Why Italy? The Italian cities
After the fall of the western Roman Empire, Italian towns shrank. From the 12th century they grew again as trade between Europe, the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic lands passed through them. Venice and Genoa were rich port republics, Florence was a centre of banking and wool, and Rome was the seat of the Pope. In cities like Venice, rich merchants and bankers took part in government, and people began to see themselves as citizens. Universities such as Padua and Bologna taught law and medicine.
The French word Renaissance means rebirth. In the 19th century the historian Jacob Burckhardt used it for this time.
Humanism and new ways of writing history
Humanism was a new kind of learning. Humanists read old Greek and Roman texts again and taught grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy (the humanities). Petrarch (1304–78) was an early humanist. They believed humans can shape their own lives by effort and study, not only by birth. Many Greek texts had been saved and explained by Arab scholars such as Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd, whose works reached Europe.
Humanists divided history into ancient, the Middle Ages and a modern age of reborn learning. The printing press (Gutenberg, 1455) made books cheap, so ideas travelled fast. Rich patrons such as the Medici family of Florence supported scholars and artists.
Realism in art and architecture
Artists wanted to show the world as the eye sees it: this is realism. They used perspective, where lines meet at a vanishing point, light and shade, and oil paint. They studied anatomy to draw bodies correctly. Leonardo da Vinci painted and also studied plants, machines and flying. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and carved statues. Dürer made fine prints in Germany.
Architects copied Roman arches, columns and domes. Brunelleschi designed the huge dome of Florence Cathedral. St Peter's in Rome was rebuilt in this style, which we call classical. Artists now signed their work and became famous as individuals.
The aspirations of women
Most new ideas reached only men of the upper classes. Women had little say in public life; their dowries helped family businesses. But a few educated women stood out. Cassandra Fedele of Venice wrote that women too should get a humanist education. Isabella d'Este ruled Mantua while her husband was away and filled her court with learning. Such women argued that ability, not gender, should decide what a person can do.
The Reformation and the Catholic response
Many Christians were unhappy that the Church was rich and sold indulgences, papers said to free people from punishment for sins. Humanists like Erasmus and Thomas More criticised this. In 1517 Martin Luther, a German monk, wrote 95 theses (points) against it and said people needed only faith to reach God. His ideas spread by print. This Protestant Reformation led to new churches: Lutheran in Germany, Calvinist in Switzerland (Zwingli, Calvin), and in England the king became head of the Church. Anabaptists went further and asked for social equality; Luther opposed the peasant revolt of 1525.
The Catholic Church also changed: it banned the sale of indulgences, stressed education and simple living, and Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540 to serve the poor and spread the faith.
The scientific revolution
Christians had believed that the Earth stood still at the centre of the universe. Copernicus (1473–1543) said the planets, including the Earth, move round the Sun. Kepler showed that planets move in ellipses, not circles. Galileo used a telescope and argued for moving bodies and a Sun-centred system; the Church put him on trial. Isaac Newton explained gravity (1687). Scientists now trusted observation and experiment. Scientific societies such as the Royal Society of London (1662) were formed.
The age of exploration
Europeans wanted gold, spices and to spread Christianity. The compass, better ships and new maps helped. Portugal sent ships round Africa: Bartolomeu Dias reached the southern tip in 1488 and Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498. Sailing for Spain, Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492 and reached islands of the Americas. One ship of Magellan's fleet went right round the world (1519–22). These voyages brought wealth to Europe but brought conquest, disease and slavery to the peoples of the Americas and Africa.
Try it: draw with perspective
Put a dot in the middle of a page (the vanishing point). Draw a road: two lines from the bottom corners to the dot. Add trees that get smaller as they near the dot. Your flat page now looks deep. Compare with step 3 of the 3D.
Key formulas and definitions
- Renaissance = rebirth (14th–17th c.), term popularised by Burckhardt
- Humanism = study of Greek/Roman texts + belief in human effort; humanities = grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, moral philosophy
- Perspective: parallel lines meet at one vanishing point
- 1455 Gutenberg printing · 1517 Luther's 95 theses · 1540 Jesuits · 1543 Copernicus · 1609 Galileo's telescope · 1687 Newton
- Voyages: 1488 Dias · 1492 Columbus · 1498 da Gama · 1519–22 Magellan's fleet
Worked examples
1. Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?
Italian cities were rich from trade between Europe, Byzantium and the Islamic world; merchants and bankers paid for learning and art; Roman ruins and old texts were close at hand; and universities like Padua and Bologna already taught law and medicine.
2. How did printing help the Reformation?
Luther's writings were printed in thousands of copies in German, so ordinary people could read his ideas quickly, far beyond one town.
3. How is Copernicus's model different from the old model?
Old: Earth at the centre, Sun and planets go round it. Copernicus: Sun at the centre, Earth and other planets go round the Sun.
4. Name one woman of the Renaissance and what she did.
Isabella d'Este ruled the state of Mantua while her husband was away and made her court a centre of art and learning.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the Renaissance was only about art. It also changed learning, religion, science and ideas about people.
- Saying Luther started the Catholic Church. He protested against it; the Protestant churches came from his movement.
- Mixing up Copernicus (Sun-centred idea, 1543) with Newton (gravity, 1687).
- Thinking only Europeans preserved Greek learning. Arab scholars translated and explained many Greek texts.