As a result, Italy became more urban - more towns and 

cities with significant populations than anywhere else 

in Europe at this time  

Condottieri

mercenary generals of private armies 

who were hired by cities for military purposes 

Center of the Renaissance during the 14 and 15 

centuries. 

Republic of Florence (included Republic of Genoa)

Cosimo de’ Medici 

allied with other 

powerful families of Florence and became unofficial 

ruler of the republic 

Lorenzo de’ Medici (the “Magnificent”) 

significant patron of the arts (son of 

Cosimo) 

 French invasions began in 1494 (“First Italian War”) 

Milan’s despot, Ludovico “the Moor,” encouraged 

French King Charles VIII to invade Naples, the 

traditional enemy of Milan. 

Milan’s despot, Ludovico “the Moor,” encouraged 

French King Charles VIII to invade Naples, the 

traditional enemy of Milan. 

This was the beginning of foreign invasions 

throughout the Italian peninsula. 

When Florence attempted to appease France during 

its invasion in 1494, it led to the overthrow of the 

Medici family.  

Although the Medici family returned to power 

several years later, Florence by then was 

severely weakened. 

Girolamo Savonarola 

became the unofficial 

leader of Florence between 1494 and 1498. Pledged to rid Florence of its decadence and 

corruption became a puppet of the French 

became a battleground in a series of power 

struggles between Spain and France 

Spanish fears of a French-Italian alliance resulted 

in Spain’s alliance with 

Venice, the Papal States, 

and the Holy Roman Empire 

4.Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) The Prince (1513)

The quintessential political treatise of the 16 

century Observed the political leadership of Cesare Borgia 

Stated that politically, “the ends justifies the 

means” 

d. Stated that for rulers, “it was better to be feared 

than to be loved” 

e. Rulers had to be practical and cunning, in addition 

to being aggressive and ruthless 

Sack of Rome in 1527

by armies of Holy Roman 

Emperor Charles V (who was also king of Spain) 

symbolized the end of the Renaissance in Italy 

Humanism

Revival of antiquity (Greece and Rome) in philosophy, 

literature and art 

Strong belief in individualism and the great potential 

of human beings

Focused first on studying ancient languages

Virtú

“the quality of being a man”; idea of 

excelling in all of one’s pursuits 

Civic Humanism

idea that education should prepare 

leaders who would be active in civic affairs 

Petrarch 

the “father of humanism” 

1. Considered the first modern writer Claimed that the Middle Ages (the period between the 

fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the 

Renaissance) were the “Dark Ages”  He was perhaps the first to use critical textual analysis 

to ancient texts.  Wrote his famous poetry in the Italian vernacular

Boccacio 

Compiled an encyclopedia of Greek and Roman 

mythology 

2. Decameron is his most famous work 

Leonardo Bruni 

1. First to use the term “humanism” 

2. Among the most important of the civic humanists 

3. Served as a chancellor in Florence 

 Lorenzo Valla

Foremost expert on the Latin language: Elegances of 

the Latin Language (1444) 

2. On the False Donation of Constantine 

Valla also pointed out errors in the

Latin Vulgate

Marsilio Ficino

 One of the most influential humanist philosophers of 

the 15th century 

2. Founded the Platonic Academy at the behest of Cosimo 

de’ Medici in the 1460s 

 Translated Plato’s works into Latin, giving modern 

Europeans access to these works for the first time. 

Pico della Mirandola

Member of the Platonic Academy 

2. Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) 

a. Perhaps the most famous Renaissance work on the 

nature of humankind. 

b. Humans were created by God and therefore given 

tremendous potential for greatness, and even 

union with God if they desired it. 

Baldassare Castiglione  

The Book of 

the Courtier (1528) 

a. Perhaps most important work on Renaissance 

education 

b. Specified qualities necessary to be a true gentleman 

 Described the ideal of a “Renaissance man”

Johann Gutenberg

Printing press:Gutenberg’s development of movable type made 

possible the spread of humanistic literature to rest of 

Europe with astonishing speed. 

Florence was the leader in Renaissance art especially 

in the  

quattrocento (1400s) 

Giorgio Vasari 

The Lives of the Artists 

• Contemporary Renaissance art historian who 

left much valuable information about 

Renaissance artists and their works. 

Massive patronage for the arts came from  

merchant-families (such as the Medicis) who 

commissioned countless works from the great 

artists. 

 Patronage also came from local

churches who 

increasingly saw Renaissance art as a means of 

glorifying God. 

Rome became the center of Renaissance art in the 

1500s (cinquecento) 

Pope Alexander VI 

most 

notorious of the Renaissance popes; spent huge 

sums on art patronage 

perspective

 3-D effects on a 2-dimensional 

surface 

• Medieval works, in contrast, looked flat and 

two-dimensional 

chiaroscuro

use of dark and light colors to create 

the illusion of depth 

sfumato

developed by Leonardo; a technique of 

blurring or softening sharp outlines 

ancient Greek and Roman forms such as 

Greek temple architecture (with triangular 

pediments), Greek columns, Roman arches and 

domes 

Giotto

considered perhaps the first 

Renaissance painter; use of chiaroscuro 

Filippo Brunelleschi

Il Duomo (1420-34) atop Santa Maria del Fiore is 

his masterpiece; it was the largest dome in Europe 

at the time of its construction (See right) 

b. Considered the “father” of perspective 

Brunelleschi’s dome atop Santa 

Maria del Fiore 

 Lorenzo Ghiberti 

 sculpt the bronze 

doors for Florentine baptistery 

Donatello

 bronze statue of David (1408-09) was the first 

since antiquity (See right) 

b. First Renaissance artist to utilize a nude figure in 

sculpture 

Masaccio

Expulsion of Adam and Eve

 Sandro Botticelli 

Birth of 

Venus 

“High Renaissance”

centered in Rome (16th century) 

1. The worldly “Renaissance Popes”—Alexander VI, Julius 

II and Leo X—provided tremendous patronage to the 

arts 

Bramante

His Tempietto (San Pietro in Montorio) marked the 

beginning of the High Renaissance in Rome (1502) 

when Alexander VI appointed him to build a 

sanctuary that allegedly marked the spot where 

Peter was crucified 

Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 

Uffizi, Florence 

Leonardo da Vinci

The quintessential “Renaissance Man” 

• Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, writer, 

scientist 

Mona Lisa

Considered one of the great masterpieces in all 

of art history 

• Leonardo developed the technique of sfumato, 

a haze that softens the edges of objects in the 

painting. 

Bramante’s Tempietto 

Raphael Santi

Created numerous “Madonna and Child” paintings 

b. School of Athens 

Michelangelo Buonarroti

David (1501-04): Humanistic marble 

sculpture—glorifies the human body; 

contrapposto stance; facial features are 

individualistic and emotional (See right) 

o Pieta (1499):  Mary holding limp body of Christ 

considered perhaps the most perfect marble 

sculpture ever made (See next page) 

c.  Architecture: Designed the enormous dome atop 

St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican (still the 

largest dome in present-day Europe) 

Titian

Greatest painter of the Venetian school 

2. Use of vivid color and movement, in contrast to more 

subtle colors and static figures of the Florentine style 

Mannerism 

Reaction against the Renaissance ideals of balance, 

symmetry, simplicity and realistic use of color 

• High Renaissance had taken art to perfection; 

there was little that could be done to improve it; 

thus, mannerists rebelled against it 

Michelangelo’s Pieta 

El Greco

Greek artist who did most of his greatest work in 

Spain 

b. Perhaps the greatest of the Mannerists with his use 

of elongated figures and unnatural pigments 

Christian Humanism: 

Emphasis on early Church writings that provided 

answers on how to improve society and reform the 

Church 

Drew on Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible and the 

writings of the Church Fathers.  

Erasmus (1466-1536) 

1. Most famous and celebrated of all northern humanists 

2. Master of the Greek language; one of Europe’s 

foremost authorities 

3. Made new translations of the Greek and Latin versions 

of the New Testament to create ‘purer’ editions. 

4. He was the first humanist to earn a living by writing— 

an extremely impressive achievement. 

In Praise of Folly (1513) 

Criticized immorality and hypocrisy of Church 

leaders and the clergy 

e. The book inspired renewed calls for reform, and 

influenced Martin Luther. 

“Erasmus lay the egg that Luther hatched” 

Thomas More 

Prime example of a civic humanist; he rose to the 

highest government position of any humanist 

• Lord Chancellor to King Henry VIII in England  

2. Utopia (1516): More’s humanistic masterpiece 

a. Mixes civic humanism with religious ideals to 

describe a perfect (utopian) society located on an 

imaginary island 

b. More sees the accumulation of property as a root 

cause for society’s ills; a few have it—most don’t 

Jacques Lefevre d’Etables 

Produced 5 versions of the Psalms that challenged a 

single authoritative version of the Bible. 

E. Francesco Ximenes de Cisneros 

Spanish humanist who reformed the Spanish clergy 

and church so that many of the Church abuses that 

were highlighted during the Reformation did not 

necessarily apply to Spain 

• Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition (serves 

as an example of how not all humanists were 

necessarily tolerant of heretical views). 

2. Complutensian Polyglot Bible: Placed Hebrew, Greek, 

and Latin versions of the Bible in parallel columns. 

François Rabelais  

1.His secular writings portrayed his confidence in human 

nature and reflected Renaissance tastes 

2. Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-1542)  

G. Michel de Montaigne 

Developed the essay form 

• The essay became a vehicle for testing new ideas 

2. Skepticism 

a. Doubt that true knowledge could be obtained 

William Shakespeare 

Elizabethan era 

1. Greatest of the English Renaissance authors 

2. His works reflected the Renaissance ideas of classical 

Greek and Roman culture, individualism and 

humanism 

3. Wrote comedies, tragedies, histories and sonnets 

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote 

. Among the greatest pieces of Spanish literature 

2. Critical of excessive religious idealism chivalric 

romance 

Northern Renaissance Art 

Heavily influenced by the Italian Renaissance 

b. More detail throughout paintings (especially the 

background) than the Italian Renaissance 

c. Use of oil paints (in contrast to Italian Renaissance 

that used tempera) 

d. More emotional than the Italian style 

e. Works often preoccupied with death 

Jan Van Eyck

Ghent Altarpiece

 painter 

a. Most famous and innovative Flemish painter of the 

15th century 

b. Perfected oil painting 

c. Naturalistic wood panel paintings used much 

religious symbolism. 

Van Eyck, Arnolfini and his Wife 

National Gallery, London 

Bosch

Netherlands 

a. Master of symbolism and fantasy 

Peter Brueghel the Elder

Not influenced much by the Italian Renaissance 

b. Focused on lives of ordinary people  

Albrecht Dürer

Foremost northern Renaissance artist. 

b. Master of the woodcut

Hans Holbein the Younger

Premier portrait artist of his era: painted Erasmus, 

More, numerous portraits of King Henry VIII and 

also his family members 

Fugger family

especially Jacob Fugger 

(1459-1525) was significant in patronizing art of the 

Northern Renaissance 

Christine de Pisan

patron

The City of 

Ladies (1405); The Book of Three Virtues 

• Chronicle of accomplishments of great women 

of history. 

Women were to make themselves pleasing to the man 

(Castiglione)-- only applied to the upper classes 

Isabella d’Este 

b.Isabella d’Este (1474-1539): “First Lady” of the 

Renaissance 

• Set an example for women to break away from 

their traditional roles as mere ornaments to 

their husbands 

• Ruled Mantua after her husband died 

Artemesia Gentileschi 

Perhaps the first female artist to gain 

recognition in the post-Renaissance era. 

• First woman to paint historical and religious 

“New” Monarchs

Consolidated power and created the foundation for 

Europe’s first modern nation-states in France, England 

and Spain. 

notes 

Characteristics of New Monarchies 

 Reduced the power of the nobility through 

taxation, 

confiscation of lands (from uncooperative nobles),  

and the hiring of mercenary armies or the creation of  

standing armies 

Louis XI “Spider King” 

Created a large royal army 

• Dealt ruthlessly with nobles, individually, and 

within the Estates General 

• Increased taxes 

• Exerted power over the clergy 

• Actively encouraged economic growth 

Condordat of Bologna

 The king of 

France now had power to appoint bishops to 

the Gallican (French) Church. 

o Represented a major blow to papal 

influence in France 

taille

Francis instituted a direct head tax on 

all land and property 

Francis I 

Condordat of Bologna, taille:

 England:

War of the Roses Tudor dynasty 

War of the Roses

Two noble families, the House of York and the 

House of Lancaster fought a civil war to gain the 

crown. 

b. Yorkists were victorious and gave rise to the 

Tudor dynasty (which would rule England until 

1603). 

Henry VII ( 

a. Reduced the influence of the nobility, in part, 

through the Star Chamber (secret trials)  

Marriage of  ____ united spain

erdinand of Aragon (r. 1478-1516) & 

Isabella of Castile  

1492, Reconquista 

Goal was to remove the last of the Moors and the 

Jews and Christianize Spain 

• Last Muslim stronghold of Grenada surrendered 

b. Loss of Jews and Moors resulted in a significant 

decline in the Spanish middle-class 

• Between 30,000 to 60,000 Jews expelled 

hermandades:

alliances of cities to oppose nobles 

• Helped bring cities in line with royal authority 

Spanish Inquisition

(conceived by Isabella) 

a. Monarchy enforced the authority of the national 

(Catholic) church 

 The Inquisition targeted conversos: Jews who 

had converted to Christianity but were now 

suspected of backsliding into Judaism 

• Thus began a wave of anti-Semitism in certain 

parts of Europe 

• In Portugal, 4,000 Jews who refused to leave 

were massacred in 1506. 

• Germany began systematically persecuting 

Jews in 1509. 

Tomás de Torquemada

oversaw the Inquisition. 

The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) consisted of about _______ sem autonomous geran states

Maximilian I

gained territory in 

eastern France via his marriage to Mary of Burgundy 

• Sparked a fierce dynastic struggle between the 

French Valois dynasty and the Hapsburgs that 

would last until 1559. 

Charles V

most powerful ruler in 

Europe in the 16th century 

a. As Holy Roman Emperor, he controlled the 

Austrian Hapsburg lands while he ruled the 

Spanish Empire at the height of its power. 

b. His armies sacked Rome in 1527 that symbolically 

ended the Renaissance in Italy 

bourgeoisie

middle class

The Commercial Revolution 

Roots in the Middle Ages (e.g. Hanseatic League) 

2. Population growth: 70 million in 1500; 90 million in 

1600; thus, more consumers existed 

3. “Price revolution”

The Fuggers in Germany and the Medicis in Italy 

were among the leading bankers in Europe. 

Antwerp

in Flanders became the banking and 

commercial center of Europe in the 16th century. 

Amsterdam

became the financial center in the 17th 

century after the successful Dutch Revolt against 

Spain. 

Hanseatic League

evolved from within the 

German states in the Middle Ages that eventually 

controlled trade in much of northern Europe well into 

the 16th century. 

•

New consumer goods

SUGAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

rice and tea

Mercantilism

Goal: Nations sought a self-sufficient economy 

b. Strategy: create a favorable balance of trade 

where one’s country exported far more than it 

imported. 

Bullionism

 A country should acquire as much 

gold and silver as possible.  

Slow transition from a European society that was 

almost completely rural and isolated, to a society that 

was more developed with the emergence of towns.  Emergence of more powerful nation states 

Causes for exploration 

1.“God, glory and gold” were the primary motives 

sought to break the Italian 

monopoly on trade with Asia.

Portugal and Spain

Martin Behaim

 terrestrial globe,

Portugal 

1. Motives for exploration 

Economic: sought an all-water route to Asia to tap 

the spice trade 

b. Religious: sought to find the mythical Prester John 

(a Christian king somewhere in the East) for an 

alliance against the Muslims. 

Prince Henry the Navigator 

Financed numerous expeditions along the West 

African coastline in hopes of finding gold. 

b. Ushered in a new era of European exploration 

Bartholomew Dias 

Rounded the 

southern tip of Africa in 1488 

Vasco da Gama

Building on Dias’ route, he completed an all-water 

expedition to India in 1498. 

 Amerigo Vespucci (

a. Explored Brazil: Perhaps the first European to 

realize that he had discovered a new continent in 

the New World. 

Portugal’s major colony in the New World 

 Brazil 

1.Christopher Columbus

1492, Columbus reached the Bahamas, believing 

he had reached the “Indies” somewhere west of 

India. 

c. His four expeditions charted most of the major 

islands in Caribbean as well as Honduras in 

Central America. 

d. Monumental significance of Columbus’ expeditions 

was that it ushered in an era of European 

exploration and domination of the New World 

Bartholomew de las Casas (

Publicly criticized the ruthlessness with 

which Columbus and his successors treated 

the Amerindians. 

o His writings helped spread the “black 

legend” in Protestant countries where Spain 

was accused of using Christianity ostensibly 

for killing countless natives. 

Treaty of Tordesillas 

oNew World divided between Spain and 

Portugal (at the behest of Pope Leo V) 

o Portugal was granted exclusive rights to the 

African slave trade (asiento). 

• A north-south line was drawn down the middle 

of the Atlantic Ocean: Spain’s territory was 

west of the line; Portugal’s was east 

• Thus, Portugal retained Brazil and its claims to 

Africa while Spain received the rest of the 

Americas. 

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Discovered 

the Pacific Ocean after crossing the Isthmus of 

Panama in 1513. 

Ferdinand Magellan

His ship was the first to circumnavigate the globe 

 Hernando Cortès

conquered the 

Aztecs in Mesoamerica by 1521.  

Francisco Pizarro 

b. Francisco Pizarro (1478-1541): conquered the 

Inca Empire along the Andes mountains in 

modern-day Peru in 1532. 

“Golden Age  of 

Spain”) 

Resembled more the “New Imperialism” of the late 

19th and early 20th century by outright conquering 

entire regions and subjugating their populations 

Encomienda

System: Amerindians worked for an owner for 

certain number of days per week but retained 

other parcels of land to work for themselves. 

c. Spain’s ability to forcibly utilize Amerindian labor 

was a major reason why the Spanish Empire 

imported few slaves from Africa. 

5.Mestizos 

Spaniards married Amerindian women creating 

children of mixed white and Native American 

descent. 

Creoles:

 Spaniards born in the New World to Spanish 

parents 

E.“Old Imperialism” 

Characterized by establishing posts and forts on 

coastal regions but not penetrating inland to conquer 

entire regions or subjugate their populations 

Alphonso d’Albuquerque

Laid the foundation for Portuguese imperialism 

in the 16th and 17th centuries 

• Established strategy of making coastal regions 

(that had been won from the Muslims) a base 

to control the Indian Ocean. 

Francis Xavier

ed Jesuit 

missionaries to Asia where by 1550 thousands of 

natives had been converted to Christianity in 

India, Indonesia, and Japan 

Dutch East India Company 

became the major force behind Dutch imperialism 

b. Expelled Portuguese from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and 

other Spice Islands (Indonesia) 

c. By 1650, began challenging Spain in the New 

World and controlled much of the American and 

African trade. 

 first introduced slavery in Brazil to farm the 

sugar plantations.