Unit 1: Renaissance and Reformation
Classical Antiquity –Modern World – Post-Modern World * Greeks and Romans * Ended with the collapse of the western roman empire
Medieval is French for the Middle Ages
Intellectual movements
1350 was the bridge into the modern world
Renaissance was a rebirth of going back to ancient Greece and Rome
Choas of the 14th Century (not a good year) * War * Hundred years war * Conflict between France and England * Plague * Bubonic plague (1/3 or 1/2) * 1346 * Hell * Famine * Living conditions were horrible * Lived in huts and slept with animals * Poverty was high * “little ice age” average temperature dropped one or two degrees * Reason for poor harvest * Peasants starved to death * Crisis in Church * Many popes * Didn’t care about their people
Europe came out of it in 1499
(We live in cyles of every 500 years)
Italy survived the best, * Got hit by the plaque first. * Because of its geography it helped it survive. * Every trade route. * prospers economically * wealthy class * Commit to a renaissance because of money
Northern Renaissance * Many historians believe that the renaissance was purely Italian. * Historians believe Renaissance happened in Northern Europe * KNOW THAT IT STARTED IN ITALY * There was no sense of national identity during the Renaissance * Each city state was independent from the other. * Lots of rivalry between the city states * The artist benefited the most from the rivalry.
Medieval and Modern world (bridge) Medieval | Modern (like the present) | * Feudal | * Nationalism * People begin to identify themselves * (ex: I am a French man) | * Agricultural * All typed of farming animal and plant | * Urban/ Commercial * Trading more * Textiles began to start | * God-center * Was always the thought | * Man- Centered * Frame of though |

Need to Keep Historical Perspective

Cosimo de Medici (1389- 1464) * The god father * Family organized crime started in Italy. * Power rich family * Fled Florence because they hate a hit on them. * Used their wealth to patronize the arts.
*Despot (Cosimo de Medici great example) * Master in Greek * Somebody that has absolute control, but came by that power through less than legit means. * Italy was ruled by despot * Milan * Florence * Venice * Maples
Humanism: Revival of Classical Antiquity * Looks through humanity * Human perspective * Art * People looked like people * Shift in man-centered thought

* Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) | Both | Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) | * Father of humanism * Poet * Classical Antiquity (rebirthing) * Wrote about Ancient Rome and its values * Mysterious woman named Laura | Both men wrote in an ancient frame work. | * Classical Antiquity (rebirthing) * Explored the relationship between man and god * travels from hell (inferno) and is accompanied by the roman poet Virgil * He relates Caesar to Christ * Who is doing the travel by the narration by himself? The author * Donte is traveling as an observer. * Called a comedy because it was not written in Latin. * He reaches god, not the other way around. |

Lorenzo Valla * Donation of Constantine (first Christian emperor of the 4th century) * The church claimed to have this document since the 8th/9th century * Constantine supposedly gave political control to the church (Western Roman Empire) * Found out the church forged * Proved by revival of interest in a study of language by humanism. * Uses fief (a land grant and is a feudal term) * Written in the fourth century supposedly but written in current time