I INTRODUCTION Renaissance, series of literary and cultural movements

in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. These movements began in Italy and eventually expanded into
Germany, France, England, and other parts of Europe. Participants studied the great civilizations of
ancient Greece and Rome and came to the conclusion that their own cultural achievements rivaled
those of antiquity. Their thinking was also influenced by the concept of humanism, which emphasizes
the worth of the individual. Renaissance humanists believed it was possible to improve human society
through classical education. This education relied on teachings from ancient texts and emphasized a
range of disciplines, including poetry, history, rhetoric (rules for writing influential prose or
speeches), and moral philosophy.

The word renaissance means “rebirth.” The idea of rebirth originated in the belief that Europeans had
rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of what they
considered intellectual and cultural decline. The preceding era, which began with the collapse of the
Roman Empire around the 5th century, became known as the Middle Ages to indicate its position
between the classical and modern world.
Scholars now recognize that there was considerable cultural activity during the Middle Ages, as well
as some interest in classical literature. A number of characteristics of Renaissance art and society had
their origins in the Middle Ages. Many scholars claim that much of the cultural dynamism of the
Renaissance also had its roots in medieval times and that changes were progressive rather than abrupt.
Nevertheless, the Renaissance represents a change in focus and emphasis from the Middle Ages, with
enough unique qualities to justify considering it as a separate period of history.
This article begins with a brief overview of the characteristics of the Renaissance and then discusses
conflicting views on how to define and interpret the Renaissance. This analysis is followed by a
discussion of the economic, social, and political changes that began in the 14th century and
contributed to the development of the Renaissance. The ideas of the Renaissance, particularly of
humanism, are then explored, and their impacts on established religion, on science, and on the arts are
examined.

II CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RENAISSANCE A

Rediscovery of Classical Literature and Art
During the Middle Ages there was a lively interest in classical literature, especially Latin and Latin
translations of Greek. This attention was mostly confined to the professional activities of theologians,
philosophers, and writers. In the Renaissance, however, people from various segments of society—
from kings and nobles to merchants and soldiers—studied classical literature and art. Unlike the
professional scholars of the Middle Ages, these people were amateurs who studied for pleasure, and
their interest in art from the past was soon extended to contemporary works. Medieval art and
literature tended to serve a specialized interest and purpose; Renaissance works of art and literature
existed largely for their own sake, as objects of ideal beauty or learning.

B Curiosity and Objectivity The Renaissance was marked by an intense

interest in the visible world and in the knowledge derived from concrete sensory experience. It turned
away from the abstract speculations and interest in life after death that characterized the Middle Ages.
Although Christianity was not abandoned, the otherworldliness and monastic ideology of the Middle
Ages were largely discarded. The focus during the Renaissance turned from abstract discussions of
religious issues to the morality of human actions.

C Individualism In the Renaissance, the unique talents and potential of the

individual became significant. The concept of personal fame was much more highly developed than
during the Middle Ages. Renaissance artists, valuing glory and renown in this world, signed their
works. Medieval artists, with their focus on otherworldliness and on glorifying God, were more
humble and remained largely anonymous.
The attention given to the development of an individual’s potential during the Renaissance brought
with it a new emphasis on education. The goal of education was to develop the individual's talents in
all intellectual and physical areas, from scholarship and the writing of sonnets to swordsmanship and
wrestling. It was believed that the ideal person should not be bound to one specific discipline, such as
that of scholar, priest, or warrior. This was in stark contrast to the Middle Ages, when specialization
had been encouraged.

III INTERPRETATIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE A

Renaissance as Rebirth
Both the idea of historical rebirth and the use of the term renaissance to describe this process were
characteristic products of the Renaissance itself. The term rinascitŕ (an Italian word for "renaissance")
was probably first attached to the modern period in a book of biography entitled Le vita de’ piů
eccellenti architetti, pittori, ed scultori italiani (1550; The Lives of the Most Eminent Italian
Architects, Painters, and Sculptors, 1568), more commonly known as Lives of the Artists, published
by Italian painter Giorgio Vasari. Vasari applied the concept specifically to a rebirth of art that drew
its inspiration from antiquity rather than from the work of more recent medieval artists.
In the 14th and 15th centuries many Italian scholars began to display a remarkable awareness of
history. They believed that they lived in a new age, free from the darkness and ignorance that they felt
characterized the preceding era. These scholars compared their own achievements to the glories of
ancient Rome and Greece. One group of Italian writers in the 14th century, following the example of
the contemporary poet Petrarch, emphasized that their age resembled the great civilizations of the past
because it focused on artistic achievement. In their view, this renewed emphasis on the arts had begun
in the late 13th and early 14th centuries with the work of Italian painter Giotto and Italian poet Dante
Alighieri.
Another group, led by Florentine scholar and diplomat Leonardo Bruni, added an equally important
political dimension to this concept. Bruni and his followers admired a republican or representative
form of government and looked to ancient Rome, as it was before the emperors came to power, as the
best model. They applied humanistic learning to social and political life and encouraged patriotism
among the residents of Florence and other Italian city-states.
The Renaissance originally grew out of cultural and political developments in Italy. Over the next
three centuries, writers north of the Italian Alps adopted some of these ideas and soon spread them
widely throughout Europe. Northern European Renaissance scholars, such as Dutch writer Desiderius
Erasmus, added their own dimension to the Renaissance. They emphasized the need to reform
Christian society and believed that this reform could be accomplished through education that was
based on the great writings of ancient Greece and Rome.
Intellectuals continued to build on the ideas of the Renaissance during the 18th century Age of
Enlightenment, a time when scientific advancements led to a new emphasis on the power of human
reason. One of the early Enlightenment thinkers was French philosopher and writer Voltaire. He
claimed that the Renaissance was a crucial stage in liberating the mind from the superstition and error
that he believed characterized Christian society during the Middle Ages. Voltaire applauded the
declining power of the Roman Catholic Church during the Renaissance.

Later historians and writers who became part of the 19th-century romantic movement evaluated the
Renaissance in an entirely different manner. Followers of romanticism emphasized passion over
reason. They showed a keen interest in the vital, heroic, and unconventional personalities of the
Renaissance such as Italian poet Petrarch, Italian artist Michelangelo, and French philosopher René
Descartes. The romantics believed that an important characteristic of the Renaissance was
individualism, which emphasized the capabilities and rights of the individual.
By the middle decades of the 19th century, two historians—Jules Michelet of France and Jakob
Burckhardt of Switzerland—had combined these various perspectives in their interpretation of the
Renaissance. Michelet saw the Renaissance as the momentous debut of a new phase in human history.
He believed that it made possible all the great achievements of modern man, including the discovery
of the Americas, the new science, and modern literature and art.
Michelet’s view of the Renaissance as the beginning of the modern era was refined in Jakob
Burckhardt's Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy,
1878), first published in 1860. He attached particular importance to the Renaissance state and saw in
it the origins of modern political attitudes and behavior. In Burckhardt's view, Renaissance leaders
conceived of the state as a work of art, one that they created deliberately by identifying and then
applying the best means to reach their desired goals. Another characteristic of the Renaissance that
Burckhardt considered modern was an interest in human personality and behavior.
Burckhardt saw all these traits as indications of a deeper quality: a fundamental individualism that
was a central feature of the Italian Renaissance. He believed that the absence of centralized control in
Italy during the 13th century had created an atmosphere of insecurity that encouraged the emergence
of ruthless individuals, free spirits, and geniuses. Burckhardt believed that the study of antiquity had
inspired Italians, but that its impact was less significant than other scholars had believed.
Historians who followed Burckhardt rarely disputed his interpretation of the Renaissance. However,
they supplemented it with detailed investigations of other aspects of Renaissance life, including
economics, science, and philosophy. These studies have reinforced the interpretation of the
Renaissance as a period of striking innovation that pointed toward the modern world. Other scholars
have also applied Burckhardt's vision of the Italian Renaissance to Europe as a whole.

B Renaissance as Gradual Change

Those who have challenged Burckhardt’s theories have generally argued that the Renaissance was not
as unique or different as previous scholars claimed. In particular, scholars who studied the Middle
Ages became convinced that the centuries before the Renaissance, far from being a period of
unrelieved barbarism, had developed a high order of civilization. They insist that most elements of the
Renaissance had their roots in the past, and that it is misleading to speak of the "rebirth" of culture in
the Renaissance or to emphasize its significance in the formation of the modern world. These alternate
interpretations have suggested that the Renaissance was a waning of the Middle Ages rather than the
dawning of a new era, and that medieval scholars also knew and valued classical writings.
Scholars have largely abandoned the notion of an abrupt break between the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance and have modified older ideas about the nature of the era. It is now clear, for example,
that people of the Renaissance did not abandon Christianity and that vigorous religious impulses were
a major feature of the Renaissance. Scholars recognize that many aspects of the Renaissance were not
modern; they also acknowledge that what may be true of one movement, region, or decade, may not
be true of another.
Despite these differing interpretations, there are many indications that Europe had changed
dramatically by the 16th century. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Renaissance intellectuals
believed their age marked a momentous turning point in history and that they were somehow
fundamentally different from their medieval ancestors.

IV ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BASIS OF THE

RENAISSANCE A A Changing Economy
The civilization of the Renaissance was the creation of prosperous cities and of rulers who drew
substantial income from their urban subjects in the Italian city-states and the countries of England and
France. The commerce that kept cities alive also provided the capital and the flow of ideas that helped
build Renaissance culture. During the early Middle Ages foreign trade had virtually come to a halt.
By the 11th century, however, population growth and contact with other cultures through military
efforts such as the Crusades helped revive commercial activity. Trade slowly increased with the
exchange of luxury goods in the Mediterranean region and various commodities such as fish, furs, and
metals across the North and Baltic seas. Commerce soon moved inland, bringing new prosperity to
the citizens of towns along major trade routes. As traffic along these routes increased, existing
settlements grew and new ones were established.

The cities of Italy were strategically located between western Europe and the area along the eastern
shore of the Mediterranean Sea known as the Levant. Italy’s leadership in the Renaissance was due in
part to its central location for trade. The cities became important and wealthy commercial centers, and
the riches accumulated by the merchants of Venice, Genoa, Milan, and a host of smaller cities
supported Italy's political and cultural achievements.

Important towns developed beyond Italy as well. Especially with the expansion of trade, towns grew
along the Danube, Rhine, and Rhône rivers of Europe; around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea; and
in the Low Countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands where northern and southern
trade routes met. Wherever these towns were located, they became a unique element in a medieval
world that up to this time was dominated by seignorialism, an agricultural system in which the
primary economic and political relationship was between landowners and their tenants.

Capital that accumulated through trade was eventually available for other enterprises, notably banking
and, to a lesser degree, industry. The wealth of Florence, the leading cultural center of the
Renaissance, came particularly from these alternate enterprises because the city’s inland location
limited participation in large-scale commerce. At its height the Florentine textile industry employed
30,000 people, but it was banking that helped build the greatest family fortunes in Florence.

In the early 14th century, Florence became the banking center of Italy. The city’s importance as an
international financial center was reinforced in the 15th century by the Medici bank. Under the
management of Cosimo de' Medici, also known as Cosimo the Elder, this firm maintained branches in
the major cities of Europe. The bank loaned money to popes, rulers, and merchants; operated mines
and woolen mills; and carried on various other commercial enterprises. It accumulated huge profits
that were used to finance political activity and to support cultural activities.
Well before the end of the 15th century, other powers challenged the economic leadership of Italy. In
the kingdoms beyond the Alps, powerful rulers consolidated their control. This consolidation was
accompanied by the growing prosperity of local businesses and by efforts to dispense with the Italian
middlemen in trade. Rulers in France, England, and the Spanish kingdoms pursued policies favorable
to their own middle-class tradesmen. In central Europe, powerful banking houses, such as that of the
Fugger family in Augsburg, Germany, emerged at the encouragement of one of Europe’s most
prominent royal dynasties, the Habsburgs.
Portugal’s development of a direct sea route to Asia at the end of the 15th century also undercut
Italy’s role as the primary intermediary between the Far East and the Western world. Europe’s
expansion to other parts of the world was one of the most momentous developments of the
Renaissance era. The voyages of Italian-Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean
Sea in 1492 and of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama to India in 1498 set in motion a series of
explorations that sparked European imagination during the late Renaissance period.
These journeys intensified national rivalries. The Atlantic powers, including Spain, Portugal, and
France, competed for colonial territory and vastly increased their wealth. For Italy the geographical
discoveries had a less positive effect, however. They signaled the eventual transfer of the world’s
major commercial routes and, thus its wealth, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic seaboard. These
economic developments also exposed other countries to Renaissance ideas and gave them the
resources to rival Italy in cultural expansion.

B Urban Society
The relationship between economic prosperity and the achievements of the Renaissance is not direct.
The 14th century, which is generally regarded as the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, was a time
of economic stagnation and even contraction, at least compared to the centuries that preceded it.
Political disorder interfered with commerce; agricultural productivity appears to have declined; and
the outbreak of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, drastically reduced the population of many parts
of Europe. The 15th century probably saw some recovery, but it is not certain that this prosperity
matched the success of the 13th century, particularly in Italy. Although economic conditions had an
effect on the development of the Renaissance, economic prosperity and the accumulation of wealth
were not necessarily the most important factors in the achievements of the era.

Other factors related to economic growth were at least as important in stimulating the political and
cultural changes that became part of the Renaissance. Certainly one of these was the new environment
provided by the town, an environment that was a by-product of increased commercial activity. The
pursuit of wealth and the opportunity for traders and bankers to interact with the world beyond their
town walls created an atmosphere more open to new ideas and to innovation, experimentation, and
enterprise in all aspects of life.

The towns also developed a distinctive class structure. As urban areas grew in size and wealth, their
social and political organization became more complex. When towns were small, urban populations
tended to be homogeneous and democratic. With increased size and prosperity, the populations
became more diverse, with different social classes that varied in background and power.
Peasants migrated to the towns from the countryside, often to escape their status as serfs, and began to
form a growing working class that had no political rights. Members of the nobility who lived in the
towns made up another distinct class. Merchants who were engaged in large-scale commerce or other
particularly profitable enterprises gradually became differentiated from other tradesmen by their
greater wealth. As a ruling class developed that manipulated government for its own interests, the gulf
between social groups widened. By the 14th century the tensions generated by great inequalities of
wealth and power had reached the breaking point. Disorder followed and, as a result, ambitious
despots became the rulers of many Italian towns, then known as communes.

C Rural Society
Rural society also changed as a result of the development of trade and towns. The towns and noble
families of Italy, and later of northern Europe, provided the resources and the initiative behind the
Renaissance, but the majority of Europeans still lived in rural areas and worked the land. The new
urban markets for agricultural products steadily transformed a largely self-sufficient rural economy
into a system that produced goods for sale. Whereas landowners had previously required payments in
goods or services from their tenants or serfs, they now wanted to receive money in order to buy
products sold by the merchants. The agricultural labor system known as serfdom was slowly
transformed. In the new system, tenants held land based on money rents. The practice of making
collective decisions based on long-established customs, a tradition that was common in closely knit
medieval peasant communities, dissolved into a more independent kind of rural life.
Otherwise, the rural populations participated little in the new movements of the Renaissance. People
who lived in rural areas often suffered profoundly from the political decisions of the period, as they
bore the burdens of the warfare and economic reorganization that national rivalries and internal
struggles brought. In contrast, the cultural energy of the Renaissance hardly affected them at all. The
driving forces behind both the political and cultural changes of the period were the townspeople,
especially the urban elite, and the rulers with whom they were allied.

V POLITICS IN THE RENAISSANCE

Dramatic political changes occurred in Europe during the Renaissance. For many centuries after the
collapse of the western Roman Empire around 500, the only strong unifying force in Europe was the
Roman Catholic Church. However, the growth in commerce increasingly unified Europe
economically. Invasions from the outside declined, and rulers in the various countries gradually
consolidated their power. In most of Europe, the states they ruled became focused almost exclusively
on self-preservation. They operated with growing efficiency and increasingly used their power at
home as a basis for expansion abroad.

This trend developed in different ways in Italy than it did in areas north of the Alps. As towns grew in
Italy, they demanded self-rule and often developed into strong, independent city-states. In the
northern areas of Europe, national monarchs established their power over the nobility. During the
Renaissance, both of these political systems evolved from medieval roots, but neither was completely
transformed into a modern state. The advancements that did occur were accompanied by even greater
changes in attitudes toward politics.
The way was prepared for these changes by the decline of the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy, or
office of the pope. These two universal institutions played a large role in medieval politics. In the
medieval world, the Holy Roman emperor held political control over large amounts of territory in
central Europe and in Italy. The pope, as head of the Catholic Church, wielded spiritual authority over
all of Europe. The church and the state were viewed as two different aspects of one Christian society,
sometimes referred to as Christendom.
Despite the strong ties between church and state, popes and secular rulers frequently struggled with
each other for control over church administration and secular lands. Since the church was responsible
for the souls of the people, including the emperor himself, the popes claimed ultimate supremacy over
the state as well as the administration of the Catholic Church. At the same time, rulers sought to
protect and expand their power within their domains. In addition, the Holy Roman emperors were
frequently involved in struggles to control territory in Italy; they were generally opposed in this effort
by the popes.
In the 13th century this struggle for dominance between the emperor and the pope was almost fatal to
the authority of both. Innocent III, who became pope in 1197, tried to strengthen papal authority. He
claimed that the pope had the right to play a role in naming a new Holy Roman emperor after the
death of Henry VI. The maneuvering that followed greatly diminished the power of the emperor.
Henry’s son promised many concessions to the papacy in exchange for the pope’s support of his claim
to the throne; later, when he was named Frederick II, king of Germany and Holy Roman emperor, he
failed to fulfill all of his promises. After the death of Frederick II in 1250, the imperial throne was
vacant for over two decades. The German princes, whose lands made up most of the Holy Roman
Empire, took the opportunity to increase their own power.
The papacy was also weakened and discredited by its concentration on political control rather than
spiritual matters, and the papacy fell increasingly under French influence. Between 1309 and 1377 the
popes were forced to live in Avignon in the south of France under the domination of several French
monarchs; this papal exile is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity. The return of the
papal court to Rome was promptly followed by the so-called Great Schism that lasted from 1378 to
1417. During much of this period, three contenders vied for the title of pope. When the Council of
Constance unified the papacy in 1417 with the election of Martin V, the pope’s political authority
outside of the church was dead.

A Growth of the Italian City-States

In Italy the towns had taken advantage of the struggle between the popes and emperors and enlarged
their own power and independence. During the 14th century, many of these cities expanded their rule
to include much of the surrounding countryside.

The Italian city-states slowly consolidated their power, and by the 15th century five states controlled
the entire peninsula. The kingdom of Naples and Sicily in the south, in contrast to the northern states,
still retained the system of political and military relationships among the nobility known as feudalism.
In the Papal States, which occupied the center, the popes were preoccupied during the 15th century
with recovering the control they had lost during the period of Avignon and the Great Schism.
Florence dominated the Tuscany (Toscana) region to the north, although the state was plagued in the
14th century by class conflicts, which led eventually to a behind-the-scenes dictatorship by the
powerful Medici banking family. Milan was firmly controlled by the Visconti family that led Milan in
extending its empire over large areas of northern and central Italy. Venice, too, expanded on the
mainland to protect its trade routes and food supply. Its relatively unified population and its
complicated constitution kept class conflict at a minimum and preserved its republican government.
None of these powers was strong enough to control the others. Attempts at more than local conquest,
such as a move by the Visconti of Milan to expand southward, only united the other states in
opposition. A shaky equilibrium resulted, which was given formal recognition by the general Peace of
Lodi in 1454. This agreement is often cited as the first example of that basic principle of modern
international relations, the balance of power, in which states use alliances as a means of equalizing
political power. In fact, the most modern aspect of the states of the Italian Renaissance was their
relationship with one another. They behaved as independent and sovereign nations, rather than as
members of the broader community of Christendom. In order to carry on the diplomacy required by
this new idea of the state, they developed such techniques as the institution of resident ambassadors.

B Consolidation of Monarchies in Northern Europe Somewhat

later, a similar development occurred in the monarchies north of the Alps. During the last half of the
15th century in France, England, and Spain, strong rulers emerged. These rulers were far more
successful than earlier monarchs had been in securing the resources and developing the machinery of
effective centralized government. Not all aspects of the reigns of these "new monarchs"—Louis XI of
France, Henry VII of England, and Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain—were equally new, and they still
wielded far less power than later rulers would. In particular, with the possible exception of the French
king, these monarchs were limited in the essential ability to tax. Nevertheless, their reigns marked the
beginning of the development toward the modern state.
These European rulers had much in common. Their success was largely due to their subjects’ longing
for peace and order after prolonged civil wars in each country: the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)
in France, the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) in England, and factional struggles among the nobles of
Spain in the first half of the 15th century and before. These troubles were primarily caused by a
disorderly feudal system, in which the nobility had an interest in restricting the power of the king.
Monarchs soon realized that they could challenge the nobility, who had become their greatest
enemies, by forming alliances with townspeople. The wealth of city residents was based on trade, and
they owed no particular allegiance to members of the landholding or noble classes. Monarchs began
to serve as administrators rather than leaders of a constantly battling aristocracy. They developed a
new, professional bureaucracy staffed by lawyers and other non-noble subjects and used it to impose a
new degree of order and unity in their states.
The German king Maximilian I was unable to unify his empire in a similar fashion. He did bring
together the holdings of the Habsburg family in central Europe. In other regions, however,
increasingly ambitious rulers consolidated political power and adopted an attitude toward the use of
this power that closely resembled that of the princes of Italy.
The two political systems drew closer together during the latter part of the 15th century. The wealth of
Italy had always attracted the interest of outside powers, and disunity made Italy increasingly
vulnerable to attack and conquest. Beginning in 1494 when the armies of French king Charles VIII
marched into Italy, France and then Spain attempted conquest. They fought each other for dominance
until 1559, when Spain gained control of most of the peninsula. These wars effectively ended the
independence of the Italians until the 19th century.
The fighting in Italy disrupted daily life and destroyed wealth. The culture, which had flourished in
the independent atmosphere of the Italian city-states, now languished in a quite different environment.
Many scholars believe that this period marks the end of the Renaissance.
For the northern powers fighting in Italy, the wars interrupted the work of consolidation that the
preceding generation had begun. The war efforts used energy as well as resources that might have
aided the internal development of the northern domains. However, the wars also exposed northern
Europeans to the accomplishments and the attitudes of the Italian Renaissance. Between 1494 and the
16th-century religious revolution, known as the Reformation, Italian influences were widely
dispersed. These influences made a significant contribution to the development of the Renaissance
throughout Europe.

C New Approaches to Politics

New attitudes toward politics accompanied the new forms of political organization and behavior, both
in Italy and in the north. These changes first became evident in historical writing, and then appeared
in more theoretical works. During the Middle Ages, historians had used their own moral framework to
study the past; they depicted events as part of the destiny of all Christendom. In contrast, histories
composed by humanists such as Leonardo Bruni stressed the earthly progress of a particular place and
accounted for political developments in purely natural and nonreligious terms. These humanists
described human rather than divine control and direction of events, and they used their writings to
support causes that they considered patriotic or worthwhile.
By the 16th century, as Italy's troubles mounted, this tendency to free politics from any relationship to
religion became an important part of the thinking of a number of distinguished Florentine writers,
including the best known, Niccolň Machiavelli. Stimulated by the political crisis of his time,
Machiavelli sought to base statecraft or the art of governance on science rather than on Christian
principles. He focused on how to preserve the state by any effective means. His acceptance of the
principle that the end justifies the means, so bluntly expressed in his most famous work, Il principe
(1532; The Prince, 1640), reflects the degree to which the new political environment had changed
popular thinking.

This new political perspective also began to appear in the monarchies of the north. These ideas were
first introduced in the writings of humanists who came from Italy, but before the end of the 16th
century, northern Europeans had begun to develop similar philosophies. In his Six Livres de la
République (1576; Six Books of the Republic, 1606), for example, French historian Jean Bodin
advanced a theory of sovereignty that gave almost unlimited authority to the national ruler and that
was based on purely secular arguments.
This modern way of thinking about politics emerged during the Renaissance, but it was not
universally accepted at the time. Works such as Utopia, written by English statesman Sir Thomas
More in 1516, show that idealistic and religious attitudes toward politics still remained strong in this
era. Nevertheless, the modern secular state that recognized no higher law than its own welfare
originated in the Renaissance.

VI
THE CHURCH AND RELIGION IN THE
RENAISSANCE.
The history of Christianity during the Renaissance presents a number of sharp contrasts. In various
ways, the influence and prestige of the Catholic Church were declining. Its institutions were deeply
rooted in older patterns of life and traditional ways of thought, and these institutions were slow in
adapting to new conditions. For example, the church had long been an important part of the feudal
system, which was based on allegiances between lords and vassals. The Catholic Church had
difficulty adjusting to the demands of a society based on money rather than allegiances. As towns
grew, the parish priests and monks, who had served as the main religious teachers of the peasantry,
found that they knew little about the needs of the rising commercial class.
The prestige of the church also suffered when some church leaders sold their services, violated the
biblical laws they were entrusted with upholding, and lived no differently than secular merchants and
political figures. Furthermore, the leaders of the growing city-states, as well as the new monarchs, had
much less need of an alliance with the Catholic Church to maintain power than they had in the past.
The result was a series of failures, such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism, that
discredited and weakened the Catholic Church. Yet there is no evidence to suggest that significant
numbers of Europeans rejected Christianity as a result; on the contrary, during the 14th and 15th
centuries there was a widespread revival of popular religious fervor, reaching a climax in the
Reformation of the 16th century.

A Decline of the Roman Catholic Church

The 14th century had opened with the dramatic humiliation of the papacy, as the French king forced
the papal court to move to Avignon and made the church’s highest leadership appear to be pawns of
France. Disaster then followed disaster for the church. Instead of providing spiritual direction in a
rapidly changing world, the papal court was preoccupied with the development of its administrative
machinery and with the collection of revenue. The problems only grew worse with the Great Schism,
as rival popes competed for control. Although the papacy was reunited in 1417, it faced other
challenges to its authority and struggled to recover control of the Papal States, which it had lost during
the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism.
Certain Renaissance popes were learned, devout, and worthy leaders of the Catholic Church during
this difficult period. Notable examples are Nicholas V, who ruled in the mid-15th century, and Pius II,
who followed him. Other popes—such as Alexander VI, who took over the papacy in 1492, and Julius
II and Leo X, who held the position in the early 16th century—were chiefly concerned with politics,
the promotion of their families, or the patronage of the arts. These popes further weakened the ability
of the church to influence society. Under these conditions, local and national forces increasingly
challenged papal control over the church, and clerical discipline and morale deteriorated. Heresy
(challenges to church doctrine) flourished, and critics of the Catholic Church became more numerous
and outspoken.
 B Dissent, Reform, and Popular Religion
Dissent and concern over the condition of the church are evidence of the strength, not the weakness,
of religion. Christianity during the Renaissance presents a contradiction: Although the institution of
the Roman Catholic Church was in decay, there was extraordinary religious fervor in every part of
Europe. Preachers, such as the highly popular Girolamo Savonarola of Florence, called on sinners to
repent and enjoyed great success in Italy. A mystical religious movement that drew, in part, from the
teachings of German mystic Meister Eckhart flourished in the portion of western Germany known as
the Rhineland. Its members sought direct revelations from God without the church as an intermediary.
In the Low Countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands a movement known as the
devotio moderna emphasized individual and practical faith, a contrast with the more communal and
metaphysical faith of the Catholic Church.

These teachings spread through schools and gained public attention through The Imitation of Christ
(approximately 1424), a highly influential work usually attributed to Thomas ŕ Kempis, a German
monk and writer. Eager laymen built churches and chapels, and new devotional exercises—such as
the stations of the cross and prayers using the rosary—became popular. With the introduction of the
printing press in Europe during the 15th century, religious books were produced by the millions, and
they found a ready market.

The increase in popular devotion posed a threat to traditional religion, especially when the prestige of
church officials was low and they seemed incapable of, or uninterested in, close supervision of the
faithful. Popular heretical movements emerged and challenged papal authority. These movements
proposed, in varying degrees, to do away with the church as an institution. In the 14th century, British
philosopher and reformer John Wycliffe and his counterpart in Bohemia, Jan Hus, formalized these
attacks on church authority in their teachings and writings.
Heretics remained a small minority, however, and a variety of reformers who hoped to change the
existing church were far more characteristic of the Renaissance. Theologians such as Jean de Gerson,
who was particularly influential at the University of Paris in the early 15th century, supported
conciliar theory, which aimed at reforming the Roman Catholic Church by placing supreme authority
in a general council rather than in the papacy. Mystics preferred to deepen the religious life of
individuals, while many humanists hoped to reform Christian society by relying on education rather
than on religious faith.
The Renaissance also encouraged practical reformers. As papal legate (official representative of the
pope) to Germany in the mid-15th century, Nicholas of Cusa pursued a vigorous reform campaign
directed particularly at monks who had violated their monastic vows. The monasteries in Paris also
underwent significant reform in the early decades of the 16th century. Most successful of all was the
work of Cardinal Ximenes, the leading church figure of Spain in the early 16th century. He set
standards for qualifications, training, and discipline for the Spanish clergy. Such reforms were by no
means universal, and the visible condition of the church continued to bring widespread demands for
reform. The religious history of the Renaissance reveals both weakness and vigor. People of this era
expressed discontent with the actual state of the church, but they also expressed hope for
improvement.

VII HUMANISM
The dominant intellectual movement of the Renaissance was humanism, a philosophy based on the
idea that people are rational beings. It emphasized the dignity and worth of the individual, an
emphasis that was central to Renaissance developments in many areas. Humanism originated in the
study of classical culture, and it took its name from one of the era’s earliest and most crucial
concerns: the promotion of a new educational curriculum that emphasized a group of subjects known
collectively as the studia humanitatis, or the humanities.

Humanities disciplines included grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and ethics. These subjects were all
studied, whenever possible, in the original classical texts. The humanities curriculum conflicted
directly with more traditional education that was based on scholasticism. A scholastic education
concentrated on the study of logic, natural philosophy (science), and metaphysics, or the nature of
reality. Scholars often clashed sharply over these two systems of education.
Far more was at stake in these academic controversies than the content of education. Scholastic
training prepared students for careers in fields such as medicine, law, and, above all, theology. The
humanists believed that this scholastic course of study was focused too narrowly on only a few
professions. They claimed that it was not based sufficiently on practical experience or the needs of
society, but relied too heavily on abstract thought. The humanists proposed to educate the whole
person and placed emphasis not only on intellectual achievement, but also on physical and moral
development.

The humanists also stressed the general responsibilities of citizenship and social leadership.
Humanists felt that they had an obligation to participate in the political life of the community. From
their perspective, the specialized disciplines taught by the scholastics had failed to instill a respect for
public duty.
Underlying the differences between these two philosophies was the humanists’ deep conviction that
society had outgrown older ways of thought. According to the humanists, these ways of thought
emphasized abstract speculation and relied too heavily on Christian teachings. Many of the humanists
were townspeople who were not directly associated with the church. These urban residents tended to
object to an educational system that was largely monopolized by the clergy and oriented to clerical
needs. Humanists were accustomed to the ever-changing, concrete activities of city life and found the
rigid and closed systems of abstract thought to be both useless and irrelevant. In sum, humanism
reflected the new environment of the Renaissance. Its essential contribution to the modern world was
not its concern with antiquity, but its flexibility and openness to all the possibilities of life.
Renaissance humanism was complex, with few unifying features beyond a common belief that
humanity and society could be improved through a new kind of education based on a study of the
classics. Humanists varied widely in the ways they applied these ideas to areas that interested them.
Some humanists were mainly interested in rhetoric and Latin prose style, while others analyzed
ancient texts to determine exact meanings. One group focused on ways to improve society in general,
while Christian humanism applied the techniques of humanist scholarship to the study of church
documents, particularly the Bible.

A Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca, known as Petrarch, incorporated most elements of Renaissance humanism into his
work. Called the first great humanist, Petrarch was born in 1304 near Florence and spent much of his
life in the cities of Italy. He absorbed the typical urban emphasis on the practical and concrete
experiences of daily life. Petrarch traveled widely, climbed mountains simply to see what he could
see, and displayed a keen interest in the human personality, most notably his own. The classics further
nourished his interest in broad human experience.
Petrarch was displeased by what he saw in the world. He wavered between nostalgic contemplation of
the ideal world of antiquity and active efforts to improve his own times. He acted as an emissary for
the duke of Milan, attempted to serve as peacemaker in Italy’s constant wars, and urged the pope to
end his exile in Avignon during the Babylonian Captivity. He also attacked the scholastics for their
failure to address the true needs of humanity.
Petrarch believed in the possibility of a better future, and he hoped, above all, to better the world by
the study of classical literature. He admired the formal beauty of classical writing and considered it a
remedy for contemporary ugliness. To promote the study of classical literature, he collected ancient
texts during his travels. He studied and imitated them in Latin writings of his own, and then attempted
to extend their teachings to as many other people as possible.

B Development of Humanism
After Petrarch, humanism spread first in Italy and then beyond the Alps. Most of Petrarch’s early
followers were little more than enthusiastic, and somewhat amateurish, classical scholars. Through
one of his friends, Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch’s influence was transmitted to
Florence. In the mid- to late 14th century, a number of scholars in Florence collected and studied
ancient works, lectured about them, imitated their style, and made the city a center of humanistic
learning. Among them were Boccaccio, the scholar Niccolň Niccoli, and above all the Florentine
government leader, Coluccio Salutati.
Some humanists became experts in rhetoric, and town governments frequently employed them to give
style to formal documents, to compose speeches for public occasions, and to write official histories.
These humanists often became so pretentious and artificial that they eventually lost sight of
significant issues in their focus on technique and detail. By the early 16th century a few of these
humanists cultivated such an extremely pure style of Latin that they would only employ words used
by the ancient Roman orator Cicero. It was primarily this type of humanist who was responsible for
the frequent accusation that humanism was a frivolous pursuit and that, far from reviving Latin, it
finally killed the language by isolating it from everyday life.
Other humanists adopted an entirely different and more political approach to classical studies. Many
of the humanists of Florence, led by historian Leonardo Bruni, became fervently patriotic. Their
patriotism was in part a response to frequent armed attacks by Milan, a rival city-state, during the first
decades of the 15th century. As they began to apply classical teachings to their immediate problems,
they found that ancient Roman literature encouraged love of country and offered practical historical
lessons. These humanists also took a positive attitude toward their native language; they applied
classical literary standards to everyday writing, laying a foundation for later literary development.
Their interest in the destiny of Florence influenced them to write seriously about the city’s past and
stimulated the emergence of the modern historical perspective.

The work of Lorenzo Valla during the first half of the 15th century inspired a new quality in humanist
scholarship. Valla studied ancient texts with an increased rigor and contributed significantly to the
development of textual and historical criticism. Vittorino da Feltre, a teacher at the palace school of
Mantua (Mantova) during the early 15th century, worked to establish the humanist goal of educating
the whole person for a life of political leadership. This ideal was popularized by Il cortegiano (1528;
Book of the Courtier, 1561) by Italian diplomat Conte Baldassare Castiglione, a work that circulated
throughout Europe. Castiglione’s treatise on proper training and values for members of the royal court
influenced the upbringing of the European ruling classes for centuries.
During the 15th century, a steadily increasing number of Italian humanists learned Greek. For the first
time since ancient times Greek texts were being read in the original language in western Europe. A
whole new body of ideas became available for the humanists to study, and this led to a more precise
understanding of Greek philosophy.
In particular, the Greek philosopher Plato increasingly gained respect among the humanists. His most
prominent Renaissance disciple was Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino, who in the late 15th century
led scholars at the Florentine Academy into more serious study of Plato’s work. Ficino hoped to make
Plato a new guide for Western thought, just as scholastic thinkers had based many of their ideas on
the work of Plato’s student Aristotle.

C Humanism in Northern Europe

Italy had always been an important educational center, attracting numerous students from abroad and
sending its own scholars to work in countries beyond the Alps. Well before the end of the 15th
century, the ideas and interests of the Italian humanists had spread into much of Western Europe.
Humanism was promoted not only by scholars trained in Italy, but also by those who had traveled in
Italy and adopted the humanists’ ideas, such as English theologian John Colet and German poet
Conrad Celtis.
Northern humanism exhibited many of the same qualities as Italian humanism, but it was strongly
influenced by its different setting. Italian humanists saw Roman history as a glorious episode in their
own national past, a past that had been interrupted when Germanic and other peoples invaded the
empire beginning in the 5th century. Northern Europeans did not identify as strongly with ancient
Rome and often approached the Middle Ages with more sympathy. Northern society retained stronger
ties to Christianity than Italy did, and the northern humanists were less hostile to scholasticism.
By the time humanism had taken root in the north, the Reformation had begun to gain momentum. As
a result, northern humanism is generally identified with Christian humanism, a movement that
attempted to apply the scholarly techniques of humanism to the study of religious documents.
Christian humanists studied the Bible directly, ignoring medieval interpretations. As their knowledge
of languages increased, the humanists also read the biblical texts in the original Greek and Hebrew.
Their work in translating and analyzing original sources often uncovered discrepancies among these
sources, which led to questions about the Catholic Church’s practices and encouraged efforts for
reform.
The best-known Christian humanist was Dutch writer and scholar Desiderius Erasmus. His numerous
works of classical and biblical scholarship, including a Latin translation of the New Testament as well
as a Greek edition based on recently discovered manuscripts, gave him an unequaled reputation in the
world of letters. He condemned overly rigid belief systems, favoring more flexibility and tolerance.
His views influenced large numbers of both Catholics and Protestants for generations.
The Christian humanists, like other religious reformers of the Renaissance, generally considered
themselves to be good Catholics. They were receptive to change, but believed strongly in the unity of
the church and the preservation of a reformed Catholic tradition. For this reason Erasmus and other
Christian humanists refused to accept the arguments of German theologian Martin Luther, who
condemned some of the basic teachings of the Catholic Church. As a result, the contributions of
Christian humanism to the Reformation were largely indirect. Humanists inspired the spirit of
questioning and skepticism that characterized the Reformation, but they would not support Luther’s
notion that major doctrines of the Catholic Church could be proved wrong with absolute certainty.

VIII SCIENCE IN THE RENAISSANCE

The age of the Renaissance occupies a crucial place in the history of science, but the nature and extent
of humanism’s contribution to science are difficult to measure. Humanism had an indirect impact on
many fields of scientific inquiry. Humanist scholarship made available the scientific writings of
antiquity, which are known to have influenced 16th-century Polish astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus
and possibly other Renaissance scientists. The humanists’ study of Plato contributed to new
conceptions of the universe that relied on mathematical rather than descriptive approaches.

The Renaissance spirit of curiosity, experimentation, and objectivity were also important to the
development of science in Europe. Renaissance scholars emphasized concrete experience over
abstract theory and tried to observe the natural world carefully, completely, and without preconceived
ideas. This spirit of impartial inquiry was more important to the future of science than any specific
achievement.

The scientific advances of the Renaissance were evident in many fields. In medicine, Belgian
physician Andreas Vesalius dissected cadavers and made numerous discoveries about human
anatomy. The spirit of curiosity was also extended to exploration and navigation. Italian-Spanish
navigator Christopher Columbus, English explorer Sir Francis Drake, and others made use of the
latest inventions and discoveries in navigation, astronomy, and mathematics. Artists explored the
mathematical relationships inherent in nature. They closely studied perspective, investigating how to
portray depth and depict objects as they appeared to the eye. Florentine artist Leonardo da Vinci
united art with science in his studies of the structures and processes of nature, as well as in his designs
for machines and mechanical devices. Important inventions such as gunpowder, the printing press,
and the compass were practical results of Renaissance scientific inquiry.

Despite these influences, the humanists made few direct contributions to the sciences; indeed, their
emphasis on a polished style and their dislike of ordered thought may well have slowed scientific
advance. The major contributions to science during this period were made by the same scholastic
thinkers whose work, according to the humanists, did not address the real needs of humanity.

The scholastics were also responsible for a great breakthrough in Western thinking on the nature of
the universe. The chief obstacle to the emergence of modern science lay in a view of nature that was
based on the ideas of Aristotle and of Christian theologians. According to this view, the entire
physical universe was centered on humankind, and there was a basic purpose to all movement.
Gravity was explained as the inclination of all bodies to be at the center of the earth; acceleration was
believed to be a consequence of the growing eagerness of a falling body as it moved closer to its
natural home. Such a view of the universe was still essentially supernatural and could not be studied
objectively or by experimentation. The most significant achievement of Renaissance science was the
introduction of the concept of the universe as an entity that could be approached objectively.
Scholars brought these ideas to the University of Padua in Italy, where other thinkers, notably 15th-
century Italian theologian Cajetan, further developed them and explained their implications. Padua
(Padova) became the scientific capital of Europe. Almost every great scientist was associated at one
time or another with the University of Padua, from Polish astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus in the
early 16th century to Italian astronomer Galileo and English physician William Harvey in the 17th
century. Scholastic speculation reached its peak at Padua and provided essential preparation for the
more dramatic achievements of scientists such as Johannes Kepler of Germany and Sir Isaac Newton
of England in formulating the laws of motion. The new scientific attitude that arose at Padua during
the Renaissance emphasized objectivity and experimentation, and represented another significant
accomplishment of the period.

IX THE ARTS IN THE RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance will always be closely associated with achievements in literature, art, and music (see
Renaissance Art and Architecture). In painting, sculpture, and architecture the Renaissance tended to
break with medieval traditions. Painting and sculpture were no longer considered crafts to be used
exclusively for the embellishment of churches and cathedrals; instead, they became independent arts
on a level with the highest intellectual accomplishments. The use of mathematics and geometry in
achieving proportion and perspective in works of art exemplified the new merging of art and science
that was a prime characteristic of the Renaissance. In Italy, surviving examples of classical Roman
sculpture and architecture were always present, and the classical past provided artists with the basis
for new inspiration.
Contributions to the arts were closely related to the broad transformations that were taking place in
society. The sense of change in all aspects of life created a favorable atmosphere for artistic
experimentation and innovation. Wealth that accumulated in the towns helped support writers and
artists. Above all, a new and more varied public audience emerged with expanded tastes and interests.
Prosperous townspeople and members of the royal courts demanded greater refinement in the arts and
more variety in both form and content. They encouraged artistic treatment of the world in which they
lived, but they also valued the classical heritage. This heritage seemed to resemble their own
civilization and provided a wealth of ideas and formal models for changes in the arts. In these ways,
the Renaissance played a crucial role in the development of modern creative expression.

A Literature
Renaissance attitudes and philosophy had a complex influence on the evolution of literature. The
humanist reverence for the classics of ancient Greece and Rome tended to stifle spontaneous literary
creation and to encourage unimaginative imitation of classical authors. However, the restless curiosity
of the Renaissance, the interest in the world, and the exposure to urban influences created a demand
for a vernacular, or native, literature that expressed the new excitement and variety of contemporary
life. Secular writing had always played some role in medieval life, but under the influence of the
classics it acquired a new sophistication and polish. Moreover, Renaissance individuality, with its
concern for personal fame, encouraged writers to try daring experiments in order to win praise from
the critics and support from influential patrons.

Dante Alighieri, who wrote during the 13th century, is often said to represent the transition in
literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Although his philosophy of life was rooted in the
religious outlook of the Middle Ages, his great epic poem La divina commedia (1307; The Divine
Comedy) reflects his powerful interest in all aspects of human life and behavior. The vivid language
and imagery of The Divine Comedy, probably begun in 1307, paved the way for such later works as
Giovanni Boccaccio's Il Decamerone (1353; The Decameron, 1620), a collection of realistic prose
tales famous for their vivid and witty observations of contemporary life. Both Dante and Boccaccio
were important in establishing the use of contemporary Italian rather than Latin as the standard
language for literature in Italy. The love sonnets of Petrarch were also written in vernacular Italian;
they were widely imitated throughout Europe and further increased the prominence of the Italian
language.
In the late 15th century the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, stimulated the development of
Italian poetry, which had languished since the death of Petrarch nearly 100 years earlier. Poets and
scholars from all over Italy were attracted to Lorenzo's court. This revival led to works such as the
epic romance Orlando Furioso (1516, revised 1521 and 1532) by Ludovico Ariosto and the pastoral
romance Arcadia (1504) by Jacopo Sannazzaro.

During the 16th century, Italian literature produced a number of outstanding prose works. Among
them are The Prince, a study of the use of political power by Niccolň Machiavelli; The Book of the
Courtier, a treatise on courtly etiquette written by Baldassare Castiglione; and the autobiography of
sculptor Benvenuto Cellini detailing his wild escapades.
It was also during the 16th century that the influence of Italian Renaissance literature was felt
throughout Europe. In Spain, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra wrote his allegorical novel Don Quixote
(Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615). In France, Pierre de Ronsard applied the lessons of classicism to French
verse; François Rabelais wrote lusty, vigorous caricatures of the world around him; and Michel
Eyquem de Montaigne wrote essays exploring his innermost thoughts with the same objectivity that
others had reserved for the external world. The Renaissance also produced great literature in England.
Of note are the sonnets of Sir Philip Sidney; the epic The Faerie Queene (published in successive
editions, 1590-1609) by Edmund Spenser; and the plays of Christopher Marlowe, William
Shakespeare, and other dramatists who wrote during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

B Painting
Renaissance painters turned from the purely religious subjects of the Middle Ages to a depiction of
the natural world. Technical advances in the representation of perspective, anatomy, and light and
shadow were matched by a great expansion in subject matter. Portraits, studies of the human form,
animals, landscapes, scenes of daily life, and historic events all joined religious subjects as acceptable
material for the painter.

Giotto, a 14th-century Florentine painter, is often considered the forerunner of Renaissance painting.
He broke with the highly formalized style of medieval painting, in which static, expressionless, two-
dimensional figures were arranged in size and form according to their symbolic importance. Giotto
based his art on observation of the real world and tried to use space and light more dramatically.

In the 15th century the artists of Florence, led by Masaccio, began to use scientific principles to solve
problems of perspective and to develop new techniques for representing light and shade. At the same
time, the painters of Venice experimented with color to produce a more natural effect.

During the Middle Ages the Catholic Church had been almost the sole patron of the arts, and most of
the artwork produced had religious themes. By the 1400s private collectors and patrons began to
demand paintings of secular subjects. Personal portraiture also appeared in the works of artists such as
Piero della Francesca and Sandro Botticelli.
Representation of the natural world, however, was not enough for the great artists of the later Italian
Renaissance. The masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo reveal not only the
complete mastery of earlier technical advances, but also profound reflection on the nature of the
material world and an effort to represent ideal qualities that underlie outward appearances. The work
of Flemish artists such as Jan van Eyck in the 15th century suggests a common interest in concrete
detail, but for the rest of Europe, the major impact of the new movement in art did not occur until the
17th century.

C Sculpture
During the Middle Ages, sculpture, like all medieval art, was subordinated to religious architecture
and the needs of the Catholic Church. Although late medieval sculpture, known as Gothic (see Gothic
Art and Architecture), was more realistic than earlier medieval sculpture, it was still highly stylized to
symbolize certain religious ideas and conventions. However, Italian medieval sculpture had always
preserved some elements of the classical tradition. In the 13th century, Italian sculptors Nicola and
Giovanni Pisano combined Gothic conventions with the freer, more dynamic naturalism of the ancient
Greeks and Romans. In the early 15th century, increasing mastery of materials and techniques,
together with greater expressiveness, was achieved by sculptors Jacopo della Quercia and Lorenzo
Ghiberti. In his relief panels for the east door of the baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, Ghiberti
incorporated levels of perspective and effects of light and shade that had seemed possible only in
painting.

Both Quercia and Ghiberti still conceived of sculpture as ornamental relief for religious architecture.
It remained for Ghiberti's contemporary Donatello to construct figures that were natural in form and
could be viewed from all sides. Among the other important sculptors of the early Renaissance were
Andrea del Verrocchio and members of the Robbia family. Renaissance sculpture reached its peak in
the early 16th century, primarily with the works of Michelangelo.

D Architecture
Renaissance architecture, like Renaissance sculpture, was largely inspired by the rediscovery of
classical forms and principles. In the 15th century, architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon
Battista Alberti saw in the ruins of ancient Rome the foundation for a new architecture based on the
principles of geometry and mathematics. Brunelleschi produced the first great works of Renaissance
architecture in buildings such as the Church of San Lorenzo and the Pazzi Chapel in Florence. Alberti
wrote theoretical treatises explaining the principles of Roman architect Vitruvius. His work on the
Church of San Francesco, a Gothic church in the central Italian city of Rimini, is typical of the early
Renaissance. It illustrates the tendency to remodel old buildings by adding classical approaches to
form, such as the use of symmetry, and classical features, such as arches and columns.

An important Renaissance contribution to the development of Western architecture was the revival of
the dome, an architectural feature that was first introduced by the Romans. Brunelleschi's great dome
on the cathedral of Florence is one of the outstanding achievements of the period. Renaissance
architects were also interested in secular buildings of all kinds, including palaces, libraries, and
theaters. Outstanding examples of secular Renaissance architecture include Florence’s Palazzo
Medici-Riccardi by Italian architect Michelozzo and the Olympic Theater and Villa Rotonda,
designed by Andrea Palladio and located in the northern Italian town of Vicenza. Palladio's use of
columns and domes in houses and villas illustrates the application of classical principles of design to
secular structures.
Another important Renaissance architect was Donato Bramante. His Tempietto, a shrine in Rome, is
an outstanding example of a circular building with a domed roof, a popular form during the
Renaissance. Raphael, Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi, Giacomo da Vignola, Michelangelo, and
members of the Sangallo family were all among the outstanding Renaissance architects of the 16th
century.

E Music
A similar interest in experimentation and a desire to meet the needs of the secular world applies to the
history of music during the Renaissance. Innovations in this field began with the musicians of France
and the Low Countries. French composers such as Guillaume de Machaut in the 14th century and
Josquin Desprez in the late 15th and early 16th centuries established the principles of polyphonic
(multivoice) and contrapuntal music (see counterpoint). Flemish composer Orlando de Lassus applied
these principles to a wide range of musical forms in the 16th century.

As these innovations were taking place, music also grew increasingly secular and was enjoyed in
many settings outside of the church. Both men and women of the upper classes were expected to
understand music and to perform it. They regularly amused themselves by singing poetic musical
compositions called madrigals or by playing a variety of instruments, including lutes, viols, and a
form of harpsichord called a virginal.
Attention to the musical tastes of secular society also affected sacred music. Not only were the
technical innovations applied to music for the church, but frequently sacred melodies were used for
more popular entertainment. The leaders of the Counter Reformation within the Catholic Church
eventually intervened to halt this tendency. The sacred music of 16th-century Italian composer
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina represents an effort to restore a devotional spirit to music without
sacrificing the technical innovations made by the earlier composers of the Renaissance.

X LEGACY OF THE RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance was a time when long-standing beliefs were tested, and Europeans became
increasingly confident that they were creating a whole new culture. It was a period of intellectual
ferment that prepared the ground for the thinkers and scientists of the 17th century. The Renaissance
idea that humankind rules nature, for example, contributed to the development of modern science and
technology. Renaissance thinkers used classical precedents to preserve and defend the concepts of
republicanism and human freedom. These ideas had a permanent impact on the course of English
constitutional theory. Renaissance political thought may also have been a source for the form of
government adopted in the United States. Above all, however, the Renaissance left to the world
monuments of artistic beauty that define Western culture.