Renaissance: cultural achievements of the 14th through 16th centuries that rested on the economic & political developments of earlier centuries I. Economic Growth in northern Italian cities ► , , and : all profited from overseas trade with and northern ● advancements in shipbuilding allowed ships to sail year round, increased the volume of goods transported, and accelerated the speed of travel ● enormous profits form increased trade were continually reinvested to earn more, becoming the wealthiest states of ► : location of the first artistic and literary manifestations of the Italian Renaissance ● Florentine merchants acquired control of banking allowing them to dominate European banking ● banking profits were invested in the urban industries of » wool industry: resulted in financial expansion and population increase of II. Communes & Republics ► Communes : sworn associations of free men seeking completolitical and economic independence from local lords ●Merchant Guilds – led communes by building city walls regulating trade, raising taxes, keeping civil order ● Urban Nobility – noble families attracted by wealth and opportunity in the city married into wealthy urban merchant families » Gained control of communes restricting citizenship and rights of the urban underclass ► Popolo: disenfranchised, heavily taxed portion of thopulation who led armed rebellions to take over city governments establishing republican governments ● repeated the same abuses of power as the noble communes, and failed to maintain civil order ► Signori & Oligarchies: despots and merchant aristocracies took control of northern Italian cities in the wake of failed popolos » 15th century political power, and elite culture was centered in thrincely courts of despots and oligarchs ○ used to display and assert wealth through patronage of the arts . Political Systems & Diplomatic Relations b/w City-States ► Disunited Italian peninsula: political loyalty towards their individual city-states prevented the development of a unified Italian state. ● 15th century: 5 powers of
“is it better for a ruler to be loved or feared” answer: both – but it is safer to be feared than loved “the prince should be concerned not with the way things ought to be, but with the way things actually are” “the sole test of a good government is whether it is effective, whether the ruler increases his power” ► Women ● The status of upper-class women declined during the Renaissance » a woman’s type of work, access to property, and political power declined from that of the feudal age » upper-class women received an education for the purpose bringing culture to their home and children » women were viewed as property of their husband ● Ordinary received little or no education, but continued to play a significant role in the work place and in the home ● Rape was not considered a particularly serious crime against either the victim or society Some women made up a small minority of humanists who acquired great learning & fame: Christine de Pisan (pg. 410-411) Sofonisba Anguissola (1530-1625) – paintings Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) – paintings - Judith Slaying Holofernes (pg. 434) Isabella Andreini (1562-1604) – actress Laura Cereta (1469-1499) – humanist educated in philosophy, theology, and mathematics married at 15 – widowed at 18 (spent rest of her life in study) “empty women, who strive for no good but exist to adorn themselves …These women of majestic pride, fantastic coiffures, outlandish ornament, and necks bound with gold or pearls bear glittering symbols of their captivity to men.” to Laura, women’s inferiority was derived not from the divine order of things but from women themselves “for knowledge is not given as a gift, but through study…The free mind, not afraid of labor, presses on to attain the good.” ► Technology ● The printing press: Johann Gutenberg (1455) – experimenting in Mainz, developed movable type in a machine called the printing press » transformed both private and public lives of Europeans, allowing silent individuals to join causes and peoples separated by geography to form common identities ○ Gutenberg’s Bible (1456) ● The Mechanical Clock: The ability to quantify or measure time with a mechanical was first introduced in Europe during the 10th century