AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

Focus Question: What characteristics distinguish the Renaissance from the Middle-Ages?

Definition of Renaissance Critical Thinking:

 Rebirth or revival
 A movement or period of vigorous artistic & intellectual activity
 Origins: Florence, Italy
PERIODIZATION:
 Analyze Middle Ages vs. Renaissance handout & make 3 generalizations What makes the Renaissance a separate &
of how the Renaissance era differs from the Middle-Ages and 3 of how distinct period from that of the Middle
they are the same. Ages? What are characteristics that
define it as such?

Focus Question: What major social changes occurred during the Renaissance?
Print Interactive Notes:
 Gutenberg’s Printing Press Impacts:
 Made printing easier/faster
 Moved individual letters to form words
 Stimulated literacy

Education
 Humanists preoccupied with education
 Goal of state structure of education
 Focused on education of rulers

Written Works
 Taught & developed social manners
 Manners extremely crude: spit, belch, blow nose, ate with fingers
 Book of etiquette by Castiglione The Courtier (1528)
 Provided model for training & behavior for the gentlemen or upper
classes
 What book said a courtier or gentleman should be (list below):

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance
Machiavelli Critical Thinking:
 Hoped to unite all Italians How could Machiavelli’s ideas challenge
 Become patriotic like Romans the “old order” structures of authority?
 Felt other states would prey on Italy if not united
 Result of Prince: Religion & politics separate

Women-Aristocracy
 During Renaissance status of upper-class women declined
 Less power than women in feudal age
 Belonged to home
 Rape not crime against victim or society
 Bettered educated than medieval women, but only prepared
for social functions Did women have a Renaissance?
 Woman to make herself pleasing to man

Women-Ordinary
 Lives largely unaffected by Renaissance
 Normal economic functions remained
 Rural assisted husbands
 Industry weaved cloth, etc.
 Few girls received education

Focus Question Answer:

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

Focus Question: How did Machiavelli’s works reflect the political realities of Renaissance Italy?

Italian City States Critical Thinking:

 Northern Italian cities developed international trade: Genoa, CAUSATION: How were the Italian City
Venice, Milan States able to rise and become powerful &
 popolo (middle class) took power in 13th century; republican provide growth for the Renaissance to
gov’t short-lived occur there?
 signori (despots) or oligarchies (rule of merchant
aristocracies) by 1300

Major City-States & Figures

 Republic of Florence (Included Republic of Genoa)
 Medici family
Cosimo De’Medici (1389-1464): allied with other powerful families of
Florence and became unofficial ruler of the republic
Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492): lavish patron of the arts
 Duchy of Milan -- Sforza family (Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), great
art patron)
 Rome, the Papal States – papacy (“Renaissance popes”)
 Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
 Venice, Venetian Republic
 Isabella d’Este (1474-1539): most famous Renaissance female ruler
(ruled Mantua)
 City-States small but wealthy – vulnerable to attack
 Charles VIII (1483-1498), French invasions of Italy; Italy became
battleground for international ambitions
 Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) -- The Prince (1513) –
 ** Charles V of HRE, sack of Rome in 1527: symbolizes end of
Renaissance in Italy
What do you think impacted and shaped
Opposing Viewpoints (page 345): Machiavelli’s ideas for a ruler in Italy?
What characteristics of a ruler do Machiavelli and Erasmus share?

How do they differ?

COMPARISON: How did each man reflect different Renaissance values and
qualities?

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AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance
Focus Question: What was humanism, and what effect did it have on philosophy, education, attitudes toward politics,
and the writing of history?

Italian Humanism Critical Thinking:

 Humanism: Revival of antiquity/classics (Greece and Rome) in What were the humanities that humanists
literature studied? Why?
 Shifted away from theology toward classical texts
 Emphasized education through Latin & Greek texts
 Resulted in a challenge to institutional power of universities
& Catholic Church
 Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) Oration on the Dignity of Man;
Platonic academy
 Education: (emphasis on Latin and Greek)
 Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) – The Book of the Courtier
 Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) – wrote history of Florence; division of
historical periods; narrative form; civic humanist; first to use term
“humanism”
 Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457)—On the False Donation of Constantine
(1444); study of Latin

Individualism & Secularism How do individualism and secularism

 Celebration of individual achievements relate to humanism?
 Rise of materialism
 “man is the measure of all things”
 virtú: the quality of being a great man in whatever noble pursuit
 Allowed individuals to rise during Renaissance

Expansion of Humanist Ideas

 Civic Humanism:
 emphasis on Man as actively engaged in the world as the
center of power
 Based on classical ideals of being active citizens
 Neoplatonism:
 forged medieval interpretations of Plato with Italian
humanists – hierarchy from lowest level to highest (humans
fall in middle)
 Hermeticism:
 divinity embodied in all aspects of nature

Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man (page 348)

Provide 2 examples of how Mirandola’s work is a demonstration of
individualism.

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AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

1. What did Pico mean by the “dignity of man?”

2. Why would Pico be regarded as one of the Renaissance magi?

3. CONTEXTUALIZATION: How did Pico combine reverence for God with the typically Renaissance celebration of
man?

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

Focus Question: What were the chief characteristics of Renaissance art, and how did it differ in Italy and northern
Europe?

Why a growth in art??? Critical Thinking:

Princes & popes commissioned paintings & architectural works to How do you think the Catholic Church will
enhance their prestige respond to artists painting/sculpting
Artists incorporated the ideas (humanism, secularism, humans nude?
individualism) of the Renaissance into their works
Incorporated new techniques such as geometric perspective

Early Renaissance-Florence
More realistic
Including portrayal of the human nude
Laws of perspective
Fresco paintings
Shaped by humanism = Greco Roman classics

Filippo Brunelleschi’s Duomo

Classical architecture inspired by studying Roman ruins in Rome
Interested in Roman engineering & fixed proportion
The Pantheon’s dome fascinated him – how did it stay up?
Use of Roman concrete over timber frame?
Not enough timber in Tuscany & Roman concrete lost to history
so…
Instead he used an inner hemispherical dome within Florence
cathedral's octagonal drum.
A second, ovoid (egg shaped) brick dome was to be placed on top,
and nine sandstone rings would then hold the structure together,
like a barrel.
What made the High Renaissance so
“High Renaissance” (1500’s) different from Florence – both were Italian
1500-1527 (mostly in Rome) after all?
Most worldly of Renaissance popes – Alexander VI (1492-1503);
Julius II (1503-1513); and Leo X (1513-1521)
Classical balance, harmony, & restraint
Da Vinci (Milan), Raphael, Michelangelo
Florentine artists commissioned to work in Rome (da Vinci never
allowed in Rome!)

Michelangelo: Which of these 3 do you think had the

most impact on the Renaissance? Why?

Leonardo da Vinci:

Raphael:

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

Northern Renaissance Art Critical Thinking:

Characteristics: How did the Renaissance in Italy shape the
Focused on human form development of it in the rest of Europe?
Realistic portrayal & very detailed
Gothic churches
Christian humanism influences = Religious

Jan Van Eyck:

Pieter Bruegel the Elder:

Complete the comparison/contrast graph below for the Renaissance.

Italian Renaissance High Renaissance-Rome Northern Renaissance-Rest of

Europe
Place

Characteristics

Humanists &
Values

Artists

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

Focus Question: Why do historians sometimes refer to the monarchies of the late fifteenth century as “new
monarchies” or “Renaissance states”?

The New Monarchies Critical Thinking:

Laid foundation for centralized modern state by establishing:
 National & territorial states/borders
 Monopoly on tax collection
 Military force
 Dispensing of justice
 Right to determine religion of their subjects

Why did New Monarchies Emerge?

 Kings guaranteed law & order
 Kings get support from middle class but opposed by nobility
 Armies raised against nobility
 Nobles feudal army – no match because king had longbow & pike
 Feudalism broken up – people free to join king’s forces
 Poor fight with king for $ & hated nobility’s power

England
 Civil War of Lancasters vs Yorks = War of the Roses
 Henry Tudor (Lancaster) defeated Yorks = crowned Henry VII
 Nobles weakened by it
 England under the Tudor Dynasty (1485-1603)
 Henry VII - Rebuilt monarchy
 Restored royal prestige, crushed nobility, established law & order
 Est. new court Court of Star Chamber
 Replaced feudal courts
 No jury
 Punished those that tried to interfere
 Court later hated but consolidated England

France: Louis XI “Spider King” (1461-1483)

 Recovered France after 100 Years’ War
 Suppressed baronial (noble) power, made peace with England, and
reorganized French royal authority.
 Rounded France border: added Burgundy, France Comte, Alsace-
Lorraine
 Large royal army, tax w/o consent of Estates-General, power over
clergy Gallican Church
 Controlled nobility

Focus Questions Answers:

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance
2 Kingdoms of Spain
Critical Thinking:
 Aragon & Castile joined by marriage of Ferdinand & Isabella
What impact will the inquisition and
 Ruled separately & didn’t create nat’l feeling
reconquista have on Spain?
 Catholic church provided unification
 Only Catholics in Spain = Inquisition
 Jews & Moors convert or leave
 Many left = so did the wealth
 Some converted only to stay = New Christians
 Later forced out, used torture to confess
 Reconquista: removed last of Moors, expulsion of Jews
 Spanish Inquisition: monarchy enforced authority of the nat’l church
 Will be the leader against the Reformation
 Also the advocate for church reform

German States under Holy Roman Empire

 Various states: only unified by Emperor
 Princely: hereditary monarchies
 Religious: Clergy controlled
 Imperial Free Cities: centers of commerce & finance
 Imperial Knights & Nobles: Belonged to no one
 States wouldn’t let emperor gain powers or take their local liberties
away
 Maximilian I (1493-1519): gained much territory w/ marriage to Mary
of Burgundy
 Charles V: most powerful in Europe, protector of Catholicism & his
power as Emperor
 Sought to prevent Protestant Reformation in Germany

PERIODIZATION:
 What distinguishes the New Monarchies from the monarchies of the Middle-Ages?
 Explain in a few sentences clearly demonstrating understanding of the skill of PERIODIZATION.

Focus Question Answer:

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 AP European History - Chapter 12 The Age of the Renaissance

Focus Question: What were the policies of the Renaissance popes, and what impact did those policies have on the
Catholic Church?

Emergence of Reformation How did the Conciliar Movement impact

 1. Decline of church’s importance the rise of protests and demands for
 2. Growth of secular & humanistic feeling reforms?
 3. Spread of lay religion outside est. church
 4. Rise of monarchies who wanted to control all, even religion
 5. France feared Habsburgs might control them
 6. Poor popes & their fear of church councils
 7. Disunity of Germany
 8. Turks threatening Europe
 9. Catholic zeal of Spain

Church Abuses
 Prevalent abuses & corruption brought many to ask for reforms:
 Nepotism
 Absenteeism
 Pluralism
 Clerical ignorance
 Mistresses & illegitimate children
 Drunkenness & gambling
 Schism tarnished reputation of the Catholic Church

Heresy and Reform

 John Wyclif: scriptures alone standard for Christian belief
 Abolition of veneration of saints, pilgrimages, pluralism, &
absenteeism
 Read bible for selves, church rid of property
 Lollards: Wyclif’s followers = allowed women to preach
 Jan Hus: Czech reformer-follower of Wyclif
 Attacked excessive power & abuses/corruption of the Church
 Summoned by Council of Constance – sought to deal with
heresy at the time
 Condemned as heretic & burned at the stake 1415

Focus Questions Answer:

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