Renaissance and Humanism

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Renaissance and Humanism
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Renaissance and Humanism

• Period from the late 1300s to 1500s was a time
  of great creativity and change in Europe
• Period was called the Renaissance or rebirth
• It was a Golden Age in the arts, literature and
  sciences

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Began in Italy in the mid-1300s and then spread
  northward
• Cities in Italy were thriving centers of trade
  and manufacturing
• Merchants had great wealth and used it to promote
  education and the arts

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Renaissance and Humanism

• New Ways of Thinking
• Europeans developed a new way of thinking called
  Humanism
• During the Middle Ages philosophers and writers
  had wondered about life after death
• Renaissance thinkers were more curious about life
  in the present

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Emphasis on achievement on the individual
• Instead of religious issues, humanist examined
  the secular or worldly subjects that ancient
  Greece and Rome had studied
• Hoped to use ancient learning to increase
  knowledge about their own times

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Artistic Achievements
• Renaissance produced some great art including
  paintings, sculptures and architecture
• Returned to Greek and Roman styles
• Artists were supported by merchants, clergy and
  princes
• Art reflected humanist concerns
• Art was very realistic

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Michelangelo was a sculptor, engineer, poet,
  painter and architect
• Known for the Sistine Chapel
• Leonardo Da Vinci was very interested in human
  anatomy
• He was known as a Renaissance man

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Literary Achievements
• Humanist interested in the world was also
  expressed in literature
• Instead of using Greek and Latin, they used
  Italian, French and English
• Many authors wrote for the masses
• Shakespeare was an English writer who wrote in
  the 1600s

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Wrote extensively about the joys and sorrows of
  human life
• Machiavelli wrote The Prince in the early 1500s
• He advises rulers how to gain and maintain power
• Rulers should use whatever means necessary to
  enter success

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Impact of the Printing Press
• By the 1300s papermaking and printing technology
  reached Europe
• The invention of moveable type in the 1400s led
  to Johann Gutenbergs invention, printing press
• Gutenberg prints the Bible in Germany in 1456

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Renaissance and Humanism

• Printing press was important was for the
  Renaissance and later intellectual development
• 1. Books become more available
• 2. Literacy increased
• 3. Ideas spread rapidly in medicine, geography
  
• and religion