World History / Unit 6: Renaissance, Reformation and the Age of Exploration
6.1 The Italian Renaissance
Notes
The Renaissance ("rebirth"), from about 1350 to 1600, was a revival of classical Greek and Roman learning that began in Italy.
- Why Italy? Wealthy trading cities like Florence and Venice, Roman ruins and texts, and scholars who fled the Byzantine Empire with Greek manuscripts.
- Patrons, such as the Medici family of Florence, paid artists and scholars.
- Humanism focused on human potential and achievement and on studying classical texts, grammar, history and poetry (the humanities), while most humanists remained Christian.
- Artists used perspective, realism and classical themes. Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa and filled notebooks with inventions; Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and sculpted David; Raphael painted The School of Athens.
- Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince (1513), advice on gaining and keeping power through practical, sometimes ruthless, methods.
Practice
Read the excerpt from The Prince (W. K. Marriott translation, 1908): "...it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with." Machiavelli is arguing that a ruler should:
Machiavelli offered practical advice about holding power.
Which was a major reason the Renaissance began in Italy?
Trade wealth and Roman heritage supported a revival of learning.
Humanism emphasized:
Humanists studied Greek and Roman works to understand people and society.
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