The essence of this chapter for last-minute revision: definitions, key facts, dates and tables. The full notes, with the complete explanation, are available separately.
1 The chapter in one frame
Changing Cultural Traditions
A new urban cultureTowns grow from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. Florence, Venice and Rome become centres of art and learning, paid for by patrons.
HumanismAntiquity studied in its own words. Petrarch, the Italian universities, and the Arab translators who preserved the Greek texts.
Printing and religionGutenberg’s press carries ideas across the Alps. Luther’s Reformation of 1517 and the Catholic Counter-Reformation follow.
Science and the individualCopernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton move the earth. Knowledge comes to rest on observation, and the individual becomes visible.
The chapter covers Europe from the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, above all Italy. Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97), a Swiss scholar of the University of Basle and a student of Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886), named the period in The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). Recent historians, Peter Burke of England among them, argue that he exaggerated the sharpness of the break with the past.
How historians know. Documents, printed books, paintings, sculptures, buildings and even textiles survive from this period, preserved in archives, art galleries and museums across Europe and America.
2 Definitions to learn by heart
All definitions in one place
PatronageFinancial and social support given by a rich or powerful person to an artist, writer or scholar. Renaissance patrons included popes, princes, wealthy merchant families and bankers.
RenaissanceLiterally “rebirth”. The term nineteenth-century historians gave to Europe’s cultural changes from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, built on the study of Greek and Roman antiquity.
Middle Ages / Dark AgesThe roughly one thousand years after the fall of Rome. Humanists claimed the Church had such control over minds in this period that Greek and Roman learning was “blotted out”, and used “modern” for the period from the fifteenth century.
City-stateAn independent, self-governing state made up of a city and the land around it, rather than a part of a larger kingdom or empire.
HumanismThe culture that grew out of studying antiquity directly, on the belief that there was much to learn which religious teaching alone could not give. By the early fifteenth century a humanist was a master teaching grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy.
HumanitasThe Latin word, the root of “humanities”, used centuries earlier by Cicero (106-43 BCE) to mean culture.
NotaryA person who combined the work of a solicitor and a record-keeper, needed to write and interpret trade agreements.
RealismThe true-to-life quality of Renaissance art, combining anatomy, geometry, physics and a strong sense of beauty. It continued in European art until the nineteenth century.
Classical (architecture)The “new” fifteenth-century style that was in fact a revival of the imperial Roman style, inspired by the excavation of Rome’s ruins.
Printing pressGutenberg’s machine using movable metal type, which printed identical pages quickly and in large numbers instead of each copy being written out by hand.
IndulgencesDocuments sold by the Catholic clergy which claimed to free the buyer from the burden of the sins he had committed.
Protestant ReformationMartin Luther’s movement of 1517, which argued that faith alone, without priests as intermediaries, leads to salvation, and led the churches of Germany and Switzerland to break with the Pope.
Counter-ReformationThe Catholic Church’s own reform from within, emphasising a simple life and service to the poor, and including the Society of Jesus founded in 1540.
Heliocentric theoryCopernicus’s claim that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun, replacing the earlier earth-centred view.
Scientific RevolutionThe new approach in which knowledge, as distinct from belief, rests on observation and experiment.
Celestial / terrestrialCelestial means divine or heavenly; terrestrial means worldly.
3 Numbers and names worth remembering
150copies of the Bible printed in Gutenberg’s workshop in 1455, in the time a monk took to write one
25age past which a gentleman of Venice was admitted to the city’s council
1860Burckhardt’s book, which gave the period the name “Renaissance”
| Person | Why the chapter names him or her |
|---|---|
| Historians of the period | |
| Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97) | Swiss scholar at the University of Basle. The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) |
| Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) | German historian, Burckhardt’s teacher. Held that history is about states and politics |
| Peter Burke | English historian who argues Burckhardt exaggerated the break with the past |
| Humanists and writers | |
| Francesco Petrarch (1304-78) | Close reading of ancient authors; Poet Laureate in Rome, 1341 |
| Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94) | On the Dignity of Man (1486), on the importance of debate |
| Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) | Layman of Florence who wrote on religious themes |
| Giotto (1267-1337) | Artist of Florence who painted lifelike portraits |
| Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542) | Cardinal; The Commonwealth and Government of Venice (1534) |
| Francesco Barbaro (1390-1454) | Venetian humanist who defended the acquisition of wealth as a virtue |
| Lorenzo Valla (1406-1457) | On Pleasure; criticised the Christian injunction against pleasure |
| Niccolo Machiavelli | The Prince (1513), chapter 15: all men are bad, self-interest is the strongest motive |
| Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) | Wrote on art theory and architecture; his definition of an “Architect” |
| Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558) | Venetian; Greek and Latin scholar, gave orations at the University of Padua |
| Isabella d’Este (1474-1539) | Marchesa of Mantua; ruled the state in her husband’s absence |
| Balthasar Castiglione | The Courtier (1528), on how a woman should differ from a man |
| Arab scholars Europe learned from | |
| Ibn Sina (980-1037) | “Avicenna”; Arab physician and philosopher of Bukhara, Central Asia |
| al-Razi | “Rhazes”; author of a medical encyclopaedia |
| Ibn Rushd (1126-98) | “Averroes”; Arab philosopher of Spain, on philosophy (faylasuf) and religious belief |
| Artists, architects and scientists | |
| Donatello (1386-1466) | Lifelike statues, 1416 |
| Andreas Vesalius (1514-64) | Belgian professor at Padua; first to dissect the human body |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) | Botany, anatomy, mathematics, art; Mona Lisa, The Last Supper; “disciple of experiment” |
| Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) | Sistine Chapel ceiling, “The Pieta”, dome of St Peter’s Church |
| Filippo Brunelleschi (1337-1446) | Architect of the Duomo of Florence; began as a sculptor |
| Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) | Wrote on art and nature; “Praying Hands”, 1508 |
| Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1458) | German maker of the first printing press |
| The Reformation | |
| Thomas More (1478-1535) | English Christian humanist; Utopia (1516) |
| Erasmus (1466-1536) | Christian humanist of Holland |
| Martin Luther (1483-1546) | German monk; began the campaign against the Catholic Church in 1517 |
| Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) | Popularised Luther’s ideas in Switzerland |
| Jean Calvin (1509-64) | Carried the Swiss reform further |
| William Tyndale (1494-1536) | English Lutheran; translated the Bible into English in 1506 |
| Ignatius Loyola | Founded the Society of Jesus in Spain in 1540; his followers are the Jesuits |
| The scientific revolution | |
| Copernicus (1473-1543) | The sun-centred theory; De revolutionibus, given to Joachim Rheticus |
| Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) | Cosmographical Mystery; planets move in ellipses |
| Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) | The Motion; confirmed a dynamic world |
| Isaac Newton | Theory of gravitation; Principia Mathematica, 1687 |
4 Dates at a glance
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries | |
| 1300 | Humanism taught at Padua University in Italy |
| 1341 | Petrarch given the title of “Poet Laureate” in Rome |
| 1349 | University established in Florence |
| 1390 | Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales published |
| 1416 | Donatello breaks new ground with lifelike statues |
| 1417 | Popes become politically stronger, the rivalry of two popes since 1378 having ended |
| 1436 | Brunelleschi designs the Duomo in Florence |
| 1453 | Ottoman Turks defeat the Byzantine ruler of Constantinople |
| 1454 | Gutenberg prints the Bible with movable type |
| 1455 | 150 copies of the Bible printed in Gutenberg’s workshop |
| 1484 | Portuguese mathematicians calculate latitude by observing the sun |
| 1492 | Columbus reaches America |
| 1495 | Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper |
| 1500 | By this year many classical texts, nearly all in Latin, had been printed in Italy |
| 1512 | Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling |
| The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries | |
| 1516 | Thomas More’s Utopia published |
| 1517 | Martin Luther writes the Ninety-Five Theses |
| 1522 | Luther translates the Bible into German |
| 1525 | Peasant uprising in Germany, suppressed at Luther’s own urging |
| 1540 | Ignatius Loyola sets up the Society of Jesus in Spain |
| 1543 | Andreas Vesalius writes On Anatomy |
| 1559 | Anglican Church established in England, with the king or queen as its head |
| 1569 | Gerhardus Mercator prepares a cylindrical map of the earth |
| 1582 | Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII |
| 1628 | William Harvey links the heart with blood circulation |
| 1662 | Royal Society formed in London for the promotion of natural knowledge |
| 1670 / 1673 | The Paris Academy, given as 1670 in the chapter’s text and 1673 in its timeline table |
| 1687 | Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica published |
5 Italy’s political shape
| City or region | How it was governed |
|---|---|
| Florence | A republic; also the most exciting intellectual city of the fifteenth century |
| Venice | A republic, governed through a council of gentlemen past the age of 25 |
| Genoa | With Venice, one of the two most vibrant Italian cities |
| Rome | Ruled by the Pope, sovereign in his own state |
| Other Italian towns | Court-cities ruled by princes |
What made these cities different from the rest of Europe. The clergy were not politically dominant, and there were no powerful feudal lords. Rich merchants and bankers governed actively, which is how the idea of citizenship took root, and it survived even under military despots.
6 The humanists’ division of the past
| Period | Name given by humanists and later scholars |
|---|---|
| 5th to 14th century | The Middle Ages |
| 5th to 9th century | The Dark Ages |
| 9th to 11th century | The Early Middle Ages |
| 11th to 14th century | The Late Middle Ages |
| 15th century onwards | The Modern Age |
Why it is questioned today. Historians are reluctant to label any period of Europe’s history culturally dark. Earlier scholars already knew Greek and Roman culture, religion stayed important throughout, many “Renaissance” elements go back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and some historians point to a similar literary and artistic flowering in ninth-century France.
7 The Reformation in five steps
1 . The grievancesThe Church is seen as greedy. Clergy sell indulgences, princes resent its interference in state affairs, peasants rebel against its taxes, and humanists prove the “Donation of Constantine” a forgery
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2 . Luther, 1517A young German monk argues that a person needs no priest to reach God, and that faith alone leads to the right life and to heaven. Germany and Switzerland break with the Pope
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3 . The spreadZwingli, then Calvin, in Switzerland. Backed by merchants, the reformers appeal most in towns; the Catholic Church keeps the countryside
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4 . The radicalsThe Anabaptists argue that since God created all people equal, they need pay no taxes and may choose their own priests. Luther opposes them and the German peasants’ rebellion is crushed in 1525
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5 . The Catholic answerThe Counter-Reformation: a simple life and service to the poor in Spain and Italy, and the Society of Jesus founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540
Two settlements to remember. In France, as in much of Europe, the Catholic Church eventually allowed Protestants to worship as they chose. In England, the rulers ended the connection with the Pope, and the king or queen became head of the Church.
8 Women in this world
| Aristocratic families | Merchant families | |
|---|---|---|
| The business | No say in it, though her dowry was invested in it | Wives often helped run the shop, and managed it when husbands were away |
| Marriage | Often arranged to strengthen business alliances | Also a family arrangement, but the wife’s work in the business gave her standing |
| If no dowry could be arranged | The daughter was sent to a convent to live as a nun | The chapter names this practice for aristocratic families |
| Public role | Limited; women were looked on as “keepers of the households” | A merchant’s early death could push his widow into a larger public role |
The two voices to quote. Cassandra Fedele wrote that although the study of letters offers women neither reward nor dignity, every woman ought to seek and embrace it. Balthasar Castiglione, in The Courtier (1528), wrote that a woman should in no way resemble a man in her ways, manners, words or bearing, while granting that many virtues of the mind are as necessary to a woman as to a man. Both had women of a particular class in mind.
9 Five-minute recap
Quick Revision: read this the night before the exam
- From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century a distinct urban culture grew in Europe, with Florence, Venice and Rome as its centres and patronage paying for its art and writing.
- Burckhardt named the period “Renaissance” in 1860. Peter Burke and other recent historians say he exaggerated the break with the past, and that many of its elements go back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
- Italian towns became independent city-states. Florence and Venice were republics, Venice and Genoa the most vibrant, and merchants and bankers governed in place of clergy and feudal lords.
- Petrarch’s close reading of ancient authors founded humanism, taught as grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy, and the Greek texts themselves reached Europe through Arab translators such as Ibn Sina, al-Razi and Ibn Rushd.
- Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Brunelleschi built the qualities of realism and revived the imperial Roman style as “classical” architecture, and artists were now known by their own names.
- Gutenberg’s press printed 150 Bibles in 1455, and circulating books are the chief reason humanist culture spread rapidly across the Alps from the end of the fifteenth century.
- The new ideal of individuality and citizenship excluded women; Fedele and Castiglione give the woman’s and the man’s view of what women should aspire to.
- Luther’s campaign of 1517 against indulgences and priestly mediation became the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic Church replied with its own Counter-Reformation and the Jesuits of 1540.
- Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton replaced the earth-centred universe with the sun-centred one, and knowledge came to rest on observation and experiment, which historians call the Scientific Revolution.
- The chapter closes on two lasting changes: the separation of the public and private spheres, which made the individual visible, and the growth of European states each united by a common language.
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