The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth"; Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere "be born")^[1] was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe in which there was a Renaissance dances belong to the broad group of Historical dances While we know that people danced in Europe long before the Renaissance, the first Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature, which began in Italy during the 15th century and spread around Europe through Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600 Renaissance painting bridges the period of European art history between the art of the Middle Ages and Baroque art. Renaissance philosophy was the period of the History of philosophy in Europe that falls roughly between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment During the Renaissance, the rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of Printing Renaissance technology is the set of European artifacts and customs spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century Early Modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of Gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th The Renaissance in the Low Countries is the cultural period that roughly corresponds to the 16th century in the Low Countries. The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in Northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. The Renaissance in Poland (Odrodzenie literally 'Rebirth' lasted from the late 15th century to the late 16th century and is widely considered to be the Golden Age of Polish culture This article is about the Spanish Renaissance of the 15th-16th centuries French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform, this is a very general use of the term. An era is a commonly used word for long period of time When used in science for example geology eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined

As a cultural movement, it encompassed a revival of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean Perspective (from Latin perspicere to see through in the graphic arts such as drawing is an approximate representation on a flat surface (such as paper of an image as it is perceived In its widest sense the history of Education is the history of Teaching and of Learning, and the history of what might be described as the Curricula Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also modern times) is the period of history that followed the Middle Ages between c Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance men". An intellectual (from the adjective meaning "involving thought and reason" is a person who tries to use his or her Intelligence and analytical thinking, Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual A polymath ( Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής "having learned much" is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all A polymath ( Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής "having learned much" is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area ^[2][3]

There is a general, but not unchallenged, consensus that the Renaissance began in Tuscany in the fourteenth century. Tuscany (Toscana is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22990 km² and a population of about 3 ^[4] Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time; its political structure; the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici;^[5] and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany The migration of Byzantine Greek scholars and other émigrés from Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine empire (1203-1453 and mainly after the fall of The Fall of Constantinople refers to the capture of the Byzantine Empire's capital by the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453 (Julian Calendar The Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. ^[6][7][8]

The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography, and there has been much debate among historians as to the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical age. ^[9] Some have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for the classical age,^[10] while others have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras. The term nostalgia describes a longing for the past often in idealized form Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean ^[11] Indeed, some have called for an end to the use of the term, which they see as a product of presentism – the use of history to validate and glorify modern ideals. Presentism is a mode of historical analysis in which present-day ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or interpretations of the past History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology ^[12] The word Renaissance has also been used to describe other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work The Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival occurring in the late eighth and ninth centuries with the peak of the activities The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes during the High Middle Ages.

Overview

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man shows clearly the effect writers of antiquity had on Renaissance thinkers. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned Drawing with accompanying notes created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487 as recorded in one of his journals Based on the specifications in Vitruvius's De architectura, da Vinci tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c 80–70 BC died after c 15 BC was a Roman Writer, Architect and Engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum De architectura ( Latin: "On architecture" is a treatise on Architecture written by the Roman Architect Vitruvius

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. The early modern period is a term initially used by historians to refer mainly to the period roughly from 1500 to 1800 in Western Europe ( Early modern Europe) Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual enquiry. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art. Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century ^[13]

Renaissance thinkers sought out learning from ancient texts, typically written in Latin or ancient Greek. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Scholars scoured Europe's monastic libraries, searching for works of antiquity which had fallen into obscurity. In such texts they found a desire to improve and perfect their worldly knowledge; an entirely different sentiment to the transcendental spirituality stressed by medieval Christianity. Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings ^[13] They did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. Patronage is the support encouragement privilege and often financial aid given by a person or an organization However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. ^[14]

Artists such as Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Masaccio (born Tommaso Cassai or in some accounts Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone; December 21, 1401 &ndash autumn 1428 was the first great Perspective (from Latin perspicere to see through in the graphic arts such as drawing is an approximate representation on a flat surface (such as paper of an image as it is perceived Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, and to improve government on the basis of reason. Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. In addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages; combined with the invention of printing, this would allow many more people access to books, especially the Bible. Movable type is the system of Printing and Typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual letters or punctuation ^[15]

In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity, and through novel approaches to thought. Secularity ( adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from Religion.

Origins

Main article: Italian Renaissance

Most historians agree that the ideas that characterized the Renaissance had their origin in late 13th century Florence, in particular with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), as well as the painting of Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337). The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Francesco Petrarca ( July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374) known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar ^[16] Yet it remains unsure why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it did. Accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins.

Assimilation of Greek and Arabic knowledge

Further information: Latin translations of the 12th century, Greek scholars in the Renaissance, and Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe

Cicero

The Renaissance was so called because it was a "rebirth" of certain classical ideas that had long been lost to Western Europe. The Renaissance of the 12th century saw a major search by European scholars for new learning which led them to the Arabic fringes of Europe especially to Islamic The migration of Byzantine Greek scholars and other émigrés from Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine empire (1203-1453 and mainly after the fall of Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe were numerous affecting such varied areas as art, architecture, medicine, argriculture, music Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Classical Latin ˈkikeroː usually ˈsɪsərəʊ in English January 3, 106 BC &ndash December 7, 43 BC was a Roman It has been argued that the fuel for this rebirth was the rediscovery of ancient texts that had been forgotten by Western civilization, but were preserved in the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic world, and some monastic libraries; and the translations of Greek and Arabic texts into Latin. The term Muslim world (or Islamic world) has several meanings This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. For the life inside monasteries and its historical roots see Monasticism. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. ^[17]

Renaissance scholars such as Niccolò de' Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini scoured the libraries of Europe in search of works by such classical authors as Plato, Cicero, Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius. Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364 &ndash 1437 was an Italian Renaissance humanist. (Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini ( February 11, 1380 – October 30, 1459) was one of the most important Italian humanists. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Classical Latin ˈkikeroː usually ˈsɪsərəʊ in English January 3, 106 BC &ndash December 7, 43 BC was a Roman Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c 80–70 BC died after c 15 BC was a Roman Writer, Architect and Engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum ^[5] Additionally, as the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Islamic Moors progressed, numerous Greek and Arabic works were captured from educational institutions such as the library at Córdoba, which claimed to have 400,000 books. The Reconquista (a Spanish and Portuguese word for "Reconquest" Arabic: الاسترداد, "Recapturing" was a period The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim (and earlier non-Muslim people of Berber and Arab descent ||-||-||} Córdoba ( Cordova in English is a City in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. ^[18] The works of ancient Greek and Hellenistic writers (such as Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Plotinus) and Muslim scientists and philosophers (such as Geber, Abulcasis, Alhacen, Avicenna, Avempace, and Averroes), were reintroduced into the Western world, providing new intellectual material for European scholars. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Euclid ( Greek:.) fl 300 BC also known as Euclid of Alexandria, is often referred to as the Father of Geometry Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca Plotinus ( Greek:) (ca AD 204–270 was a major philosopher of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism (along with his Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar For the 12th century astronomer see Jabir ibn Aflah. For the anonymous 14th century Spanish alchemist see Pseudo-Geber. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936 - 1013 (أبو القاسم بن خلف TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh ( Arabic أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ known as Ibn Bājjah (ابن باجة was an Andalusian Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (Arabicأبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد better known just as Ibn Rushd (ابن رشد and in European Particularly in the case of mathematical knowledge, some of the work of Muslim mathematicians were based on the earlier work of Indian mathematicians. Indian mathematics &mdashwhich here is the mathematics that emerged in South Asia zero, Negative numbers, Arithmetic, and Algebra.

Avicenna

Greek and Arabic knowledge was not only assimilated from Spain, but also directly from the Greek and Arabic speaking world. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born The study of mathematics was flourishing in the Middle East, and mathematical knowledge was brought back by crusaders in the 13th century. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents ^[19] The decline of the Byzantine Empire after 1204—and its eventual fall in 1453 accompanied by the closure of its universities by the Ottoman Turks—led to a sharp increase in the exodus of Greek scholars to Italy and beyond. The Fall of Constantinople refers to the capture of the Byzantine Empire's capital by the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453 (Julian Calendar The University of Constantinople, sometimes known as the University of the palace hall of Magnaura in the Byzantine Empire was recognised as a University These scholars brought with them texts and knowledge of the classical Greek civilization which had been lost for centuries in the West. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca ^[20] and they transmitted the art of exegesis. Exegesis (from the Greek 'to lead out' involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a Holy The majority of the works of Greek Classical literature and Roman Law that survive to this day did so through Byzantium. ^[7][8]

A political map of the Italian Peninsula circa 1494. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest A peninsula is a piece of land that is nearly surrounded by Water but connected to Mainland via an Isthmus.

Social and political structures in Italy

The unique political structures of late Middle Ages Italy have led some to theorize that its unusual social climate allowed the emergence of a rare cultural efflorescence. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Italy did not exist as a political entity in the early modern period. For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy Instead, it was divided into smaller city states and territories: the kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States the center, the Genoese and the Milanese the north and west, and the Venetians the east. The Italian city states were a remarkable political phenomenon of small independent states in the northern Italian peninsula between the tenth and fifteenth centuries The Kingdom of Naples was an informal name of the Polity officially known as the Kingdom of Sicily which existed on the mainland of the southern Italian Roman origins Florence was founded in 59 BCE as a settlement for former soldiers and was named Florentia, allotted by Julius Caesar to his veterans in The Papal States, State(s of the Church or Pontifical States (in Italian Stato Ecclesiastico, Stato della Chiesa, Stati della Chiesa Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanised areas in Europe. ^[21] Many of its cities stood among the ruins of ancient Roman buildings; it seems likely that the classical nature of the Renaissance was linked to its origin in the Roman Empire's heartlands. ^[22]

Italy at this time was notable for its merchant Republics, including the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Venice. A republic is a State or Country that is not led by a hereditary Monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people have impact on its Roman origins Florence was founded in 59 BCE as a settlement for former soldiers and was named Florentia, allotted by Julius Caesar to his veterans in The Most Serene Republic of Venice ((Serenìsima Repùblica Vèneta or Repùblica de Venesia Serenissima Repubblica Although in practice these were oligarchical, and bore little resemblance to a modern democracy, the relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement. Oligarchy' ( Greek, Oligarkhía) is a Form of government where Political power effectively rests with a small elite segment Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system ^[23] Likewise, the position of Italian cities such as Venice as great trading centres made them intellectual crossroads. Merchants brought with them ideas from far corners of the globe, particularly the Levant. Merchants function as professionals who deal with Trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves in order to produce Profit. See also Names of the Levant The Levant (lə'vænt is a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia, roughly bounded on the north by the Venice was Europe's gateway to trade with the East, and a producer of fine glass, while Florence was a capital of silk and jewelry. Venetian glass is a type of Glass object made in Venice, Italy, primarily on the island of Murano. Silk is a natural Protein Fiber, some forms of which can be woven into Textiles The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons Jewellery (also spelled jewelry, see spelling differences) is a personal Ornament, such as a necklace ring or bracelet made from Gemstones The wealth such business brought to Italy meant that large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned and individuals had more leisure time for study. ^[23]

The Black Death

One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation caused by the Black Death in Florence (and elsewhere in Europe) resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th century Italy. The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been speculated that the familiarity with death that this brought thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife. Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality AfterLife is a film drama set in Scotland directed by Alison Peebles made in 2003 about an ambitious Scottish journalist forced to choose between ^[24] It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art. Patronage is the support encouragement privilege and often financial aid given by a person or an organization ^[25] However, this does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors. ^[9]

Cultural conditions in Florence

Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence and patron of arts. Lorenzo de' Medici (January 1 1449 &ndash 9 April 1492 was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance

It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life which may have caused such a cultural movement. Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici family in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Lorenzo de' Medici devoted huge sums to commissioning works from Florence's leading artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Lorenzo de' Medici (January 1 1449 &ndash 9 April 1492 was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all ^[5]

The Renaissance was certainly already underway before Lorenzo came to power; indeed, before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Some historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i. e. because "Great Men" were born there by chance. The Great man theory is a Theory held by some that aims to explain history by the impact of "Great men" or Heroes highly influential individuals ^[26] Da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Tuscany (Toscana is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22990 km² and a population of about 3 Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the time. ^[27]

Characteristics

Humanism

Main article: Renaissance humanism

Humanism was not a philosophy per se, but rather a method of learning. Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, humanists would study ancient texts in the original, and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Latin West in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th 13th and 14th centuries Humanist education was based on the study of poetry, grammar, ethics and rhetoric. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man. . . the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind. "^[28]

Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers, and applied them in critiques of contemporary government. Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535 from 1935 Saint Thomas More, was an English Lawyer, author and statesman who in his lifetime gained Theologians, notably Erasmus and Martin Luther, challenged the Aristotelian status quo, introducing radical new ideas of justification and faith (for more, see Religion below). Martin Luther (November 10 1483 February 18 1546 was a German Monk, theologian, university professor Father of Protestantism, and church reformer Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. In Christian theology, justification is God 's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God Christianity, Faith, like in other Abrahamic faiths, centers on a belief in God, a belief in the reality of a transcendent domain

Art

Main articles: Italian Renaissance painting, Renaissance painting, and Renaissance architecture

One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. See also Thematic development of Italian Renaissance painting Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period from the early 15th to mid 16th centuries occurring Renaissance painting bridges the period of European art history between the art of the Middle Ages and Baroque art. Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe in which there was a Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the writings of architects Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – April 15, 1446) was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. Leon Battista Alberti ( February 14, 1404 &ndash April 25, 1472) was an Italian author artist Architect, Poet ^[29] The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the arts. ^[30] To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Human anatomy, which with physiology and biochemistry is a complementary basic medical science is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the adult Human body Underlying these changes in artistic method was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated by other artists. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and ^[31] Other notable artists include Sandro Boticceli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others. Donatello ( Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi; c 1386 &ndash December 13, 1466) was a famous early Renaissance Italian Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c 1485 &ndash August 27 1576 better known as Titian, was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian

Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed, the work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck having particular influence on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Hugo van der Goes ( Ghent, ?c 1440 – Oudergem, near Brussels, 1482 or 1483 was a Flemish painter Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (jɑn vɑn ɛik (before c 1395 &ndash before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active (for more, see Renaissance in the Netherlands). The Renaissance in the Low Countries is the cultural period that roughly corresponds to the 16th century in the Low Countries. Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of everyday life. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c 1525 &ndash September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance ^[32]

In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient Classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from the 1st century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, formulated the Renaissance style which emulated but most importantly improved on classical forms. The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – April 15, 1446) was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c 80–70 BC died after c 15 BC was a Roman Writer, Architect and Engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral. The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the Cathedral church ( Duomo) of Florence, Italy. ^[33] The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in Mantua. Mantua (Màntova in the local dialect of Lombard language Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno. The Basilica of Saint Peter (Basilica Sancti Petri officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as St Donato Bramante (1444 – March 11, 1514) was an Italian Architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and

The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. A pilaster is a slightly-projecting flattened Column built into or applied to the face of a wall During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. An entablature (ɛnˈtæblətʃɚ Latin, and tabula, a tablet) refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Filippo Brunelleschi. ^[34]

Arches are semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. Mannerism is a period of European art which emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular. See also Gothic art Gothic architecture is a style of Architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period.

Science

Main article: History of science in the Renaissance

Galileo Galilei. During the Renaissance, the rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of Printing Portrait in crayon by Leoni

The upheavals occurring in the arts and humanities were mirrored by a dynamic period of change in the sciences. Some have seen this flurry of activity as a "scientific revolution," heralding the beginning of the modern age. The period which many historians of science call the Scientific Revolution can be roughly dated as having begun in 1543 the year in which Nicolaus Copernicus published ^[35] Others have seen it merely as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day. ^[36] Regardless, there is general agreement that the Renaissance saw significant changes in the way the universe was viewed and the methods with which philosophers sought to explain natural phenomena. ^[37]

Science and art were very much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Yet the most significant development of the era was not a specific discovery, but rather a process for discovery, the scientific method. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena ^[37] This revolutionary new way of learning about the world focused on empirical evidence, the importance of mathematics, and discarding the Aristotelian "final cause" in favor of a mechanical philosophy. In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and In Philosophy, mechanism is a Theory that all natural phenomena can be explained by physical causes Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus and Galileo. Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 &ndash 8 January 1642 was a Tuscan ( Italian) Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer, and Philosopher

The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles Anatomy (from the Greek anatomia, from ana separate apart from and temnein, to cut up cut open is a branch of Biology that is the consideration With the publication of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica, a new confidence was placed in the role of dissection, observation, and a mechanistic view of anatomy. Andreas Vesalius ( Brussels, December 31, 1514 - Zakynthos, October 15, 1564) was an anatomist, Physician De humani corporis fabrica libri septem ( On the fabric of the human body in seven books) is a textbook of human anatomy written by Andreas Vesalius Dissection (also called anatomization) is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the function In Philosophy, mechanism is a Theory that all natural phenomena can be explained by physical causes ^[37]

Religion

Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope infamous for his corruption. Pope Alexander VI ( 1 January 1431 &ndash 18 August 1503) born Roderic Llançol, later Roderic de Borja i Borja (

Main articles: Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation

It should be emphasized that the new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against an unquestioned Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time The Counter-Reformation (also Catholic Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in Northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Indeed, much (if not most) of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church. ^[14] However, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God. Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective ^[14] Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. Huldrych (or Ulrich) Zwingli (1 January 1484 &ndash 11 October 1531 was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535 from 1935 Saint Thomas More, was an English Lawyer, author and statesman who in his lifetime gained Martin Luther (November 10 1483 February 18 1546 was a German Monk, theologian, university professor Father of Protestantism, and church reformer John Calvin (or Jean Calvin) (10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564 was a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation and

The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages saw a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome. History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and The Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism (also known as the Western Schism) was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417 The Bishop of Rome is the bishop of the Holy See, more often referred to in the Catholic tradition as the Pope. ^[38] While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the fifteenth century saw a resulting reform movement know as Conciliarism, which sought to limit the pope's power. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Council of Constance is the 16th Ecumenical council. Conciliarism, or the conciliar movement, was a reform movement in the 14th and 15th century Roman Catholic Church which held that final authority Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four illegitimate children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more power. When elected pope Julius II promised under oath that he would soon convoke a general council Pope Alexander VI ( 1 January 1431 &ndash 18 August 1503) born Roderic Llançol, later Roderic de Borja i Borja ( Simony is the Ecclesiastical crime of paying for Holy offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Nepotism is the showing of favoritism toward relatives and friends based upon that relationship rather than on an objective evaluation of ability Meritocracy or suitability In Common law, legitimacy is the status of a Child that is born to parents who are legally married to one another or that is born shortly after the ^[39]

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist textual criticism of the New Testament. Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of Literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of Transcription errors in ^[14] Indeed, it was Luther who in October 1517 published the 95 Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to its sale of indulgences. The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power of Indulgences, commonly known as The Ninety-Five Theses, were written by Martin Luther in 1517 An indulgence, in Roman Catholic Theology, is the full or partial Remission of temporal punishment due for Sins which have already been forgiven The 95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Renaissance self-awareness

By the fifteenth century, writers, artists and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations that were taking place and were using phrases like modi antichi (in the antique manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. The term "la rinascita" first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568). Giorgio Vasari ( 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian painter and Architect, who is today famous The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters Sculptors and Architects, or Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori as it was originally known ^[40][41] Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with Michelangelo. Cenni di Pepo (Giovanni Cimabue (c 1240 — c 1302 also known as Bencivieni di Pepo or in modern Italian Benvenuto di Giuseppe was an Italian painter and creator Arnolfo di Cambio (c 1240 &ndash 1300/1310 was an Italian Architect and sculptor. Masaccio (born Tommaso Cassai or in some accounts Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone; December 21, 1401 &ndash autumn 1428 was the first great Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 – April 15, 1446) was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. Donatello ( Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi; c 1386 &ndash December 13, 1466) was a famous early Renaissance Italian Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature. ^[42]

The Renaissance spreads

In the 15th century the Renaissance spread with great speed from its birthplace in Florence, first to the rest of Italy, and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth thereby transferring an image As it spread, its ideas diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the twentieth century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and national movements, including:

• The Italian Renaissance
• The English Renaissance
• The German Renaissance
• The Northern Renaissance
• The French Renaissance
• The Renaissance in the Netherlands
• The Polish Renaissance
• The Spanish Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance

Main article: Northern Renaissance

The Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan van Eyck, painted 1434

The Renaissance as it occurred in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern Renaissance". The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in Northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century The Renaissance in the Low Countries is the cultural period that roughly corresponds to the 16th century in the Low Countries. The Renaissance in Poland (Odrodzenie literally 'Rebirth' lasted from the late 15th century to the late 16th century and is widely considered to be the Golden Age of Polish culture This article is about the Spanish Renaissance of the 15th-16th centuries The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in Northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. The Arnolfini Portrait is a Painting in oils on Oak Panel executed by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (jɑn vɑn ɛik (before c 1395 &ndash before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active It arrived first in France, imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of Italy. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Charles VIII, called the Affable (l'Affable 30 June 1470 &ndash 7 April 1498 was King of France from 1483 to his death Another factor that promoted the spread of secularism was the Church's inability to offer assistance against the Black Death. The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo Da Vinci, and built ornate palaces at great expense. Francis I (September 12 1494 &ndash March 31 1547 was crowned King of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547 Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Writers such as François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Michel de Montaigne, painters such as Jean Clouet and musicians such as Jean Mouton also borrowed from the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Pierre de Ronsard ( 11 September, 1524 – December 1585 was a French Poet and "prince of poets" (as his own generation in France Joachim du Bellay (c 1522 &ndash January 1, 1560) was a French Poet, Critic, and a member of the Pléiade. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers Jean (or Janet Clouet (1480 - 1541 was a Miniaturist and painter who worked in France during the Renaissance. Jean Mouton (c 1459 &ndash October 30, 1522) was a French composer of the Renaissance.

In the second half of the 15th century, Italians brought the new style to Poland and Hungary. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic After the marriage in 1476 of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, to Beatrix of Naples, Buda became the one of the most important artistic centres of the Renaissance north of the Alps. Matthias Corvinus ( Matthias the Just; February 23 1443 &ndash April 6 1490) was King of Hungary and Buda ( German: Ofen, Croatian: Budim, Slovak / Czech: Budín, Serbian: Будим or ^[43] The most important humanists living in Matthias' court were Antonio Bonfini and Janus Pannonius. Antonio Bonfini (Latin variant Antonius Bonfinius) (1434—1503 was an Italian humanist and Poet who spent the last years of his career as Janus Pannonius ( Latin: Janus Pannonius, Hungarian: János Csezmicei or Kesencei, Croatian: Ivan Česmički ^[43] In 1526 the Ottoman conquest of Hungary put an abrupt end to the short-lived Hungarian Renaissance. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish

An early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was Filip Callimachus. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Filip Callimachus or Callimach ( Latin Philippus Callimachus Experiens, Filip Kallimach born Filippo Buonaccorsi, Bonacursius Many Italian artists came to Poland with Bona Sforza of Milano, when she married King Zygmunt I of Poland in 1518. Biography Bona was born in Vigevano, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Sforza of Milan and Isabella of Naples. Sigismund I the Old (Zygmunt I Stary Žygimantas II Senasis 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) of the Jagiellon dynasty reigned as ^[44] This was supported by temporarily strengthened monarchies in both areas, as well as by newly-established universities. ^[45]

Poznań City Hall rebuilt from the Gothic style by Giovanni Batista di Quadro (1550-1555). The Poznań City Hall is a structure in Poznań, located in Poznań's Old Market Square that was used as the city's administration building until 1939 Giovanni Battista di Quadro ( Pol Jan Baptysta di Quadro, Lat

The spirit of the age spread from France to the Low Countries and Germany, and finally by the late 16th century to England, Scandinavia, and remaining parts of Central Europe. The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well In these areas humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, and the art and writing of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute. Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th ^[46]

In England, the Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the English Renaissance with the work of writers William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, and Edmund Spenser, as well as great artists, architects (such as Inigo Jones), and composers such as Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, and William Byrd. Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century William Shakespeare ( baptised John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The Iñigo Jones ( July 15, 1573 &ndash June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant British architect, and the first to bring Thomas Tallis (c 1505 &ndash 23 November 1585) was an English Composer. Not to be confused with John Tavener John Taverner (c 1490 &ndash 18 October 1545) was an English Composer William Byrd (c 1540 &ndash 4 July 1623 was an English Composer of the Renaissance.

The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean possessions of the Aragonese Crown and the city of Valencia. The Crown of Aragon was a permanent union of multiple titles and states in the hands of the King of Aragon. Valencia ( Valencian: València, Valencia Spanish phonology --> is the capital of the Spanish autonomous Early Iberian Renaissance writers include Ausiàs March, Joanot Martorell, Fernando de Rojas, Juan del Encina, Garcilaso de la Vega, Gil Vicente and Bernardim Ribeiro. Ausiàs March (c 1397 - March 3, 1459) Valencian Poet, was born in Gandia ( Valencia) towards the end of the Joanot Martorell (1413 &ndash 1468 was the Valencian Author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, which is written in Valencian (Martorell Fernando de Rojas (c 1465 La Puebla de Montalbán, New Castile (now Toledo) &ndash April 1541 Talavera de la Reina, Spain) was Juan de la Encina (1469 &ndash c 1533 a composer poet and playwriter often called the founder of Spanish drama was born in 1469 near Salamanca, probably at For the Peruvian writer Garcilaso de la Vega see Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Garcilaso de la Vega (c Gil Vicente (ˈʒil viˈsentɨ (1465 &ndash 1537 called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese Playwright and Poet who Bernardim Ribeiro (1482 Torrão, Portugal - October 1552 Lisbon) was a Portuguese Poet and writer The late Renaissance in Spain saw writers such as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Luis de Góngora and Tirso de Molina, artists such as El Greco and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( in modern Spanish; September 29, 1547 &ndash April 22, 1616) was a Spanish Novelist Lope de Vega (also Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio or Lope Félix de Vega Carpio) ( 25 November 1562 &ndash 27 August 1635 Luis de Góngora y Argote ( July 11, 1561 &ndash May 24, 1627) was a Spanish Baroque lyric Poet. Tirso de Molina (October 1571? - March 12, 1648) was a Spanish Baroque Dramatist and poet El Greco' ("The Greek " 1541 &ndash April 7 1614 was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes spelled 'da Vittoria' (1548 &ndash August 20, 1611) was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance. In Portugal writers such as Sá de Miranda and Luís de Camões and artists such as Nuno Gonçalves appeared. Francisco de Sá de Miranda (1481? &ndash 1558 pron. fɾɐ̃'siʃku dɨ sa dɨ mi'ɾɐ̃ðɐ was a Portuguese Poet of the Renaissance. Luís Vaz de Camões (luˈiʃ vaʃ dɨ kaˈmõĩʃ sometimes rendered in English from old Portuguese as Camoens) (c Nuno Gonçalves was a 15th century Portuguese Artist credited for the Painting of the paineis de São Vicente de Fora ( Saint Vincent Panels

While Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of innovation, particularly in music. Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600 ^[47] The music of the 15th century Burgundian School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in that art and the polyphony of the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of what was the first true international style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century. The Burgundian School is a term used to denote a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony In Music, the Franco-Flemish School refers somewhat imprecisely to the style of polyphonic Vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. History Gregorian chant was organized codified and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries with later additions ^[47] The culmination of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer, Palestrina. A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 - 2 February 1594 was an Italian Composer of the Renaissance. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600. In music history the Venetian School is a term used to describe the Composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes

The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the purely religious art of medieval painters. At first, Northern Renaissance artists remained focused on religious subjects, such as the contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by Albrecht Dürer. Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker Later on, the works of Pieter Bruegel influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than religious or classical themes. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c 1525 &ndash September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance It was also during the northern Renaissance that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries. Early Netherlandish painting is the work of those painters who were active in the Low Countries during the 15th and early 16th century Northern renaissance Hubert van Eyck (also Huybrecht van Eyck) (c 1366&ndash1426 was a Flemish painter and older brother of Jan van Eyck. Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (jɑn vɑn ɛik (before c 1395 &ndash before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active Oil painting is the process of painting with Pigments that are bound with a medium of Drying oil — especially in early modern Europe Linseed oil ^[48] A distinctive feature of the Northern Renaissance was its use of the vernacular in place of Latin or Greek, which allowed greater freedom of expression. The spread of the technology of the printing press, also invented in the North, gave a major boost to the Renaissance, first in Northern Europe and then elsewhere. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( 1398 &ndash February 3, 1468) was a German Goldsmith and printer who is credited Northern Europe is a term for the northern part of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as (Finland

The Historiography

Conception

The term was first used retrospectively by the Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his book The Lives of the Artists (published 1550). Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of Activities to do with creating Art, practicing the Arts and/or demonstrating The word critic comes from the Greek el κριτικός ( el-Latn kritikós) "able to discern" which in turn derives from the word Giorgio Vasari ( 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian painter and Architect, who is today famous In the book Vasari was attempting to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of gothic art: the arts had fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue (1240-1301) and Giotto (1267-1337) began to reverse this decline in the arts. This article is about Gothic art See also Gothic architecture Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that lasted about 200 The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Tuscana was an ancient town of Etruria, about 15 miles northwest of Tarquinii. Cenni di Pepo (Giovanni Cimabue (c 1240 — c 1302 also known as Bencivieni di Pepo or in modern Italian Benvenuto di Giuseppe was an Italian painter and creator According to Vasari, antique art was central to the rebirth of Italian art. ^[49]

However, it was not until the nineteenth century that the French word Renaissance achieved popularity in describing the cultural movement that began in the late 13th century. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The Renaissance was first defined by French historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874), in his 1855 work, Histoire de France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it Jules Michelet ( 21 August 1798 &ndash 9 February 1874) was a French Historian. For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and culture. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that is, from the end of the fifteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth century. Christopher Columbus (1451 &ndash May 20 1506 was an Italian Navigator, colonizer Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 &ndash 8 January 1642 was a Tuscan ( Italian) Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer, and Philosopher ^[50] Moreover, Michelet distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages and the democratic values that he, as a vocal Republican, chose to see in its character. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system Republicanism is the Ideology of governing a nation as a Republic, with an emphasis on Liberty, Rule of law, Popular sovereignty ^[9] A French nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement. ^[9]

The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) in his Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo in Italy, that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it Jacob Christoph Burckhardt ( May 25, 1818, Basel, Switzerland &ndash August 8, 1897, Basel was a Swiss Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest He saw in the Renaissance the emergence of the modern spirit of individuality, which had been stifled in the Middle Ages. ^[51] His book was widely read and was influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th ^[52] However, Buckhardt has been accused of setting forth a linear Whiggish view of history in seeing the Renaissance as the origin of the modern world. Whig history or Whiggish historiography presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment culminating in modern forms of liberal ^[11]

More recently, historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical age, or even a coherent cultural movement. See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it As Randolph Starn has put it,

Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content in between, the Renaissance can be (and occasionally has been) seen as a movement of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-bound culture.

—Randolph Starn^[11]

For better or for worse?

Painting of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, an event in the French Wars of Religion, by François Dubois. The French Wars of Religion (1562 to 1598 between French Catholics and Protestants ( Huguenots involved both civil infighting The French Wars of Religion (1562 to 1598 between French Catholics and Protestants ( Huguenots involved both civil infighting

Much of the debate around the Renaissance has centered around whether the Renaissance truly was an "improvement" on the culture of the Middle Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance towards the "modern age". The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also modern times) is the period of history that followed the Middle Ages between c Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly. ^[26]

In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness--that which was turned within as that which was turned without-- lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues.

—Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the "medieval" period — poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for example — seem to have worsened in this era which saw the rise of Machiavelli, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Jacob Christoph Burckhardt ( May 25, 1818, Basel, Switzerland &ndash August 8, 1897, Basel was a Swiss The French Wars of Religion (1562 to 1598 between French Catholics and Protestants ( Huguenots involved both civil infighting "Witch trial" redirects here For the song by Rush, see Fear series. Many people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age" imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies. The term Golden age is best known from Greek mythology and legend but can also be found in other ancient cultures (see below ^[53] Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages. ^[40] Some Marxist historians prefer to describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and philosophy were part of a general economic trend away from feudalism towards capitalism, resulting in a bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts. Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society economics and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx ( 1818 - 1883 Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where ^[54]

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. Johan Huizinga (joːhɑn hœyzɪŋxaː ( December 7, 1872 - February 1, 1945) a Dutch Historian, was one of the founders In his book The Waning of the Middle Ages, he argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was important. The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 ^[10] The Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Renaissance obsession with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession. A recession is a contraction phase of the Business cycle. The U ^[55] Meanwhile George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both argued that scientific progress was perhaps less original than has traditionally been supposed. George Alfred Leon Sarton (1884-1956 was a Belgian -American Polymath, historian of science, and father of the writer May Sarton. Lynn Thorndike (born 1882 in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA died 1965 was an American historian of medieval science and Alchemy. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding ^[56]

Historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance as unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages" (Middle Ages). This article is about the phrase "Dark Age(s" as a characterization of the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe Many historians now prefer to use the term "Early Modern" for this period, a more neutral designation that highlights the period as a transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era. The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western '''Europe''' and its first colonies which spans the three centuries between ^[57]

Other Renaissances

The term "Renaissance" has also been used to define time periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries. Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a convincing case for a Renaissance of the 12th century. Charles Homer Haskins (1870-1937 was an American historian of the Middle Ages, and advisor to US President Woodrow Wilson. The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes during the High Middle Ages. ^[58] Other historians have argued for a Carolingian Renaissance in the eighth and ninth centuries, and still later for an Ottonian Renaissance in the tenth century. The Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival occurring in the late eighth and ninth centuries with the peak of the activities Ottonian Renaissance was a limited Renaissance that accompanied the reigns of the first three emperors of the Saxon Dynasty, all named Otto Otto I ^[59] Other periods of cultural rebirth have also been termed "renaissances", such as the Bengal Renaissance or the Harlem Renaissance. The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in Undivided India during the The Harlem Renaissance was named after the anthology The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke in 1925

References

Notes

Sources

• Brotton, Jerry, The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction ISBN 0-19-280163-5
• Burckhardt, Jacob (1878), The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, trans S. Jacob Christoph Burckhardt ( May 25, 1818, Basel, Switzerland &ndash August 8, 1897, Basel was a Swiss G. C Middlemore, republished in 1990 ISBN 0-14-044534-X
• Burke, P, The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries ISBN 0-631-19845-8
• The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance (1902)
• Cronin, Vincent (1967), The Florentine Renaissance, ISBN 0-00-211262-0; (1969), The Flowering of the Renaissance, ISBN 0-7126-9884-1; (1992), The Renaissance, ISBN 0-00-215411-0
• Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance, ISBN 0-442-02319-7
• Ferguson, Wallace K. Vincent Cronin (born May 24, 1924 in Tredegar, Wales) is a British historical cultural and biographical writer whose works have ] (1962), Europe in Transition, 1300-1500, ISBN 0-04-940008-8
• Haskins, Charles Homer (1927), The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, ISBN 0-674-76075-1
• Huizinga, Johan (1924), The Waning of the Middle Ages, republished in 1990 ISBN 0-14-013702-5
• Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe, ISBN 0-395-88947-2
• Lopez, Robert S. Charles Homer Haskins (1870-1937 was an American historian of the Middle Ages, and advisor to US President Woodrow Wilson. Johan Huizinga (joːhɑn hœyzɪŋxaː ( December 7, 1872 - February 1, 1945) a Dutch Historian, was one of the founders The Autumn of the Middle Ages, or The Waning of the Middle Ages, (published in 1919 as Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen and translated into English (1952), Hard Times and Investment in Culture
• Strathern, Paul (2003), The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, ISBN 1-844-13098-3
• Stephens, John, The Italian Renaissance: The Origins of Intellectual and Artistic Change before the Renaissance ISBN 0-582-49337-4
• Thorndike, Lynn (1943) 'Renaissance or Prenaissance?' in "Some Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance", Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 4, No. 1, Jan. 1943 (Subscription required for JSTOR link. Paul Strathern ( 1940 - is a British writer and academic He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College Dublin. Lynn Thorndike (born 1882 in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA died 1965 was an American historian of medieval science and Alchemy. )
• Weiss, Roberto (1969) The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, ISBN 1-597-40150-1

See also

Internal Links

• Renaissance man
• List of Renaissance figures

• Early modern Europe
• Renaissance Italy
• Renaissance Humanism
• Protestant Reformation
• Scientific Revolution
• Gilded woodcarving

• Continuity thesis
• Byzantine scholars in the Renaissance

• Renaissance architecture
• Allegory in Renaissance literature
• Renaissance fair
• Renaissance Latin
• Renaissance magic

• Pederasty in the Renaissance
• Bengal Renaissance

External links

• Notable Medeival and Renaissance Women
• Ancient and Renaissance women by Dr. Roberto Weiss ( 21 January 1906 – 10 August 1969) Italian - British scholar and Historian, specialist A polymath ( Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής "having learned much" is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area This is a list of notable people associated with the Renaissance. The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western '''Europe''' and its first colonies which spans the three centuries between The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time The period which many historians of science call the Scientific Revolution can be roughly dated as having begun in 1543 the year in which Nicolaus Copernicus published Gilded woodcarving Gilded woodcarving in Portugal is along with the Tile, one of its most original and rich artistic expressions In the History of ideas, the continuity thesis is the hypothesis that there was no radical discontinuity between the intellectual development of the Middle Ages and The migration of Byzantine Greek scholars and other émigrés from Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine empire (1203-1453 and mainly after the fall of Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe in which there was a By the 16th century allegory was firmly linked to what is known as the Elizabethan world picture, taken from Ptolemy and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering usually held in the United States, open to the public and Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries particularly Renaissance Humanism (15th and 16th century saw a resurgence in Hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of Ceremonial magic The Renaissance was a period that saw a rediscovery or renewed interest in the philosophy and art of the Classical period The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in Undivided India during the Deborah Vess
• Renaissance Style Guide. British Galleries. Victoria and Albert Museum. The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design housing a permanent collection Retrieved on 2007-07-16. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and

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