actions, and creations, rather than unquestioningly. following the rules established by the Catholic Church as “God's plan”. Although many Renaissance humanists remained religious, they believed that God gave humans opportunities and it was humanity's duty to do the best and most moral thing. Renaissance humanism was an “ethical and practical theory that emphasized reason, scientific inquiry and human achievement in the natural world,” said Abernethy.
Clients made it possible for successful Renaissance artists to work and develop new techniques. The Catholic Church commissioned most works of art during the Middle Ages and although it continued In doing so during the Renaissance, wealthy individuals also became important patrons, according to Cox. The most famous patrons were the Medici family in Florence, who supported the arts for much of the 15th and 16th century. The Medici family supported artists such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Rafael.
Florence was the initial epicenter of Renaissance art, but by the end of the fifteenth century Rome had surpassed it. Pope Leo X (a Medici) ambitiously filled the city with religious buildings and art. This period, from 1490 to 1520, is known as the High Renaissance.
As with art, musical innovations in the Renaissance were partially made possible because sponsorship expanded beyond the Catholic Church. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, new technologies have resulted in the invention of several new instruments, including the harpsichord and violin family. The press meant that the score could be made more widely known.
Renaissance music was characterized by its humanistic traits. Composers read classic music treatises and aimed to create music that emotionally touched listeners. They began to incorporate lyrics more drastically into compositions and considered music and poetry to be closely related, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Renaissance literature was also characterized by humanistic themes and a return to classic ideals of tragedy and comedy, according to the Brooklyn College English Department. Shakespeare's works, especially “Hamlet”, are good examples of this. Themes such as human agency, the non-religious meanings of life, and the true nature of man are embraced, and Hamlet is an educated Renaissance man.
The most prevalent social change during the Renaissance was the fall of feudalism and the rise of a capitalist market economy, said Abernethy. The increase in trade and the shortage of labor caused by the Black Death gave rise to a kind of middle class. Workers could demand wages and good living conditions, and thus serfdom ended.
“The rulers began to realize that they could maintain their power without the church. There were no more knights in the service of the king and the peasants in the service of the lord of the manor,” said Abernethy. Having money became more important than your alliances.
Due to a number of factors – including the Black Death, increased trade, the development of a middle class and the temporary move of the papacy from Rome to Avignon (1309-1377) - the influence of the Catholic Church diminished with the beginning of the XV century. The resurgence of classical texts and the rise of Renaissance humanism changed society's approach to religion and the authority of the papacy, Abernethy said.
Eager to learn more about the world and eager to improve trade routes, explorers set out to map new lands. Columbus “discovered” the New World in 1492 and Fernando Magalhães became the first person to successfully circumnavigate the globe in the early 16th century.
As scholars studied classical texts, they “resurrected the ancient Greek belief that creation was built around perfect laws and reasoning,” said Abernethy. "There was an escalation in the study of astronomy, anatomy and medicine, geography, alchemy, mathematics and architecture as the ancients studied them."
Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric model of the solar system changed the way people viewed the universe and created conflicts between scientists and the Catholic Church.
One of the greatest scientific discoveries of the Renaissance came from the Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. In the 1530s he published his theory of a heliocentric solar system. This puts the sun at the center of the solar system and not on Earth. It was a great advance in the history of science, even though Copernicus' book was banned by the Catholic Church.
They were being recognized as two separate camps, creating conflict between scientists and the church and making with scientists being persecuted," continued Abernethy." Scientists discovered that their work was suppressive. or they were demonized as charlatans and accused of playing with witchcraft and sometimes being imprisoned. “
Galileo Galilei was a great Renaissance scientist persecuted for his scientific experiments. Galileo improved the telescope, discovered new celestial bodies and found support for a heliocentric solar system. He performed pendulum motion experiments and falling objects that paved the way for Newton's discoveries about gravity. The Catholic Church forced him to spend the last nine years of his life under house arrest.
“The Renaissance was a time of transition from the ancient to the modern world and provided the foundation for the birth of the Age of Enlightenment,” said Abernethy. Developments in science, art, philosophy and commerce, as well as technological advances such as the press, have left lasting impressions on society and set the stage for many elements of our culture Modern.
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