6th February 2010

The Causes of the

Renaissance
In the next paragraphs I am going to write about what the causes of the
end of the dark ages were and the start of the Renaissance. The word
renaissance means rebirth. It is about people changing the world. Historians
have not agreed on the starting and ending period of this movement since it
was a gradual change but it is thought that it started in 1400 A.D and ended
two thousand years later in 1600 A.D.

The black death led to the death of the breakdown of the manor system
and led to the growth of towns. In this towns society began to flourish with
more people.

With the fall of Constantinople, the main Christian city, in 1453, ancient
roman and Greek texts were traded to Italy through the sea trade routes.
Before the Renaissance, during the Middle Ages, religion was at the centre of
everyday life. The church preached that everyone was sinful and that the only
way to enter paradise after one’s death was to center life around god and
religion. Instead during the Renaissance, because of the rediscovery of
classical texts and Roman and Greek ideas, the value of men and their
relationship with religion started to change. It was a time of new, great
discoveries and improvements in art and science. The ideas and the knowledge
that got lost in the Dark Ages started to merge and the classical ideas of
painting and architecture started to be re-discovered.

In paintings, perspective was now being used and this enabled artists to
create paintings that gave a sense of depth to the viewer. The classical texts
also changed the subjects of the paintings because in the Dark Ages, religion
was the main subject while in the Renaissance, nature (Ex-Primavera of
Botticelli) and everyday life started to be depicted. (Ex- School of Athens of
Raphael)
 Also thanks to the classical texts, the style used in ancient Roman and
Greek architecture was used during the Renaissance. During the Dark Ages,
the Gothic style was present which was very detailed and complex. In the
Renaissance, buildings were based on symmetry and on simplicity, with many
arches and columns. Many Greek buildings were used as an inspirational
model, like the Pantheon.

In the field of science instead, Renaissance men like Leonardo Da Vinci

and Vesalius worked on anatomy and kept detailed sketches of the human
body. This helped science significantly and artists also could depict the body
more carefully, as shown in Michelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel.

In summary, the Renaissance was possible because of the spread of the

classical texts but it was also possible because of the printing press, created in
1440 by Gutenberg. The first book printed with movable-type was the
Gutenberg Bible. This invention made it possible for books to be spread from
Italy, to France and England were many writers wrote books, comedies and
tragedies basing themselves on the ideas of the Renaissance. An example can
be the book Utopia written by Thomas More, who created a perfect world in
order to change his society. Another example can be Shakespeare, who wrote
many tragedies basing them on the conception that men are godlike and also
wrote Julius Caesar, basing himself on classical texts on the life of the
commander. This invention made the church loose control of knowledge.

Italy’s location in the sea meant it had many travelers and traders, it had
the benefit of roads and architecture left over from the Roman Empire and the
major trade routes passed through its lands. The Renaissance started to
develop in Florence and then spread north.

At that time Italy was split into city-states. They were similar to countries
but smaller and often ruled by a king. Florence was ruled by a family of
bankers called, the Medici. They paid many artists during the Renaissance and
without them the Renaissance may not have happened.
 When the Mongols took over China they reopened the silk road. This
allowed Europe to trade with China and the ideas from China gave Europe a
new perspective.

Marco Polo after he traveled between the two continents he wrote about
his adventures who shocked Europe and his stories enlightened people
imagination. This made Europeans get inspired to do create new things.

Humanism is the study of men’s ability to improve the quality of life on

earth through studying the classics. During the middle ages people were more
concerned about heaven but in Renaissance they decided to stop waiting for
god to do everything for them. Education and art started to matter.